If you passed New Hope Elementary Wednesday afternoon and saw a caravan of Toyotas and Camrys snaking around the school with car horns blaring, you might have thought the rapture arrived four days late in Mississippi. No cause for alarm — it was just the last day of school for the Lowndes County School District, celebrated teacher-style.

Assistant principal Tim Wilcox said during his three-year tenure, the teachers have always had a parade when the final school bus leaves the parking lot. Then, everyone returns to their classrooms and begins preparing to educate the next class of students.

To be sure, it was the perfect morning to celebrate the end of the school year — halcyon blue skies, fluffy white clouds, birds flitting in the springtime air, and enough heat to make a test-weary 10-year-old daydream about lazy afternoons at the swimming hole.

But on Wednesday morning, the final bell had not yet rung, and fifth-graders at New Hope were experiencing an entirely different flight of fancy.

They had Japan on their minds, as they have since March when the country was struck by a powerful earthquake and tsunami. While their classmates unleashed pent-up energy on the playground, members of the MERIT class for gifted students painstakingly folded pink and yellow scraps of paper into origami cranes. The cranes will be sold for $1 apiece, with proceeds benefiting the American Red Cross and its efforts in Japan.

MERIT teacher Jennifer Caldwell said the project was the brainchild of student Cole Hollis, who confessed that since the tsunami, she found herself lying in bed at night, trying to think of ways to help the children affected by the disaster.

“We study a lot of things like this happening in the world,” Caldwell said. “We want them to learn to be proactive.”

As of Wednesday, the students had raised $321, but they said they were still working on the project in the final hours of the school year because they wanted to reach their goal of $1,000.

Emma Kate Lawrence said she enjoyed knowing she was contributing to a good cause. “It was kind of fun,” she said. “At first, I thought, ”Oh, I would never be able to do one of those,” but then I could.”

Still, the students couldn”t hide their excitement about summer vacation.

Mason Honnoll, 11, said he wasn”t going to miss school. “I might miss the teachers, but I won”t miss the work at all,” he quipped.

Likewise, McKensi Lackney said she wouldn”t miss school, but she would miss her friends in the MERIT program and the team-building exercises they enjoyed this year.

The feeling was mutual for some teachers and administrators, most of whom said they would miss their students but were looking forward to having a break.

For Caldwell, summer will mean more school. She”s finishing the final nine hours of her master”s degree at Mississippi University for Women.

Wilcox is headed back to school as well, finishing the dissertation for his doctorate degree in K-12 administration from Mississippi State University.

In his spare time, he”s looking forward to a five-day trip to Dauphin Island, Ala., which he said he loves for its solitude and family friendly atmosphere.

But first, there was a school day to finish — and a parade to attend.

“We celebrate milestones around here a lot,” he said, grinning.

Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.

READER FAVORITES

• 

  Starkville ambulance service up to 7X faster than the county’s. Will the county change?

  By Cadence Harvey • 1 day ago

• 

  Could city’s public info officer position get shelved?

  By Zack Plair • 1 day ago

• 

  Plaque project aims to promote downtown history

  By Emma McRae • 1 day ago