Crushed cheesecakes lay scattered across the floor. She sank to her knees, tears streaming down her face

Hadassah idly shaded the building she was drawing as the other girls in her class enjoyed their recess. Across the aisle, her friend Bruchy worked on her own drawing.

The door slammed open as Penina ran into the room. “Do you know what Mrs. Levine just told me?” she exclaimed.

The room fell silent, and every eye turned to Penina.

“The end-of-year trip to the amusement park is canceled!” Penina cried. “Mrs. Friedman, the principal, just told the teachers. Mrs. Levine said to gather our class so that we can talk about it.”

“What happened?” Chana asked. “Why was it canceled?”

Penina shrugged. “Something about the reservation not being in their system or something. We were supposed to have picnic tables for lunch and supper, but since there’s no reservation, it would cost way too much money. The school said they can’t ask the parents for that much money.”

The door opened again, revealing Mrs. Levine. The class scurried to their seats as their teacher walked to the front of the room.

“As you’ve all heard from Penina, our trip is canceled,” Mrs. Levine said. “I know you must all be very disappointed, but Mrs. Friedman said that if we come up with a new trip idea, we can talk about going there instead.”

The room filled with quiet chatter as the class discussed how disappointed they were or thought of somewhere else to go. Hadassah looked down at her drawing, her heart sinking into her stomach. She’d been looking forward to the trip, too, and it was a shame that they couldn’t go for such a dumb reason….

Wait.

Hadassah jumped up, her hand waving in the air. All eyes turned to her, and she shrunk back. She rarely spoke up in class.

“Yes, Hadassah?” Mrs. Levine called.

She took a deep breath. “What if we earned the money for the trip?” Hadassah’s words tumbled out in a rush. “If — if we could somehow raise money for the trip, to bring the price down to what it usually is, could we still go?”

The class fell silent as every girl turned to their teacher, their eyes pleading.