The young Decas Elementary philanthropists held themed fundraisers, such as Wacky Wednesday and Twin Day, and collected a dollar from each student who participated.

They hosted Penny Wars, which had classrooms competing to collect the most pennies and students dropping dimes, nickels, and quarters into unsuspecting teachers' jars — because those coins were actually point deductions in the "war."

It was good fun for a good cause.

After all the dollar bills and coins were counted, the members of the school's National Elementary Honor Society had raised $600.

Stop & Shop gift cards were purchased with the money and, on Wednesday, June 13, the students presented the gift to Turning Point's Wareham Area Committee for the Homeless.

"I'm overwhelmed by what you did," Turning Point program director Lee MacDonald told the students as her eyes filled with tears. "You are going to feed an awful lot of people."

Marcine Fernandes, who serves on Turning Point's board of directors, agreed.

"When I came to pick up the gift cards, I almost fell on the floor," she said to the fifth- and fourth-grade students. "You are going to help so many people in your community."

Raising the funds for the donation was one of many service activities the students participated in since the school district's very first National Elementary Honor Society formed in January. The students also rounded up clothing donations for the Salvation Army, weeded the school's community garden, and decorated placemats to donate to an area nursing home.

"It feels so good because it was fun and we helped a lot of people," said fifth-grader Jamie Read. "It was an awesome experience."

Her fellow honor society members agreed.

"It's not hard raising all that money," Allison DeLuca noted. "It was fun."

Little did the students know, the gift cards will likely be used to help older students in Wareham Public Schools.

MacDonald said she hopes to dole them out to Wareham's increasing population of homeless high school students — teenagers without families who often sleep in cars as they struggle to obtain high school diplomas.

"A lot of [the homeless students] want to go on to college," MacDonald explained. "We want to make sure they eat."

For more information about Turning Point, call 508-291-0535.