Crystal Lake teacher, librarian work with students on Ukraine donation drive, project

In Jonelle Geib’s seventh-grade social studies class, some students learned the meaning of “refugee” for the first time as schools and teachers try to tackle how to teach about the current war in Ukraine.

“We talked about what a refugee is and how many refugees would be fleeing their country as a result of the war,” Geib said. “The students were really impacted by the thought of having to leave their homes with nothing in order to simply stay alive.”

Building from that lesson, students within Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 helped organize a donation drive this month to help families in Ukraine. Overall, the district collected more than 1,800 essential items.

One student, eighth grader Erin Johnson, took it upon herself to deliver bags around her neighborhood in order to collect hygiene items to donate. Johnson alone was able to collect hundreds of toothbrushes, toothpaste, first aid supplies and diapers, the district said in a news release.

“I saw the sadness of the people in Ukraine on the news and all over my social media,” Johnson said in the release. “Their lives were being destroyed, and they were hurting because they had no shelter. I knew I needed to help. One person does not have the ability to change the world, but I know that even if I was able to help one person, I made this world a little bit better.”

Geib, who teaches seventh graders at Richard Bernotas Middle School in Crystal Lake, said it was important to her to find a way the students could meaningfully contribute to aid efforts and so she encouraged her students to start and organize a donation drive, a project they embraced with enthusiasm.

“They ran to the library and recorded a commercial,” Geib said. “One of the boys in class wrote a script for the morning announcements. We made signs to put around the school and it blew up from there. It was really impressive.”

The donations went to a Lifetime Fitness Center in Algonquin for distribution, whose staff was “blown away” by the amount of items they’d collected, Geib said.

“I really like how Mrs. Geib was able to get the entire school involved with supplying the families of Ukraine,” said Adrian Waliullah, a seventh grader in Geib’s class. “It helped me realize how impactful it is for an inspired group to help anyone in need.”

In addition to the donation drive, students at both Bernotas and Hannah Beardsley Middle School also made paper peace cranes, which were hung up around the schools as part of the Peace Crane Project. The crane project was initiated by Kate Tamms, a library information specialist at Beardsley, the district said.

When the district reaches 1,000 cranes – currently they have just more than 700 – Tamms plans to send the peace cranes to the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, Japan.