Bradford’s fifth grade teacher Jessica Loeffler has spent 12 weeks on the wide-ranging project that’s led to the stuffed toy menagerie.

Theron Chandler, a fifth grader at Bradford Elementary School, shows the teddy bear he made for a child who needs to take an ambulance in the Upper Valley. Credit Charlotte Albright / VPR

“Students have gone through a lot of research, they’ve researched non-profits in in the Upper Valley, they’ve presented both within their fifth grade and to the entire school. Now this is culminating in this project, that they’ve brainstormed what we should do to give back to Upper Valley Ambulance,” Loeffler said.

The ambulance service is also one of three non-profits the kids chose to compete for a $500 prize half collected from local merchants and half from the coffers of Inspiring Kids, which also solicits donations.

At the end of the school day, students filed into the auditorium to hear which non-profit garnered the most votes the ambulance, a food pantry, or David’s House, a temporary residence for families of kids getting treated at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Two teachers, a musical duo called Wild Roots, strummed a two-tapping processional and told the kids that were going to give a benefit concert that night for the food bank.

“Students have gone through a lot of research, they’ve researched non-profits in in the Upper Valley … – Jessica Loeffler, teacher at Bradford Elementary School

A few fifth graders marched to the front of the room holding sign covered with fabric.

“And the winner is David’s House!”