STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Ninety-six little hands have been busy stitching together pillows and concocting sugar scrubs, candles and chocolate reindeer and snowflakes.

And the 48 Dreamers behind those hands hope to sell all their crafts at Saturday and Sunday’s Papoose Club Holiday Bazaar to raise money for a school that was badly damaged in the hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico this fall.

The Bazaar will be held Dec. 2 and 3 at Hemingway Elementary School in Ketchum.

“Last year the kids raised $800 to put towards their college scholarships,” said Pamela Denosa, project coordinator for I Have a Dream Foundation-Idaho. “This year we gave them the option of doing something different from raising money to send to help kids affected by the earthquake in Mexico or those affected by the hurricane in Puerto Rico. They chose to send their money to a school in Puerto Rico that got wiped out by the hurricane.”

Carson Bustos pronounced that what he and his fellow students were doing “is a good idea for a good cause.”

“Education helps so we can have good jobs after college. So, it’s a good idea to help those who don’t have a school to go to,” he said.

“We’re helping them to get an education like us,” said Eduardo Escalera. “We have everything. There, they have nothing. They might never be able to pay for education again so we have to help them.”

Several volunteers have been teaching the kids how to make the holiday crafts.

Leslie Silva turned a kitchen into a chocolate factory. Bev Robinson showed the youngsters how to make napkins and table runners, and Carolyn Gruver showed them how to make holiday ornaments.

“Our volunteers have been invaluable,” said Denosa.

The Dreamers were third-graders at the former Woodside Elementary School when they were “adopted” in 2013 by a group in the community that wanted to give them every opportunity possible to graduate from high school.

The youngsters have been given afterschool tutorial help and a wealth of extracurricular activities, including tennis lessons from pros, martial arts instruction and trips to the Shoshone Ice Caves. They’ve learned to do community service projects on behalf of such organizations as The Senior Connection and The Hunger Coalition.

And those who graduate from high school are promised two years of college tuition, or about $10,000  of scholarship money.

“These kids have been recipients of others’ philanthropy. Now, they’re going to become philanthropists,” noted John Blackman, who oversees the program.

“Next year we’ll be in high school,” noted Dreamer Jason Cox. “I can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly.”