For about a month, students, their families and the greater Albert Einstein Elementary School community have been collecting donations of clothing, books and small household items as part of a fundraiser for its student council.

The weeks-long drive culminated in a trip to the Value Village in downtown Redmond on Tuesday afternoon. The donations were weighed, as the store pays nonprofit organizations by the pound — $0.20 a pound for clothes and $0.05 for small household items and appliances.

The collective donations from Einstein yielded 1,764 pounds in items and one of the Value Village employees who processed the donation said it was the biggest single donation he had ever seen come into the store, by at least double.

When learning the total weight of the donations, student council president Anas Aliqinawi and member Annika Dayberry said they thought they would only collect about half that amount.

Early estimates put the dollar amount at $265.

That money will go to the Einstein PTSA, which will then allocate the funds to the student council. The money will go toward leadership activities.

Student council co-adviser Janie Hemingway said the students also elected to donate a portion of the money to a local charity, which they have not determined yet.

“They were pretty hands on through the process,” said Einstein PTSA member Marie Force.

She said typically, it is the members of the PTSA who will do the legwork for a fundraiser, but this time, it was all student council.

Hemingway, whose fellow co-adviser is Linda Johnson, said all of the work was done by the student council. Council members and officers organized the drive and passed out donation bags for students to put their items in when they brought them to school. The student council also put in the physical labor of moving the collection bags from one end of the school to the other, where the donations were stored in a portable classroom before they were brought to Value Village.

Annika, a fifth-grader, said the latter — moving those bags — was the biggest challenge of the whole project.

Anas agreed. The fifth-grader said until they brought the bags of donations to Value Village, there were no cars.

“It was great because they worked together as a community,” Hemingway said about the students.

In addition, the roughly 30 members of student council promoted the drive.

Anas said they went into each classroom to make presentations about the drive to the student body. He said he enjoyed interacting with the other kids and knowing his peers understood they could help their school and other kids in need.

Annika said it was cool being able to help others and not just think about themselves.

Hemingway said it was great to see the students take on leadership roles and rise to the occasion. She said to be part of the student council, candidates have to give a speech in front of the school and prove they are leaders, which they have. When the students have to miss class to do council work, Hemingway said they don’t have to worry about them having to catch up on what they missed. They know the students will be able to make up the work, no problem.

Annika admitted it was fun to sometimes miss class while they were working on the project and it was for a good cause.

In addition, she said the donation drive also carried a lesson in going green and sustainability. She said the students learned they don’t have to throw away old clothes and household items, which will then end up in landfills. They can donate them and those items will have a second life.

The Einstein student council has held fundraisers in the past, but this was the first time they held a donation drive like this one.

“We’re proud of them,” Hemingway said.