Students help neighboring school get uniforms

From the ankles up, Jonathan Stebner looks the part of a 25-year-old bank teller — friendly, helpful and neat in pressed khaki pants. But his feet, squirming as they dangle a few inches from the ground, are definitely acting more his age.

"I'm excited," says the fifth-grader as he thrusts out his hand for a firm shake.

Stebner and his classmates at Salt Lake Junior Academy transformed the school's well-worn gymnasium into a business district Thursday, complete with a bank, two retail establishments and a grocery store. Fifty-five low-income students from a nearby charter school, Monticello Academy, filed through the make-believe teller windows, manned by Stebner and his classmates, picked up play money and used it to "purchase" school uniforms and supplies from the make-shift retail stores.

"It feels good knowing I'm helping kids in need," Stebner said. "They are going to feel so proud because they have something nice to wear."

Salt Lake Junior Academy principal Trevor Kendall organized the uniform giveaway after he learned last summer that some students at Monticello couldn't afford to purchase the required clothing.

"We have some children wearing the same uniform every day," said Brad Lester, principal of Monticello Academy. "There's no question that this is a challenge."

It's not as if Kendall's students are any financially better off than those at Monticello, though. Both learning institutions — if they deemed it appropriate to ask for extra government funding — would qualify as Title 1 schools, meaning at least 40 percent of their students take free or reduced lunch.

"We wanted to teach the children that no matter how good or bad their circumstances are, they need to look beyond themselves to their community," said Kendall. "If they can learn to take care of each other, they'll do well in life."

So Kendall's students — just 60 in all — made and sold popcorn, cookies and Chinese "take out" to raise money for pants and polo shirts. They saved up their lunch money for a charity water balloon fight, which, as Kendall reported ruefully, ended up turning into a charity throw-balloons-at-the-principal fight.

They recruited corporate sponsors Old Navy, J.C. Penney to give discounts on clothes for the event. Western Metals Recycling and Associated Foods donated money.

Leslie Amaya, 8, would have liked to eat the chocolate chip cookies she baked — "They looked so-o-o yummy!" she admitted — but the third-grader said it was more important that the children from Monticello got their uniforms.

"It would be bad not to have uniforms," she said, brown eyes wide as she considered the prospect of a shortage of plaid jumpers and knee socks. "You have to have uniforms so you can go to school, and you have to go to school so you can learn."

Monticello students skipped away from the mock retail stores, plastic Old Navy shopping bags in hand, grinning. Alyssia Holland, 11, beamed as she showed off her new outfit, pens and folders.

"This is cool," said the sixth-grader. "It's so nice that they're giving us this stuff for free."

e-mail: estuart@desnews.com