Students across Santa Fe have responded with a spontaneous burst of goodwill to help the victims of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that stuck Haiti earlier this month, leaving parts of the small, island country in ruins.

The day after the earthquake, Academy for Technology and the Classics teacher Galen Blum started selling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. In the first nine minutes, a total of $110 was raised. Over the course of the week, more than $300 was raised for the Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

"Everybody has expressed their concern and everybody wants to do what they can to help and I think that's genuine," said ATC principal Edward Woodd.

Students in ATC's Leo's Club — an affiliate of the Santa Fe Lions Club, are working on putting together an emergency shoe drive.

"We hope to have a large amount of shoes collected from various students and their families so that they can be sent off to Haiti as part of the relief," said Teague Shroh, president of the ATC Leo's Club.

"The people of Haiti really need our help," Shroh said. "The Leo's Club is a group of people who really do care and who are trying to do their best to help in any possible way."

Woodd was impressed with his students' efforts.

"Nothing was organized in advance to try and solicit the students (to help)," Woodd explained. "Everything that has been done has been spontaneous and I think that is a tremendous tribute to the character of the students."

Shroh wants to see his actions actually affect people.

"I just really hope that it can help those people and that we can do everything we can to make their recovery from this horrible disaster better," he said.

At Desert Academy, students have organized a wide response. They have created an online fundraising site to help gain donations for a trip to the Dominican Republic to help refuges from Haiti.

Students also have organized a Dance-a-Thon and the Desert Leo's Club is donating proceeds from their concessions stand to Haitian relief efforts. The Student Council and National Honor Society also are working on relief efforts according to the school's Web site. Administrators from Desert Academy did not return calls seeking comment on their efforts Monday afternoon.

At Santa Fe High School, the National Honor Society has given all of its members change jars in order to collect donations for those in Haiti.

"Once NHS started the fundraising effort, people showed just how much they cared," NHS president Justin Baca said in an e-mail. "This is something everybody feels strongly about. You can truly see how generous and caring people are when it comes to helping others."

At Santa Fe Preparatory School, an outpouring of support has occurred from the student body and community.

"I think what's so encouraging to me is that this is student-initiated charity," said Jim Leonard, head of school at Santa Fe Prep. "It's not adults coming to kids, it's kids coming to adults."

The Santa Fe Prep Student Council and Social Activism Club have teamed up to lead a fundraiser for two different organizations.

"We are sponsoring a fundraiser for two group that the Student Council and the Social Activism Club felt were really strong on the ground groups — Doctors Without Borders and Mercy Corps," Leonard said.

Students had set a fundraising goal of a total of $3,000 and have already met that, according to Social Activism Club president and founder Hillary Hale. She said a total of over $1,200 had been raised in change for Doctors Without Borders and another $1,800 at an online fundraising page which students set up.

Like students at Santa Fe High, students at Santa Fe Prep also have set up change jars.

"By having the change jars, you really allow it to be the kids that are involved," Hale said. She immediately set up a change jar the day after the earthquake specifically for Doctors Without Borders.

The day after she had teamed up with the Student Council and launched a sideshow at a school assembly, the campaign raised their initial goal of $3,000.

"What was most interesting about this for me was that I was literally trying to keep with students who were (involved to take) immediate action," Leonard said. "This just was not one of those things that we as a school had to encourage the students to take action and I am ... proud of what the school has done."

Vaughn Fortier-Shultz contributed to this report. Alex Wirth is a junior at Santa Fe Prep. You can reach him at alxwirth@gmail.com.

HOW TO HELP

• Visit www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/sfpstudentcouncil.
• Visit www.firstgiving.com/desertacademy_dr.
• Gently used shoes can be brought to Academy for Technology and the Classics, 74 A Van Nu Po Rd. Call 473-4282.
• Text Haiti to 90999 and make a $10 dollar donation to the American Red Cross that will be charged to your cell phone bill.
• Go to http://clintonbushhaitifund.org/ to donate online.