Gates teacher Peggy Gouras can’t believe her eyes as the final amount raised for the Kids 4 Kids Build A School fund raiser is projected onto a wall at Redwood Elementary Thursday.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[4/9/04]Heads nodded in amazement when it became clear Thursday that Redwood Elementary students had raised $8,175 more than double their goal and enough to build not one, but two schools in a Third World country.

Invigorated by the celebration, the students kept working, and by the end of the day they had raised about $900 more.

“I’m overwhelmed,” said Peggy Gouras, the teacher who came up with the idea and spearheaded the Kids 4 Kids Build a School Project. “I had no idea we’d make it. I’m so proud of my students.”

Gouras is a teacher in the GATES, or Gifted And Talented Education, special education program of the Vicksburg Warren School District.

“I wish I had better words,” she said, “but their hearts were in it. My children will be blessed because they’ve shared their blessings.”

In January, Gouras gave each of the 39 students $5 to begin a business. Students were responsible for coming up with products, commercials and logos. They sold their wares each Wednesday and Friday before the start of the school day.

Products included homemade cookies, brownies and candy. Students also sold decorated pots, Mardi Gras beads and stuffed animals. One student sold his collection of G-rated Disney movies; another student’s slogan for his product was, “One dollar will make your taste buds holler.”

Their profits are going to Samaritan’s Purse, which spends $3,500 to build modest classrooms for children in developing countries. The Christian charitable organization is headed by Franklin Graham, son of the evangelist Billy Graham.

Throughout the project, Gouras asked students to keep the total of their profits a secret.

“When we started this, I was going to be so glad if we made it close,” she said.

But she and others in the standing-room-only crowd at the school’s auditorium were in for a big surprise.

At Thursday’s ceremony, students, dressed in their Sunday best, went to the microphone one by one to explain their businesses and present their money to a Samaritan’s Purse representative.

When they finished, the total was at $7,961.23.

But then North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young stood up and pledged to give enough to make the total an even $8,000. Mayor Laurence Leyens ended up writing the $38.77 check from his personal account.

Next it was Gouras’ turn to give. She gave the seed money back to the project.

Many in the audience were overwhelmed and tearful at what the children had accomplished. Gifts and sales continued through the day.

Tonnie Langston is the mother of 7-year-old Jaycee Langston. When the project began, Jaycee hired her mother and grandfather to paint flower pots, while she tended to the business aspect of the business.

“That’s what a business owner does,” Tonnie Langston said.

And Langston put her faith behind the project and raised $656 the most money raised.

“As I was pulling out of the driveway to come here this morning, I said, This is for the Lord, and it’s going to happen. We’re going to raise enough for two schools.’ And we did,” Langston said.

At the end of the program, students held flashlights and sang “This Little Light of Mine,” but changed the words to one verse. They sang, “I’m going to use my gift to build a school. Let it shine. Let is shine. Let it shine.”

The students were then dismissed. But soon they lined the school’s courtyard and were once again selling the last of their products. By the end of the day, they’d raised another $838, making their grand total $9,013.

Eight-year-old Ian Smart, a third-grader, stood outside in his coat and tie selling popcorn popped by his grandmother, Hilda White.

Ian said he was proud of his classmates because, “It’s the right thing to do, and we like helping people.”

Former Principal Butch Newman, who is now an administrative assistant for the superintendent of the Vicksburg Warren School District agreed.

“I don’t know what to say this is the way things are at Redwood,” he said of one of the smallest schools in the system.

The school’s current principal, Cedric Magee, said he was proud of the students.

“The children really have worked, and Mrs. Gouras has taught them skills they can use in life,” he said.