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Eureka School District raises cash for Kiye Jenkins with hats on program

by Seaborn Larson
| September 20, 2016 10:28 AM

Last Friday, the Eureka School District raised about $350 for Kiye Jenkins; a Libby middle-school student diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma earlier this year.

The fundraiser came at the request of Alexis Jenkins, Kiye’s half-sister and a Eureka eighth-grade student, who asked her school to donate $1 to the cause through the school’s “hats on” program. In turn, the students that donated were allowed to wear a hat to school, a fundraising method that has been used for various causes throughout schools around the state.

“That’s the kind of person she is,” said Jamie Carvey, Alexis’s mother. “She goes out of her way to help people. When she found out the news about her brother she wanted to do something.”

The fundraiser includes the entire Eureka School District, including elementary, middle and high schools. Eureka Middle School Principal Trevor Utter said Alexis’s request for help with her brother’s circumstance was met with equal generosity from her classmates and his staff.

“It’s an easy way to raise some money,” he said. “The staff gets involved, everyone gets involved, and so it’s a good way to do it. I don’t think Libby is any different than Eureka, when there’s a need, Libby, Troy, Eureka, they come together. They do what they can to help because we’re that small town and you guys are too, where you wave to people on the street. Eureka kids are like that as well.”

The display of kindness is meant for Alexis as much as Kiye, Utter said. These Eureka kids don’t know Kiye, but they know Alexis, and they know Alexis’s brother has a problem, he said. After that, it’s simply a matter of handing over a dollar.

At the end of the day, Carvey said Alexis was proud of the $350 collected from her school that she’ll be able to hand to her brother’s family in south Lincoln County.

“It’s a pretty simple system,” Utter said. “All I have to do is make an announcement.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.