 A group of third grade students at Riverside Elementary School and Brainerd came together on their own to raise money for Hurricane Florence victims. The group created and dispersed boxes throughout the school to collect money to go to the Red Cross. Reporter Rachel Johnson has more. One day, Aldi Johnson was watching the news with her parents when images of Hurricane Florence's devastation came on the screen. I saw all those people and pets go without homes and I feel bad for them so I wanted to give them a home too. She approached her third grade teacher wanting to do something to help. She had this idea and I said well why don't you go talk to her principal Mr. Clark and see what he can do to help so she kind of took charge. That was our on-bus duty one day and I had a third grader named Ali Johnson who said I need to talk to you tomorrow and the next day she came down to my office and said I would like to do a fundraiser for Hurricane Florence. With the help of her friends, they got to work making collection boxes to be dispersed in classrooms throughout the school. We want them to have board and stuff to build their houses again and let the pets be happy. The group of students had originally planned to wrap up their fundraiser by now but when Hurricane Michael hit the south of Florida, they decided to continue. I think it's really cool to do it, doing it with all my friends. The fundraiser has been a huge success so far. To have kids so young come up with an idea to help you know such a huge event in our world and I thought it was just amazing. Just that caring opportunity that we don't have to be right in the same neighborhood, we don't have to be right in the same state to care about those people in need. The faculty at Riverside is proud of the students and how they have shown so much care for the hurricane victims. I just wanted people to know that this school cares for what happens every day around the world. If someone lost their house or lost all their food and forints and they didn't have anything to do, we could have gave them the money and the stuff that they need and then they would be happy again and that just makes people really nice and if we do that I feel like everyone else in the world will start doing that as well. This group of third graders have shown that no matter what age you are, you can make a difference. Reporting from Brainerd, Rachel Johnson, Lakeland News. Once the collection has ended, the students will total the money and then donate it to the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.