A Haiti fundraiser at McKnight Middle School helped teach students about the importance of giving back.

English teacher Dave Black makes it a habit to organize fundraisers for relief efforts and local non-profits, encouraging students to join him.

A week before the Haiti event, Black asked his students if they’d be interested in attending or helping out.

About 20 of his 140 students volunteered at the March 5 event, making up half the volunteers that night.

“I have some pretty amazing students this year,” he said. “They had fun. They were dancing and everything.”

The event, organized outside the school, has been a month-long process.

Black raised about $6,000, which went to the Red Cross Haiti relief effort. About 250 people came and went throughout the night.

A silent auction had about 65 items, and five groups performed everything from jazz to rock.

“Im very pleased with how it went,” he said.

Every year he organizes fundraisers, including a large annual food drive for the Renton Food Bank.

He gets a lot of thank-yous from parents for teaching students the importance of giving back, he said.

“We do great things,” Black said. “I hope they can take it on to their adult lives.”