'We wanted to help:' Act of kindness connects students in Raleigh, California

Fifth graders from The Raleigh School reached out to victims of the wildfires in Carpentaria, Calif. with a simple video reminding the West Coast students to stay strong in the face of disaster.

“At The Raleigh School, we see social emotional skills as being very valued and it’s something we teach every day,” said teacher Jennifer Brunetti.

Students connected with that specific town in California because Burnetti had relatives there. Many families were displaced from their homes by the fire and the mudslides that followed.

“We just decided as a class that we wanted to do something kind,” Brunetti said.

“We thought that California was going through a lot, and we thought it would be really nice if they had some support,” student Addie Canady said.

Students in the video tell kids in California to have hope, be positive and think positive.

“We saw they were going through a struggle and we wanted to help them feel better,” student Maya Gupta said.

“We wanted to create the video because it was good to support them and help them get through this hard moment,” student Jimmy Passe said.

This past week, the fifth graders got an unexpected thank you video from students at The Family School in California. In the video, students said they were moved to tears by the video from The Raleigh School.

“They wanted to care for us even though they didn’t know us. They care because we’re people,” one California student says in the video.

“It was just really sweet because they were saying how it made them feel and it just made them so happy,” student Ella Thornbury said.

The students shot, produced and edited the video themselves. They said their favorite part was when they jumped up and cheered for their fellow students in California.