Kaukauna students help South Sudan

Kathy Hansen's 8th grade language arts classes at River View Middle School in Kaukauna are a curious bunch.

A Long Walk For Water by Linda Sue Park sparked that curiosity when learning about a girl whose days in Sudan were spent gathering water.

"I have to take five steps to the fridge to get some water, it's a lot different spending your entire morning barefoot caring buckets of water on my head," said Carson Smith, River View 8th Grader

The class also learned about a man named Salva in the book. He fled Sudan to Ethiopia and Kenya as a child and eventually made his way to the U.S.

Years later, he returned to Sudan to start a project called Water for South Sudan that drills wells.

"We finished the book and we looked at the website that Salva had put together and some of my students in my first block said it'd be cool if we could do something more," said Hansen.

And that talk continued through Hansen's 8th grade classes until a fundraiser began in March.

The 8th graders placed five of containers to collect money in each of their language arts classes for two weeks.

"Raised a total of $974.10, yeah, that was just crazy we almost raised a thousand bucks," said Smith.

And that money will help Water For South Sudan, which has drilled 252 wells in south sudan since 2005.

"Doesn't matter how old you are, you can still make a difference, we talked about, 'yep you guys are 13 and 14 but you can still do something to make a difference'," said Hansen.