Lincoln’s Beanie Babies sale nets $900 for charity

A Lincoln student looks Beanie Babies on Dec. 3.

Teacher Monica Dreiling and one of her students prepare for Beanie Babie sales.

Fifth-grader Addison Neuburger and teacher Monica Dreiling take payments for Beanie Babies during their class’s shop hours.

Children at Lincoln Elementary School gather for a school assembly to hear the announcement of how much money the Beanie Babie sale raised.

Lincoln fifth-grade students present a check and Beanie Babie to a representative of the Humane Society of the High Plains.

Linda Mills, director for First Call for Help, accepts a $100 donation from Monica Dreiling’s fifth-grade class at Lincoln.

Students from Monica Dreiling’s fifth-grade class, Dreiling and representatives of the agencies who received donations pose for a picture after an all-school assembly.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

It was like Black Friday, but the commodity was Beanie Babies and all the money went to charity.

Students descended on Monica Dreiling’s fifth-grade class at Lincoln Elementary School last week in a frenzy to buy pigs, chameleons, leopards, frogs and all sorts of other animals from the popular stuffed toy line. The class sold 1,440 Beanie Babies in less than two hours last week — a sell-out. The class raised $919.12.

“We never dreamed that we would make that much money,” Dreiling said during an all-school assembly Wednesday morning. “That is because all of you.”

The class was supposed to sell Beanie Babies before and after school for a week. After the morning sale Tuesday, the class was sold out. Dreiling contacted Bob Munsch, Hays auctioneer, and secured 600 more Beanie Babies for the store. By Wednesday afternoon, the class was sold out again.

The project was a part of a unit the class was working on entrepreneurship. The students had to sort their inventory, set the prices for the Beanie Babies, market the store, which included contacting local media, act as sales staff and decide what they would do with their profits, said Mariella Dreiling, fifth-grader.

Addison Neuburger, fifth-grader, said “It is harder than you think to start selling and get everything organized.”

During an assembly, the class donated the money to several nonprofit organizations. Each nonprofit representative was also given a Beanie Babie so they could remember where the donation came from.

This included $100 for the Human Society of the High Plains, $100 for First Call for Help, $100 to Cancer Council of Ellis County, $50 for Hays Public Library to purchase a brick and $569.12 for the Community Assistance Center.

A $50 donation will be made to the CAC to buy a holiday meal for a needy family. The rest of the money will be split among the students in the class, who will shop for non-perishable food items on Tuesday, Dec. 18 at Dillons. Those items will be donated to the CAC food pantry.

“We did not do this on our own,” Monica Dreiling told the other Lincoln students Wednesday. “The kids realized this was not our money, but your money and your families’ money that made all these donations possible to your community.”