Mountain View pupils to give trip money to tsunami relief

SULLIVAN – Pupils at Mountain View Middle School have decided to forfeit their annual class trip and donate the funds for the trip to the victims of last month’s tsunami in South Asia.

Instead of traveling to Boston in the spring, the 32 eighth-graders at the school will give the $5,000 they raised for the trip to the tsunami relief effort.

The pupils voted unanimously, by paper ballot, to donate the money.

“They’ve chosen to give up Boston,” said education technician Joan Ingalls, whose son is an eighth-grader. “In social studies they were talking about [the victims]. It seems like we have so much and they have so little.”

The pupils plan to give their money to Kathy and Carl Johnson, who have created a fund for tsunami relief at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust. The Johnsons, who live in West Gouldsboro, have friends in Thailand.

On Monday, Kathy Johnson and a bank representative will visit the school to collect the money and meet the pupils, Ingalls said.

“We are hoping this will spur other communities and schools to do the same thing,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”