Field trip with a life lesson: Students raise money for young boy's adaptive trike

MILWAUKEE -- A group of students from Kewaskum High School learned the benefits of charitable giving on Friday, November 13th.

Those students from Kewaskum took a field trip to Emery's Bicycle Shop on Lisbon in Milwaukee to present a big $1,660 gift. The students are part of the ten-week Main Street Philanthropy program -- the first class for the curriculum in Wisconsin.

"It gets them involved in the community, finding ways to give back to the community, whether it's donating time, donating money," said Casey Scheel, teacher.

The students came up with different ways to raise money for three chosen charities: Make-A-Wish, Kewaskum Food Pantry and Variety, The Children's Charity of Wisconsin.

Variety is the reason they were at Emery's on Friday. The organization provides adaptive bikes for children with physical disabilities. To get the money for the donation, the students did several fundraisers.

"My group, we designed pens with our school logo or our school name and we sold those to people and students in the school," said Liza Rosenthal, a Kewaskum student.

On Friday, they got to see their potential impact because adaptive trikes are expensive.

Waylon Draginis

Waylon Draginis got one of those bikes from Variety in 2012 -- and it gave his life freedom. Draginis' mother explained to the students what one word really means.

"You guys ride a regular bike. He used to sit in the window and watch all of you kids play while he was inside and could never play," she said.

The mother's message resonated with the students, as did seeing another youngster's excitement with being fitted with a new trike.