Grade-schoolers use penny donations to help homeless man

DeBraer Brae never would have guessed he'd have a home thanks to some 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds.

"Not in my wildest dreams," he said. "And believe me, I have some wild dreams sometimes."

But here he is with the secondhand wheelchair that students at Seattle's Hawthorne Elementary bought for him, sitting in the apartment where they're paying his share of the rent. He's wearing clothes they purchased, too, and he points to the cellphone they provided.

A few of the students met DeBraer when their teacher Jason Wong, who met DeBraer as he walked to work, invited DeBraer to come to school to talk about homelessness. Others had seen the 55-year-old in the streets and alleys of Columbia City as they rode the bus to and from school.

Most just wanted to help someone who needed so much, and had so little.

The tough part was deciding whether to give him all or part of the $1,000 they had to spend.

The students raised money this fall as part of a nonprofit program called Penny Harvest. Students at 54 schools in King County participate by asking their classmates to bring in spare change, then forming student committees (guided by an adult coach) that decide where to donate it.

This year, the schools collected $64,354.02. Each school receives $1,000 to donate.

At most of the schools, students give to nonprofit organizations. But when the 10 members of Hawthorne's committee met, DeBraer's name came up right away.

Sua Acevedo, a fourth-grader who met DeBraer in teacher Wong's class, brought it up first.

"He only had Mr. Wong to help him," she said. "So I was like, 'Why can't we help him?' "

Wong had never suggested the students donate to DeBraer, but he told them he was trying to help DeBraer get into public housing.

The Penny Harvest committee members quickly agreed they all wanted to help DeBraer. The question was: How much? And what about the shelter for homeless women and children they also were considering? Didn't the women and children there deserve help, too?

Like many moral dilemmas, there was no easy solution.

The students met a dozen times over several months, giving up lunch recess to sit in a windowless room around a group of desks pushed together.

As part of the program, the students must interview potential grantees. When a representative from Broadview Emergency Shelter visited, they asked: What would $1,000 buy there? $500? $333.33? They learned $1,000 would buy several meals with protein for 95 people.

They asked the same questions to Mr. Wong, the teacher who originally invited DeBraer to speak. For DeBraer, it would provide rent for several months, perhaps until he was able to qualify for an assisted-living facility, plus the wheelchair he needed because of arthritis in his hips, some extra clothes and food.

Ryonna Forest, a fifth-grader, argued all the money should go to DeBraer. Even though she hadn't met him, she felt strongly the committee should give him enough so that he would have a home at least temporarily.

But fifth-grader Kristianne Ayagan countered just as strongly that committee members should help the shelter as well. After all, the shelter helped kids, and kids should help kids, she reasoned. Her classmates agreed with her, too.

"She said that everyone deserves something, so that's true," Sua said.

Kristianne wanted to give a minimum of $300 to the shelter. Ryonna insisted on $750 for DeBraer, enough to help until Wong thought DeBraer could qualify for public housing.

They didn't have enough to do both. So they kept talking.

As the deadline for making their decision approached, the students met three lunch recesses in a row.

Finally, they compromised: $710 for DeBraer and $290 for Broadview. Then Julia Kirchner, their adult coach, remembered she had another $40 in coins in the closet, which came in after this year's collection deadline, so they could give $750 to DeBraer after all.

DeBraer is grateful. Health problems and a lack of transportation kept him from attending a school assembly to thank the students in person, but he was there on videotape.

In the recording, he tells them he appreciates "all you've done for a guy that was homeless."

Then DeBraer throws back his head to sing them "The Star-Spangled Banner," which he chose because he used to sing it as a warm up when he was a street musician and "I think I'm pretty good at it."

It's been a few months now since DeBraer started receiving the students' help, and it looks like he'll be homeless again soon. A friend that DeBraer has been staying with is moving.

DeBraer hasn't been able to get public housing. One reason is that it's nearly impossible for him to get to appointments without help.

Another, Wong said, is that DeBraer chafes against some of the conditions that public housing requires and doesn't make the necessary calls, even now that the students have provided him with three months of cellphone service.

Wong says he's frustrated with DeBraer and with the social-service system that Wong finds difficult to navigate himself.

Still, he's proud of the students for what they've done.

"These kids did exactly what nobody would do," Wong said. Their donations, he said, just didn't have enough zeros.

The students always knew this could happen. They said they would still be happy they could help DeBraer a least a little.

"Twenty years from now, I'll look back and say, 'I really did that when I was 9 years old,' " said third-grader D'anya Lewis.

Abdulroof Rashid, a fifth-grader, said the experience gave him a good feeling in his stomach that he'd done something special.

It made him want to fill many more bags of pennies, he said, and give them away, too.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com