‘The idea is to pay it forward’

Adams Elementary kids taught unsuspecting Target shoppers to “pay it forward” Thursday.

The sixth-graders, members of the new Club Pay It Forward, spent several weeks collecting and recycling plastic bottles on campus. Then they used the $100 they raised to purchase four $25 gift cards to the store.

On Thursday morning, they randomly picked four shoppers at the Costa Mesa Target and gave them the cards — with a request that the recipients do something nice for three people that day.

“The idea is to pay it forward,” teacher Matt Broesamle said. “I just brought it up to them at the beginning of the school year. We ended up with 34 out of 70 sixth-graders participating.”

The students, many wearing Santa Claus hats or reindeer antlers, clustered into four chaperoned groups outside the store before entering.

One group followed after Veronica and Ezequiel Rabago, who thought at first that the students were playing a prank.

They were shocked when they learned what the kids were doing.

Another group said their recipient was overwhelmed at their generosity and began to get emotional.

“I feel a hug coming on,” 11-year-old Anthony Banos said, so he embraced the woman.

“It felt good, because we’re helping someone. It’s the holidays; it felt good to help,” Anthony said.

“The economy’s really bad right now,” added Julio Espinoza, 11.

“So many of our students come from low socioeconomic environments, but they learned that they still have so much more than many other people,” Broesamle said.

Another group said the first two people they approached told them that someone else needed the gift card more than they did. They finally found a young woman with a small child — many of the students’ ideal recipient.

“During the holidays, it’s harder for people with children,” said Nellie McPherson, 11. “It felt really good to give to other people.”

The woman said she would use part of the gift card to purchase something for her child’s preschool.

“She was already paying it forward,” parent Tracey Cook said; her daughter was one of the sixth-graders who went on the adventure.

“We’re used to going out in the community, but this was a really nice project,” Cook said. “I was really impressed with the first two people who said they didn’t need it.”

“They paid it forward without even paying it forward yet,” Principal Candy Cloud said.

She said Broesamle’s class spends much of their time thinking up ways to benefit others. Students also sold 600 candygrams in a week this school year, which raised $300 that was donated to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

“Education is not just academic, but creating a total child,” Cloud said. “And that’s what we’re about.”

Note To Recipients

“We would like to present this $25 gift card to Target to you. The only thing we want in return is for you to do something nice to three people today. Please note that what you do doesn’t have to cost you anything, all we want you to do is something nice out of the goodness of your heart.”