For Pearl Hall Elementary School third grader Yessenia Briagas, doing nice things for other people is rewarding, which is why she helped her peers collect more than 2,300 canned goods for needy families in the South Houston community.

“It makes me feel good inside to have collected so much food for people who don’t have as much as others,” Briagas said. “Sometimes you just have to help other people who don’t have much.”

Pearl Hall third grade teacher Lottie Doudican recently prompted her students to collect as many canned goods as they could within a week’s time, and she said she is amazed at the outcome of the schoolwide food drive.

“Our students here at Pearl Hall are simply exceptional to us,” Doudican said. “The faculty, staff and administrators at our school are truly a second family to each other and to the children. We try and teach more than academics to our boys and girls on a daily basis.”

Every week, the class discusses a “value word of the week” during announcements, and last week’s word was “compassion.”

“What better way to show the value of compassion for others than to show our students how to help their own community during the holidays,” Doudican said. “This is a life lesson that will hopefully stick with these children, as many of their families have been helped by community centers and churches such as those receiving our donation this week.”

Within the first two days of the food drive, students had already collected nearly 1,000 canned goods. Running tallies were recorded every afternoon to encourage students to continue to bring more food. Some classes even created charts for the week to show how many cans their class collected.

Members of the South Houston Fire Department and city workers picked up the cans from the students this week to deliver them to the city’s Community Center for families in need of food this holiday season. Because of the quantity, it took several cars and trailers to take all the canned goods.

“Teaching our students that something as small as a can of food when many people work together can make such a difference in the lives of so many is such an important value to understand,” Doudican said. “We feel our students know how much we care for them because of the bonds we have formed, which in turn make them want to be successful students. We stand in awe each year at the accomplishments of our children, and we know that we are reaching many goals alongside our academic achievements.”