Students run penny drive to support wildfire-affected residents via Venice pizza shop

Third-grade students at the school organized a penny drive this week to raise money for people affected by wildfires in California and are directing the funds to a local pizza shop owner in Venice who has been providing pizzas to first responders and evacuees. "The last, week and a half or so, we've been, focusing on raising funds for those that have been impacted by the, wildfires in California. Our students, you know, like to take action in a variety of ways. In this case, due to the logistics, we decided that we would like to raise funds to support a local business. So we were able to find, pizza girl who owns a pizza shop in Venice. She's been providing pizzas to first responders and also people who have needed to evacuate their homes," said a staff member during the meeting.

School staff said the third-grade penny drive expanded into a whole-school project; all funds raised will go directly to the local organization supporting people affected by the fires. The staff member framed the effort as a way to build empathy and teach students about global citizenship: "We want to build a sense of empathy within our children. We want them to understand what it means to be global citizens. We want them to, you know, take action and help those in the world."

Students prepared supportive cards to send with donations. A student said, "We were making cards for the firefighters or pizza girls so we can send them to them. I love drawing. It's like 1 of my favorite hobbies. I like just like drawing stuff to support her to help her like, yeah, let's do this."

Meeting remarks did not specify the school's name, exact amount raised to date, or an expected delivery date for the funds or cards. No formal vote or board action was taken; the exchange recorded in the transcript was informational and descriptive of the students' fundraiser.