Links of Love raises over $1,000 in first week of existence

Elementary students at Mary Lynch and West Elementary have been participating in a program entitled “Links of Love” the past month in order to raise money for the Kimball Relay for Life. Quite incredibly, the elementary students raised a total of $1,349.60.

Mary Lynch second grade teacher Amy McManigal, who sits on the Relay for Life committee, came up with the idea for “Links of Love” after looking through the Relay for Life website in order to find a way to get kids involved. After browsing through different ideas on the website, McManigal came across one that entailed using chains of paper clips which gave her the idea of rather using links of paper that the children could write their names on.

“I thought well we can do paper chains and charge by the strip so just as a committee we decided we’re going to call it “Links of Love” and we’re going to charge ten cents a strip. We thought if we got $100 we’d be doing good, and in just one week’s time, they raised over $1,000,” McManigal said.

The success of the program can not only be attributed to the support of the teaching staff at both elementary schools but also to the enthusiasm the kids showed every day, even emptying their piggy banks in order to contribute.

“Some of these kids would bring in two dimes, and they’d be so proud because they could get two strips and get to put their name on it,” McManigal said.

The kids also showed great understanding for the cause, demonstrating that cancer is something that touches far more lives than people might have previously realized.

“Our kids would name off people they know and will say, ‘I want to do this for my aunt who had cancer or I want to do this for so and so.’ They understand it, I think. They can name off people and tell you what cancer they had,” McManigal said.

One classroom even received a donation in order to sign their names on to links in memory of someone who had passed away from the disease.

“In fifth grade, somebody brought in enough for the whole class in honor of a dear friend who had passed away from cancer so every kid got to put their name on a strip in honor of that person,” McManigal said.

Now that the fundraiser has come to a close and the links have been taken down from the classrooms that they had been strung up in, McManigal plans to save them and string them up through the trees of the park the night of the Relay for Life walk.

“All of the kids’ names are on the strips so they can come out to the walk and try to find their strips,” McManigal said.

The fundraiser far exceeded expectations and shows once again that even the smallest members of our society can prove to have the biggest hearts.

“I thought maybe we’d raise a couple hundred dollars at most. It’s incredible what these kids have done. It is amazing, almost overwhelming,” McManigal said.