District 300 students honored for good deeds

Like many people, Dundee-Crown High School students Kyle and Rachael Shropshire were shaken by the images of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the devastation it caused.

Kyle, then a freshman at Dundee-Crown, decided to forgo presents for his upcoming birthday party. Instead, he and his friends raised $500 for Filter Pure, a nonprofit organization that provides safe drinking water to people in developing nations including Haiti after this year's calamity.

“Because of your selfless actions many Haitians will be able to have clean drinking water,” Filter Pure Executive Director Lisa Ballantine wrote in a letter to Kyle. “This is something that they so desperately need after their recent tragedy.”

Kyle was one of six students in Community Unit District 300 schools who were recognized for their generosity Monday as part of a Good Deed Dollars contest sponsored by the district and the Algonquin Commons shopping center. Kyle won third place in the high school category.

The contest invited students in the district, which stretches from Carpentersville to Hampshire, to nominate fellow students who did a good deed. The winners received $500 to $1,000 for a shopping spree at the lifestyle mall on Randall Road.

“These children are the next generation of the community, and it's so important to encourage and reward this outstanding behavior,” said Beth Hicks, a spokeswoman for Inland Commercial Property Management, which manages Algonquin Commons. “This program sheds a much needed light on the positive behavior, and by partnering with the school district we were able to ensure that the students who truly deserved the Good Deed Dollars received them.”

The other winners include:

• Carlos Elijah Velez, a freshman at Dundee-Crown, who won first place in the high school category. In the space of two weeks last year, Carlos raised $1,000 to buy 40 pairs of shoes for the wrestling team at Carpentersville Middle School. According to the classmate who nominated Carlos, before Carlos' gift, some of the wrestlers had two shoes for the same foot or had to duct tape their shoes together.

• Monica Orjuela, a senior at Jacobs High School, won second place in the high school category. On a recent trip to Chicago, Monica encountered a family at a gas station that was homeless and could not afford a meal. When the gas station refused to accept the family's food stamps, Monica paid for the meal, according to her sister.

• Samantha Piombino, a seventh-grader at Dundee Middle School, won first place in the middle school category. According to classmate Grace Lamboy, who nominated her, Samantha was the only student to visit Grace's brother Joey when he ruptured his spleen and had to be hospitalized. Samantha brought Joey a book on dragons that helped him through his hospital stay, Grace said.

• McKenna Leahy, a seventh-grader at Algonquin Middle School, won second place in the middle school category. When an older couple that lives on her street could not attend to daily chores and their sick daughter was unable to help, McKenna helped by mowing their lawn, taking out their garbage and raking leaves.

• Kyle Eubanks, an eighth-grader at Dundee Middle School, won third place in the middle school category. Kyle was nominated by a classmate who lost her wallet; Kyle found it and returned it to her.

The winners were surprised in class on Monday and were honored at Monday's school board meeting.