October 3, 2026
Not all homework assignments are created equal.
If Mrs. Fisher’s fourth and fifth graders at Grace Preparatory Academy in Needham, Massachusetts, learned anything last semester, it’s that. Along with every science experiment they were asked to undertake and every long division worksheet they were required to complete, there was one seemingly over-their-heads task they were commanded to tackle.
“I have them do a final project for every book we read,” Moriah Fisher says. “And last fall, after we read a book about the water crisis in Sudan, I told them, ‘Let’s get clean water to a community that needs it.’”
Moriah Fisher gave her elementary school class a dream-big, change-the-world assignment: develop an entirely student-led fundraising campaign that could help provide a well for a community somewhere in the world that needs clean water. She gave her students two weeks and told them their goal would be to raise $1,000.
No one at Grace Preparatory Academy would peg Mrs. Fisher as a fearsomely “hard teacher.” But still, a thousand dollars sounded like an astronomically unattainable amount of money to her elementary-aged marketers. “I had multiple students say, ‘There’s no way we’re going to get $1,000,’” Moriah says. “They were like, ‘We might get $200.’”
Like they say, not all homework assignments are created equal.
About 771 million people worldwide live without clean water and Send Relief works with ministry partners all over the globe to get wells and water filters to as many of those people as possible. After Moriah and her kids conducted some online research, Send Relief became their charity of choice.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas break, her kids began to work and a campaign they called “Dollars For Drops” took shape. For their main event, they decided to sell baked goods and crafts at an upcoming school concert. “They thought it’d be perfect,” Moriah says. “They knew we’d have all the parents and lots of people from the community here.”
It sounded like a simple enough plan. But the kids quickly discovered that marketing is hard work. “They had to figure out ways everybody in the school and community could participate,” Moriah says. “They made posters that went up around the school, they made videos that went out to the community, they wrote scripts to read at presentations—they had to utilize all kinds of different rhetorical appeals.”
“But for me what was really exciting was to see them apply what they were learning. We really got to talking about, ‘Hey, when you turn on your faucet, you make clean water just come out. How would you feel if you couldn’t do that?’ Dollars For Drops made it more than just a lecture. It really allowed them to connect with people who are different from them.”
In the end, the kids’ campaign turned out to be astonishingly, beyond-anyone’s-wildest-dreams successful. “We had the kids get up in front of the school on the Monday after the event,” Moriah says. “And when we announced they’d raised not $1,000, but $2,000, everybody was like, ‘Wait, what?’ My kids were so shocked, and it was a win really for the whole school because everybody had participated and played a part in it.”
Mrs. Fisher’s fourth and fifth graders raised double the amount they initially thought was impossible. Now, the $2,000 they collected will help provide clean drinking water for people in multiple communities around the world and create opportunities for those people to hear the gospel.
Ever since that school assembly, the kids have been asking Mrs. Fisher what’s next—“They have another really good idea about running a talent show,” she says, “but we might pick a different issue this next time.” Students and teachers recognize they’ve learned a life lesson that goes beyond just marketing a bake sale. “This has shown them if they ever have an idea for something that feels bigger than themselves, they’re capable,” Moriah says. “Anyone, no matter how old or young, can be part of the good. We’re all capable of helping people anywhere in the world.”
Like they say—not all homework assignments are created equal.
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March 22 is World Water Day. Click here to learn how you can partner with Send Relief to meet physical needs and share Christ with people in need all over the world.
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