How do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Do you wear green and pinch people who don't? Do you read stories about leprechauns and shamrocks? Well, one Roots & Shoots group gives St. Patrick's Day a whole new meaning.

The Rancho San Diego Roots & Shoots group in El Cajon, California has created a project called "Lucky Chimps," which raises funds to help chimpanzees. The project involves their entire school during the week of St. Patrick's Day and has been a success for the past two years.

With guidance from group leader Marion Soloway, group members started getting ready in February, when, during their weekly general membership meetings, they made pins, banners, posters and bracelets with phrases like "Don't be a wimp, save a chimp."

They used lunch time at school to sell raffle tickets for prizes, such as plush chimps and Mr. H Junior toys. They also created a guessing game, in which participants guessed how many banana candies were in a big jar.

The group aired short videos about the plight of chimps in Africa and the commercial bushmeat trade during the school's morning announcements.

"We had fun preparing all the stuff and learning how to fundraise and all the different ways to advertise in our school," said group member Remington Mossey.

Through this creative fundraising project, group members have raised and donated over $1,600 (USD) to the Tchimpounga Youth Campaign, which serves the orphaned chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute's Tchimpounga Sanctuary in the Republic of Congo.

"It was really wonderful knowing that we were helping animals in Africa," said seventh-grade group member Caitlin Clark.

Rancho San Diego Roots & Shoots members have led some chimps in Africa to a pot of gold at the end of a very long rainbow.

Do you want to help chimps too? Become a Chimpanzee Guardian!