JANESVILLE, Wis. — Some Rock County elementary school students showed just how much they care for the people and the animals of Ukraine — through some simple but creative and collaborative efforts.

On a chilly April afternoon, third graders in Mrs. Jen Schrab’s classroom pulled out their crayons for a lesson on kindness.

“All right, friends, we are going to be going back to working on our posters for Ukrainian Americans to show our support for them, let them know that we’re thinking of them and that they’re not alone,” Schrab said as she walked around the tables to see her kids’ clever artwork that featured images of peace, love and support.

With the war in Ukraine, the Jefferson Elementary School two decade educator and her fellow co-teachers realized this could be another teachable moment.

“The amazing thing I think about children is they want to do good and they do understand that feeling and it’s so nice to be able to give them the opportunities to be able to feel that to be able to give them the opportunity to help other people,” Schrab said.

This meant the entire second and third grade class took part in the project where posters were made and then mailed to an Orthodox Church in Madison.

“It’s hard to sit on the sidelines and you want to do something and do with them. Who can we give them to? We wanted, we wanted it to be hopefully somewhere local. So that so that somebody local could understand that we are thinking of them,” Mrs. Schrab said.

Why the school also undertaking what Schrab lovingly called the ‘school’s new pet project,’ a stuffed animal petting zoo.

“It was a nice research project as well,” she said about the collaborative effort with the second graders. Students can now tour for any donation, with all the money going towards Ukrainian zoos.

“We talked about it and whatever we raise is going to be helpful to the plight of the animals right now that are going through and the zookeepers and the zoo workers that have bravely stayed behind to help their animals,” she said.

In just a few days, Jefferson Elementary School students have already raised hundreds of dollars for those animals. You can learn more about how to make a contribution to the zoos in Ukraine, through the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, here: https://www.facebook.com/EAZA01/