CHAPMANVILLE — Students in Melissa Moore’s third grade class at Chapmanville East Elementary saw the terrible effects of the recent earthquake in Haiti and wanted to do whatever they could to help.

Not being able to go to Haiti to directly help the hundreds of thousands who are trying to recovered after the earthquake, Moore’s third graders started collecting needed items such as cleaning supplies, diapers, peroxide, bottled water and other goods.

In just two days, Moore’s students had collected nearly a truckload of items to be sent to Haiti.

The only problem they faced was that none of the organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army were taking donated items due to not being able to transport those items into the country.

So, Moore called around and finally got help from WVAH Fox 11 television station, which directed her to the Mission Outreach that would be picking up donated items from the South Ridge Walmart in South Charleston.

“The people in Haiti are having a hard time after the earthquake hit and, today, in the morning news, we heard there was an aftershock and so we’re trying to do all we can to help,” Ryan Chafin, one of the students in Mrs. Moore’s room, said. “The Air Force can’t get supplies to Haiti because the airports are too small.”

Nicholas Barker said the students in his class wanted to help the people in Haiti.

“People in Haiti are crying because some of their family members have died,” Barker said. “We’re going to take the supplies to the South Ridge Walmart Donation Drop for the Mission Outreach.”

Emmalee Adkins said the situation in Haiti is “horrible.”

“It’s really sad,” she said.

Ryan Satterfield said the students in the third grade class hope they can help the people in Haiti. “They’re family members are dying,” Satterfield said. “We’re going to send the supplies through Mission Outreach.”

Brendan Payne said the people in Haiti need all the help they can get right now.

“It’s bad in Haiti. Buildings are crashing down and we can’t get food and supplies over there because the docks have crashed and the government officials are lost and it’s hard for the parents because a lot of them can’t find their families. I’ve been watching it on the news and it’s bad.”

Rebekka Johnson said “it’s really, really bad.”

“We had to send notes out to people in the school to get all these supplies and people donated them to us,” Johnson said.

Kelsey Lemmon said “Mrs. Moore started (the collection) because all of us wanted to help the people in Haiti.”

“We started making flyers and we made speeches in front of all the classes and then we got stuff in from that,” Lemmon said. “We were collecting things, but we couldn’t find anyone to take it to Haiti. They want money instead. It made us feel really bad because we all worked so hard on it.”

Moore said she called around to several organizations and no one could get the supplies to the people in Haiti.

“We called WVAH Fox 11 and they let us know about the Mission Outreach dropoff point,” Moore said. “We had tried to get several organizations to help us get these supplies to Haiti, but no one would take them. Some organizations wouldn’t even call us back. Fox 11 New was going to put us on the news if we could get a field trip organized, but we didn’t have enough notice, so I’ll take the supplies to the Walmart.”

Moore said the students worked so hard to collect the supplies and it was heart-breaking when they learned no one would take goods and only donations of money were being accepted.

“We talked about what supplies were needed in Haiti and they comprised their own lists and they collected those items from students and parents,” Moore said. “We have a truckload of things coming from one parent. We’re excited. We had one family donate a large percentage of the supplies. We worked hard to collect these items and the students wanted to help. No one would take our stuff and it was heartbreaking. But, we succeeded and good has prevailed.”