'Crazy' Fundraiser For Victims

The students of Providence Elementary School in Winchester, Kentucky like giving back to their community. In November, when a local family's house burned down, the school held a "Crazy Hat Day" and raised $1,000 to help the family out. Ninety percent of the school's 287 students took part. That's a lot of crazy hats!

After hearing and reading about the tsunami/earthquake disaster in Southeast Asia, the kids, from kindergartener through fifth graders, wanted to do something to help. The student council came to the guidance counselor and asked to have a "Crazy Dress Up Day" when, for a donation of a dollar or more, kids could wear whatever wacky outfits they wanted to school: pants on their heads, clothes backwards or inside out, or whatever.

Parents also wanted to contribute, and asked Principal Brenda Considine if they could donate money through the fundraiser.

Friday was the day. The Early Show was there as the school's students gathered in the gymnasium to talk about their wacky outfits and why they wanted to raise money for the tsunami victims.

Principal Considine told co-anchor Julie Chen, who was in New York, that when school resumed after the holiday break, "The children were very aware, through media, of the disaster, and had lots of questions."

And they wanted to lend a hand in any way they could. "As we are all aware, it's a world community and we really want to participate," Considine says.

"We really wanted them to dress crazy and realize that we're part of this global disaster as well," she continued.

Considine says the money collected was all put in a jar.

Third-grader Hunter Thomas told Chen, "I thought how sad it was for the kids all the way across the globe, how they lost their parents and how some of 'em got killed and things, and I just really wanted to dress up this way to bring attention to it and so people might take notice with it and help."

Daniel Baumgardner, a fifth-grader, says he's taking part "because my whole family has been watching the news and seeing all of the disasters that have happened and I just think that we all should know that there are children over there with no parents, no homes, everything was destroyed. Except for them."

All the proceeds will go to Save The Children.