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The Rev. Matt Sees couldn't help drawing notice while traveling through the area this summer.

Sees, a pastor at the First Evangelical Free Church, donated the exterior of his 1989 Chevy Corsica for an effort to raise money for hungry children in Haiti.

Students from Community Christian School, located within Sees' church, raised funds to purchase painting rights for sections of the car, which were then covered in colorful murals.

"The car needed a paint job anyway," said Sees. "It came out looking better than I expected it to."

The car-painting project was one of several fundraisers set up by Community Christian students with the goal of raising $1,500.

That goal was recently reached, said Community Christian School Administrator Roger Everett.

The funds raised by the students have been donated to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization serving approximately 100 million people in 100 countries, including Haiti.

Through a Web site, CCS students oversaw Feed Haiti, offering several means for donors to contribute.

In the "Insanity Shop," students offered some off-the-wall ideas to elicit money from project sympathizers.

"I cut four inches off my hair to raise $20," said Bailey Walrod, an eighth-grader at CCS.

Other wacky "products" remained unsold, however.

"I offered to dye my hair blue for $20, but no one bought it," said eighth-grader Michaela Beckman.

Both Beckman and Walrod said they were moved to action after reading articles about life in Haiti - including a recent widely-circulated article detailing the practice of eating mud cookies, made primarily from clay, among many citizens of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

"I just never imagined that," Beckman said.

According to Everett, Feed Haiti was a student-led project from the beginning.

"This project came out of what the kids wanted to do," Everett said. "They put the time, energy and effort into it."

Though the Feed Haiti Web site is still functioning, potential donors who visit the site will now be linked directly to World Vision, Everett said.

Contact Jesse Helling at (515) 573-2141 or jhelling@messengernews.net