This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Video: Fifth-Grader Donates Entire Savings to Stop Teacher Layoffs

Camino Grove student hands over envelope containing $300 and an emotional letter. Her brother donates $177 and now other students are following suit.

The envelope was more than an inch thick.

Todd Weber, a fifth-grade teacher at in Arcadia, was pretty sure it contained a considerable amount of money. It had been handed to him by one of his students and Weber wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

He had the student take the unopened envelope to the school office. In the office at the time were Dr. Brook Reynolds, the school's principal, Erin Slessor, the school's PTA president, and a few members of the office staff.

Slessor opened the envelope and inside were $1 bills, $5 bills and $10 bills. They would count the money later and discover the total was $300. But first Slessor read this hand-written letter that was inside the envelope:

Dear Super Indendant (sic) and Board Members,

Hi. My name is Jocelyn Lam. I’ve heard that 65 positions will be laid off and ten of them are from my school! This really breaks my heart. Those teachers had taught me a lot. They guided me to fifth grade. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here right now writing this letter. They changed my life.

Find out what's happening in Arcadiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I save all this money I earned from chores and high grades. Now I want to donate all this money to save the teachers. I really hope this $300 will help save the teachers who are about to be laid off. I also hope that this is enough to save more than one teacher. PLEASE put this money to good use. I beg you! SAVE THE TEACHERS!

Sincerely,

Find out what's happening in Arcadiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jocelyn Lam

There wasn’t a dry eye in the principal’s office when Slessor finished reading the letter.

Reynolds later called the parents, Mike and Taylor Lam, to make sure they were aware of what their daughter was doing. They were.

The parents are from Vietnam. Mike works in a bakery in San Gabriel. Taylor works as a manicurist in Pasadena.

"Jocelyn love her teachers," Taylor told Patch. "She say she has a little money and wants to give it to help save her teachers' jobs. I tell her it is up to her. She gets the money from us and my mother-in-law, who takes care of her and her brother when my husband and I are at work."

Young Jocelyn’s amazing act of giving came on Friday, two days after a flyer had been sent home to all Camino Grove parents. The flyer pointed out that due to state budget cuts, –65 positions within the Arcadia district, including 22 high school teachers, 17 middle school teachers and 21 elementary school teachers--10 at Camino Grove.

Reynolds and Slessor came up with the idea of the flyer with hopes that it would alert parents about donating to the Arcadia Educational Foundation to save staff positions–and many already have. The total as of Tuesday was more than $10,000. However, Reynolds and Slessor never thought about donations from students. We’re talking about children in grades kindergarten through fifth after all.

Now, because of what one student did, others are following suit. On Monday, Jocelyn’s brother Lawrence Lam, a fourth grader, donated $177, which was all of his savings. A first grader chipped in $1, his allowance for that week.

Lawrence also enclosed a letter with his donation, which concluded with this plea: "PLEASE PUT MONEY TO THE BEST USE!!! SAVE OUR TEACHERS, PLEASE!!!"

Patch visited Camino Grove and many of the students in both Jocelyn’s class and Lawrence’s raised their hands when they were asked if they planned to donate as well.

Jocelyn said the $300 she donated came from chores such as washing dishes and making her bed along with the money she got for good grades. She had been saving for college the past few years, but it was OK that the money was now gone.

She had done a very good deed and that seemed to please her more than any money ever could.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Arcadia