Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Oct 01/01) - Students from Maani Ulujuk middle school in Rankin Inlet are doing their small part to help grieving families in the United States.

After realizing three students and three teachers were among those to lose their lives during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack -- they were aboard the jet that crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. -- the Grade 7 students and their teacher, Cindy Rempel, decided they had to do something to help.

Rempel and her students watched about half an hour of news reports on the tragedy before discussing it and their emotions in class.

The Grade 7 teacher encouraged her students to write their feelings surrounding the tragedy in their journals.

They did, and it quickly became obvious many of them shared the same sentiment.

They were feeling sad for both the people who died and the families left behind. A number of them also expressed a desire to help those families.

"When I saw that, I knew the students who died with their teachers was something our kids could relate to," says Rempel.

"So I asked my students if they wanted to do something to raise money for the families and they immediately said yes."

After brainstorming over the idea, the class came up with the idea to host a hot dog lunch and send the proceeds to the grieving families.

The Nunavut Teacher's Association faxed them the information about the fund set up specifically for those families and the students took it from there.

They raised about $350 from the lunch and are also holding a penny drive.

A container has been placed in each room at the school for people to put their spare change in.

Rempel says the money raised from the penny drive will be added to the hot dog money.

"We should look after and help each other as much as we can."