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Jaimie Facchini’s fifth grade class at Vernon K-8 school is like many across Portland Public Schools. But between lessons on reading and mathematics, the tight-knit group of 30 formed a separate bond through a kindness challenge that helped them raise $1,850 dollars for their school.
Facchini, a new teacher at Vernon this year, went all in on Raise Craze, a monthlong fundraiser. The premise was simple: instead of a more classic school fundraiser like an auction or bake sale, students complete acts of kindness in their communities. To raise money, students ask for sponsorships for such acts—as small as taking out a neighbor’s trash or writing a thank-you note. Funds raised go to the school.
Typically, a winning class for Raise Craze will log anywhere between 80 and 90 acts of kindness over the month, says Maya Pueo von Geldern, a Vernon parent and Parent Teacher Association leader who brought Raise Craze to the school. Facchini’s class filed 445 of them, blowing previous school records out of the water.
“A lot of it is just showing kids that if you put in even these little acts of kindness, it can make a big difference in the world,” says Gunnar, an 11-year-old in Facchini’s class. “If people weren’t kind, it’d just be an awful world.”
Von Geldern says the thought of switching to a more accessible fundraiser came after a series of Vernon galas that felt exclusionary. (Such posh events have drawn increasing skepticism, as WW has reported.) She noticed that even if the PTA made modifications like a sliding scale payment for entry into those galas, an event involving high-priced bids was uncomfortable for a number of families.
She remembers one specific quilt that went for nearly $1,400 at the auction. “Granted, it was beautiful,” she says. “But I sat there going, ‘Oh my God, I hope they don’t expect me to spend this.’” She introduced Raise Craze in 2022, where it’s helped raise thousands of dollars each year. (This year it raised $7,180, thanks in large part to Facchini’s class.)
“I appreciated the focus on logging in acts of kindness and that kids could be included even if they weren’t sending out emails to ask to be sponsored or ask for pledges,” von Geldern says. “If they weren’t in on the financial side of it, they could still be engaged. They could still be a part of it all. My goal was just to do something that teachers could incorporate and that families can incorporate.”
Through the challenge, Facchini’s class committed to both individual acts of kindness and group ones. The fifth-grade teacher helped coordinate thank-you letters to the firefighters in the firehouse across the street from Vernon and to Air Force service members stationed overseas. They hosted a couple of garbage pickups and donated supplies to the Oregon Humane Society and at-need Vernon families.
“I liked helping homeless people because I feel like if we were them, it would be hard,” says Lillian, age 11. “It’s good to help people feel better about themselves, to feel like they are needed in life.”
Facchini’s class also collaborated on an effort to send Oregon’s legislators letters advocating for more school funding. That point hit close to home toward the end of the year, when Facchini’s students learned that she’d be cut from Vernon amid a $40 million budget deficit at PPS.
The school district did not authorize Facchini to speak with WW for this story.
On June 10 at least three dozen kids and parents took to the streets in front of Vernon for a protest to demand more school funding from the state. Skye, an 11-year-old student in Facchini’s class, took the initiative to rally their classmates. Together they made signs with block letters and bright colors. “SOS,” one read, “Save Our Schools.” They marched around the blocks and cheered at honking passersby.
“I just thought it would be great to show the people, like, ‘Hey, we don’t want our teacher to go,’” Skye says. “We want her to stay with us.”
Delisse Ortiz, Skye’s mom, says she never expected Skye to be as much of an advocate as they are at 11. Part of that, Ortiz says, comes from Facchini, whom she says has expertly woven her curriculum in alongside world events. “You can tell [Facchini is] somebody who cares and just gives their body and soul to making sure these students not only are educated but know how to advocate for their rights,” Ortiz says. “It’s heartbreaking to know she has to be one of the ones to go.”
But for her class of 30, Facchini—and her lessons on kindness and community involvement—have left a lasting impression on them. “She’s always there for us and always doing all these small little things she doesn’t have to do just to support us,” Gunnar says.
Von Geldern hopes Raise Craze is something other schools in PPS will consider undertaking, noting the bonds Facchini’s class has created are replicable across the district. The fundraiser’s success for Vernon comes amid conversations about the role of individual school fundraisers. Next year PPS will move to a districtwide The Fund for PPS, which will raise money for schools across the district. (Von Geldern says individual schools can still fundraise for most things, outside of full-time employees.)
“I want to see all schools have the ability to do schoolwide efforts, whether it’s around raising kindness or it’s around raising money,” she says. “I feel like we overlook the fact that many schools don’t have a huge volunteer force and that volunteering is a luxury, and so if there are ways that are user-friendly for communities to be able to do something positive, then I just want more people to know about it.”