NORTH BEND - Money, time and a little elbow grease. It's what any nonprofit could hope for from a good volunteer or donor.

This year, a handful of local groups got all three from an unexpected source - 16 North Bend high schoolers on a mission to help their community.

Since December, students enrolled in Steve Greif's Community 101 class have transformed themselves into junior philanthropists. They've volunteered for, visited and interviewed officials from 12 nonprofits to determine which agencies were most deserving of a portion of $5,600.

On Friday, the class handed out big floppy checks to agencies including the Women's Safety & Resource Center/Children's Advocacy Center, South Coast Head Start, the Coos Bay Salvation Army, and Oregon Coast Community Action's Court Appointed Special Advocates Program.

The North Bend High School Book Club and the Children's Miracle Network through the Mr. Bulldog Pageant also will receive funds.

"Just seeing the work that they do and the help that they do for the community, I was just blown away," said Community 101 student Dan Flora.

Flora, a senior and chief financial officer for the youth philanthropy course, said he'd never intended to take the elective. But after joining the class, he said he learned a great deal about his community, its needs and how a young person can help out.

"It was more hands on than I thought any class would ever be," the 17-year-old said. "I think every student should do something like this in (his) own high school."

Flora, along with several of his classmates, gave the oversized checks out during the morning presentation in the high school gym in front of the rest of the student body. The event also included a slide show - set to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" - of students volunteering at a CASA toy drive, visiting South Coast Community Action, fundraising and doing the research to narrow down the list of 12 applicants to seven recipients.

Senior Angel McRea gave $1,000 to Maj. Cliff and Susan Jones of the Salvation Army for educational software and other materials for its after-school program.

"We really admire you and we hope it helps," the 18-year-old told the Joneses.

CASA Director Twila Veysey received the greatest amount of funding - $1,500 for materials and training for 20 volunteers to assist abused children in court - for her program.

Greif said students chose nonprofits they believed fit the class mission statement - to improve the welfare of families in the community - as well as projects that made the most impact.

"It seemed like the original $5,000 was a lot of money. But once we looked at the needs of this community it didn't seem as large," Greif said. "I think the students, the projects that they picked, they felt it would have an immediate impact and it would make a difference."

Following the presentation, Cliff Jones said he was impressed by the students, adding his Community 101 grant will mean children in first- through eight-grades will benefit from new computer software and other education materials at the Empire facility. He noted that the Salvation Army hasn't had funds to update its educational items in about eight years.

"I think they should be highly commended for the involvement to review the needs of the community," Cliff Jones said.

A new course at North Bend High, Community 101 is provided through a partnership between Portland General Electric and The Oregon Community Foundation. Bay Area sponsors The Michael Keiser Foundation, the Coos Bay/North Bend Rotary Club and the Menasha Legacy Fund funded the project along with $600 from student fundraisers. Next year, Greif said he hopes to expand the one-term course to two so students will have more time for the selection process and fundraising. He said he believes the class changed students', nonprofits' and his own perspectives.

"I think for our students, I hope it will mean some of them will go on to volunteer with nonprofits. And for the agencies, I think many of them have sort of struck up a new relationship with our school," Greif said. "They saw some high school kids that were really interested in what they were doing as nonprofits.

"It was an eye opener for me. I saw some agencies who were doing great things for the community that I did not fully understand prior to this class."

Students put in 188 hours of volunteer time, Greif said, ensuring that even grant applicants that didn't receive funds, including the Self Help and Mutual Aid House and the South Coast Food Share, got something out of the course.

Junior Daylen Cossey, who served as the president of the Community 101 class, described it as a great experience. He added that he believes he and his classmates made the most responsible choices for Coos County.

 "It was a hard decision," he said, "but we handled it really well as a class."