Field of Green students participate in Reed to Feed program

VERNON — Students at Fields of Green Montessori School in Vernon recently participated in Heifer International’s Read to Feed program during the month of April.

By keeping track of their reading and having sponsors to donate money per page, per minute or per chapter read, the students raised more than $1,300.

Heifer International is a well-known organization that works off of the “Pay it Forward” principle. For example, through donations, a poor family receives a cow through Heifer International and is taught how to raise the cow. Once that cow has offspring, the family then gives the offspring to another family in the village and teaches that family how to care for the animal. Over a period of time, the members of the village go from poverty to prosperity. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.

One specific instance occurred years ago with a girl named Beatrice, who received a goat from Heifer. Beatrice cared for the goat and her mother was able to sell its milk to raise money for the family. As a gift to her daughter, she raised enough money to send her daughter to school. Beatrice later won a scholarship to high school in the United States and went on to earn a college degree.

Fields of Green has been a longtime supporter of Heifer, but this year the students raised more than in any other year. The kids picked out the animals they wish to order for poor families — two water buffalos, two goats, a cow and two flocks of chicks.

To culminate the fundraising event, two volunteers, Laura Berzofsky and Sharon Ziemian from Heifer came to visit the students and taught them interesting facts about world hunger using hands on activities.

At the end of the volunteers’ visits, the students presented them with a check for the amount they collected.