12-24-02: Fort Recovery students to assist Third World farmers at holidays

12-24-02: Fort Recovery students to assist Third World farmers at holidays

Area pupils to give animals

By KELLY BRAUN
The Daily Standard

    FORT RECOVERY - There won't be any lords a'leaping, golden rings or partridges, but southern Mercer County elementary students will be sending six ducks and geese, six rabbits, four flocks of chicks and a pig to families in Third World countries through Heifer International.
    As part of their holiday theme, Random Acts of Kindness, Fort Recovery Elementary School students collected $240 this season for the international organization that has been helping Third World people for several decades.
    The students brought in gifts of 25 and 50 cents to raise money for the gifts of animals. Many were hoping to raise enough for a heifer, but others favored "a whole bunch of baby chicks."
    "The kids were pleased with the choice of animals their money could buy. I think this project is very representative of our farm community," said Nancy Knapke, Fort Recovery Elementary principal.
    The students are one of at least two local groups giving money to this charitable cause. Celina Insurance Group also gave money that will help two needy families overseas.
    The object of Heifer International was well described by Fort Recovery third-grader Jill Post, 8.
    "The little cow you send to the family will have babies. The family will give the babies to their friends. Then those babies will have babies and soon everybody will have a heifer," she explained last week to The Daily Standard.
    The same theory applies to any animals purchased.
    Obviously, heifers aren't the only animals provided by the international organization. The amount of money raised determines what animals will be sent, i.e.,$500 buys a heifer, $120 buys a pig or goat or sheep. Other livestock available include oxen, water buffalo, geese, llamas, camels, bees, ducks, and chicks.
    Since 1944, Heifer International has provided animals to more than 4 million families around the world. But, the animals are only part of the gift. Along with the animals, staff from Heifer International provides training in animal husbandry.
    The organization actually began in the 1930s when Dan West, a Midwestern farmer and a youth worker for the church of the Brethren, gave cups of milk to hungry children in Spain.
    The organization quotes West as claiming that it occurred to him during the Spanish civil war that what families needed was "not a cup, but a cow."
    West asked his hometown friends to donate heifers so families could feed themselves, and in return, that family would promise to help another family by giving them a female calf.

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