Students Flush To Help Others

CRWRC Newsroom | December 3, 2009

Orange City Christian School middle school students and the potty of money they collected.

How many times a day do you flush the toilet?  Ask one of the sixth, seventh, or eighth graders at Orange City Christian School in Orange City, Iowa and they’ll be able to tell you.  That’s because the students and their families set aside a certain amount of money for each flush they made on November 19 and then donated the proceeds to CRWRC to purchase latrines for Cambodia.

“In one of our Current Science magazines we read through an article on world sanitation concerns,” said Randy Hilbelink, a middle school teacher at Orange City Christian School. “The WHO(World Health Organization) sponsored World Toilet Day for November 19 to bring awareness to the lack of proper sanitation worldwide. In our 8th grade science class we kicked around a few ideas before we decided to consult the CRWRC's website catalog.  From there, the latrine seemed like a logical choice.”

Hilbelink said that the purpose of the day was two-fold.  First, they wanted to appreciate God’s blessings of the good health that comes from proper sanitation.  Second, they wanted to look in the faces of fellow believers and reach out a hand of compassion in prayer and money to improve their condition.  “We accomplished these two objectives,” he said.

The students also marked Toilet Day by decorating their classrooms with toilet paper and exploring some “extreme toilets” like those used on the International Space Station and in Antarctica.  They then brought in the “flush” money they had collected and placed it in an un-used potty.  Combined, they donated $217, which is enough to purchase three latrines for Cambodia. 

To donate a latrine or other item for someone in need, please visit CRWRC's gift catalog.

- by Kristen deRoo VanderBerg, CRWRC Communicaitons