Tower Rock Elementary School

Jim Harris, International Crane Foundation

Tower Rock Elementary School is in the countryside not far from the International Crane Foundation in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The school is named for the tall rock right behind the building. One of the students, Farit, became very concerned about damages happening to the environment and especially the problems for endangered species. Farit is a wonderful artist, so the teachers urged him to do something about threats to wildlife. He used his art skills to make notecards. The school printed sets of eight cards, each with a beautiful bird painted by this boy.They sold 108 sets of the cards for $6 each. After paying for the paper and printing, they had $450 left.The boy wanted to give the money to ICF to help the cranes.
I came to the school to receive the gift. Farit was very happy, to know he was making a difference for the cranes. When you know you can change things that make you sad, you don't feel so sad.
The teachers had a ceremony in Farit’s honor, and I gave him a framed certificate of thanks, also a poster of all 15 cranes to put on the wall of the art room. They had two cakes, one with his name on it, actually, the cake said "Farit's Critter Card Company."

All the students who had helped with the cards (like folding them and putting them in packages) came too, and got to eat cake. They were all girls! The only boys were me, Farit, and one teacher named Greg who had long hair in a ponytail. All the other school boys preferred to play football.

ICF will use $300 for caring for the Whooping Cranes at ICF -- Farit can come see them.The other $150 will go to China, to do something special for the students at Xianghai Primary School. Farit is 11 years old, in fifth grade, I told him about the Chinese students.

Farit lives on a farm near the school, where he often sees Sandhill Cranes. He came to ICF in second grade on a school field trip to meet the cranes. His family is from Mexico. His mother came to the ceremony, too, she does not speak English.

When Kang Yun came to Wisconsin, she visited Farit and Tower Rock Elementary School and gave a talk about cranes and students at Xianghai and Zhalong. The children were very excited to have a foreign visitor!