ARLINGTON — The third- and fourth-grade members of the Arlington Premiere Volleyball and Basketball teams were rewarded for braving the rain on Saturday, May 10.

The team’s sales of rainbow loom rubber band bracelets and Krispy Kreme donuts yielded even more than they’d hoped to donate to the survivors of the Oso slide.

“My goal was $3,000, but I think most people thought I was nuts,” said Kelly Pederson, a mom and coach for the Arlington Premiere teams. “Our unofficial count is $3,700, but we still have some last-minute donations coming in. We made $1,770 from the donut sales, and the rest came from the bracelets and various raffle items.”

The young players sold all 330 of their boxes of donuts, although it took them the following Sunday, May 11, to sell the remaining 50 boxes at the Safeway just south of Dwayne Lane’s Arlington Chevrolet, which donated its space to the players for their Saturday sales. Pederson reported that the bracelets were likewise popular, but noted that it was hard to keep track of those sales, since the kids who made them wound up giving away many of the bracelets to those who bought donuts.

“They were excited to share them with supporters,” said Pederson, who explained that the proceeds will go to the Cascade Valley Hospital Foundation Disaster Relief Fund. “We wanted to know that the money would help people directly, and felt this helped us spread those funds out, since there are so many people impacted.”

With 15 players circulating through the site throughout the day to pitch their goods to the public, five of whom were members of both the volleyball and basketball teams, one challenge was making sure the volleyball players got to their game at noon on that same Saturday.

“We were all having so much fun, and were so busy, that we could have worked right through the game,” Pederson said. “Some of the basketball girls stayed, while the volleyball team went off to play and won their game.

“The Oso Fire Department happened to be coming into town, just to get some gas in their fire trucks, when they noticed our signs and decided to stop by,” she added. “We tried to give them free donuts, but one of them told us that they’d had large quantities of donuts at their station since the slide on March 22.”

While the teams have no further fundraising plans, Pederson believes the lessons they gleaned from their experiences will be lasting.

“It’s shown them that they can make a difference in someone’s life,” Pederson said. “We want them to be givers, and this is one way for them to learn that and then live it.”

In the meantime, Arlington Premiere’s Eagles Basketball team will kick off its final single-elimination tournament at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, while its Neon Power Volleyball team has two more regular-season games prior to its single-elimination tournament on Saturday, June 7.

The volleyball team is made up mostly of fourth-graders, from 9-10 years old, playing in a fifth- and sixth-grade Premiere League.

“They have won two and lost three, against girls 2 years older and 12 inches taller,” Pederson said. “Needless to say, we’ve shocked some of the teams we’ve played. Our losses were tight games as well.”