University High School’s food drive fizzled last fall. School spirit seemed to lag.

But this winter, all that turned around as 70 students leapt at the chance to raise community awareness – and thousands of dollars – to help fight genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. As students in this Spokane Valley high school channeled their energy into fighting genocide, they wound up not only helping to change the world, but transforming themselves.

Last fall, social studies teacher Paul Schneider was looking for a project that could inspire his students. One day he noticed three girls wearing T-shirts advocating against genocide in Sudan.

Perhaps a passion for social change can be as contagious as the latest style of jeans. But, whatever the reason, when a call went out for a student meeting, 70 students showed up.

Students and teachers helped line school walls with murals displaying the brutal realities of five 20th-century genocides. Art students hung huge photo-collage banners by the front door. They were spattered with blood-red paint.

“We really wanted to shock people and not hide the truth of genocide,” says senior Katie Clark.

At a Martin Luther King Jr. assembly in January, students began selling deep blue T-shirts that said “Stop Genocide in Sudan,” hoping to raise $10,000.

A group of a dozen students and two teachers camped out next to the gym for two nights in frigid weather to draw more attention.

In the end, they sold 2,300 T-shirts. On Wednesday, the school gym filled with a blue sea of students and teachers wearing those $5 “Stop genocide” shirts.

They watched a video and listened with hushed awe as the school choir sang “Amazing Grace.” Their principal told them that the sight of them brought tears to his eyes. In all his years of school fundraisers, he had never seen such compassion and commitment.

Students lined up in the center of the gym to present a giant check for $26,000 to CARE, a humanitarian organization that will use their donations to help people in Darfur and the rest of Sudan.

That morning, the students’ faces shone with pride. It was a day that shaped their school’s identity even more profoundly than an athletic win, an academic accomplishment or an outstanding music performance.

On that day, they learned the true meaning of the Margaret Mead quote that’s been hanging from their cafeteria wall this winter:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”