A Big Hearted Lynnwood Girl Is Trying To Save Local Schools

By Rachel Belle

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When 13-year-old CJ Sternfels was only 9 she started to notice that schools were losing money.

“I had just learned about the budget cuts. I heard that buses were going to be cut, and my friends would have to walk home alone in the dark. They might have to cut music and I was really excited to play an instrument the next year so I was really bummed out about that. That’s what really got me thinking about what I can do to help out with school funds.”

So CJ went to her mom, Christine, and together they came up with A Dollar A Day For A Year, a non-profit that allows people to donate $365 to one of the 31 schools in the Edmonds School District.

“Each school will have a wish list of five things they need,” says Christine. “The money goes directly to the school district. When our organization writes a check, it goes to that fund. They can’t allocate it anywhere else. It doesn’t pay for administrative salaries or for building maintenance.”

The money would go towards things like musical instruments, books and field trips.

“As a teacher I spend so much money out of my own pocket,” says Martha Lake Elementary 6th grade teacher Carma Rodriguez. “An example is, I spent over $100 last year on notebook paper because kids just can’t bring it in. I spent over $45 last year paying for hot lunches. We have free and reduced lunch, but some kids don’t qualify, they fall into that middle bracket. If parents can’t pay for lunches, they can’t pay for field trips, and the field trips enrich their academic learning. So my husband and I were paying out of our pocket to sponsor kids so they can go on the field trips.”

Carma says CJ is a special kid with big ideas.

“I have never met a child that sat there and saw teachers paying out of their pocket, and her becoming upset, and saying, ‘Why aren’t people in the legislature doing something to help these teachers?’ To keep on it, and not let it go, that’s not a typical kid. Her heart is huge.”

At first, Christine worked on A Dollar A Day For A Year on the side, but then she decided to put it front and center.

“It took me three years to have the courage to take the leap and leave corporate America and work on a non-profit,” explains Christine. “Three years of egging on from CJ going, ‘Mom, we have to do something! Mom, it’s not getting better! Mom, look, they cut the journalism class!’ So it was time to do it.”

I can’t imagine a lot of parents would be this influenced by their child, that they would quit their job to endorse one of their ideas. But CJ is a special kid

.

“I could see her passion and I could see how much it meant to her. As she was growing up, I was getting to know her better as a person, and I saw how big her heart is and this is who she is. I had a meeting with the school district the other day and they said, ‘What are you getting out of this?’ I almost choked up and said, ‘I don’t know. I’m doing this for my daughter. There’s this big thing that’s pushing me to do this.’ I believe in her, I believe in her cause, and now it’s my cause too. I really believe this could do a lot of good.”

Right now, Christine is trying to raise money to get A Dollar A Day For A Year up and running. She plans to start in the Edmonds School District and eventually go nationwide.

Click here if you want to donate to A Dollar A Day For A Year.