Roosevelt Elementary School in Park Ridge, IL has been "a Pay It Forward School" since the release of the book in early 2000. The principal, Mary Jane Cole, attended a book signing and "Friend Raiser" at Borders books in Chicago in February 2000, and since then Roosevelt has been a model of whole-student-body Pay It Forward awareness.

Mrs. Cole explains this year's project, the Pay It Forward chain:

The Pay It Forward chain runs the length of our first floor corridor and it moves up our stairway toward the second floor. It is made from strips of red, white, and blue paper ( to keep with a patriotic theme). On each strip of paper children have written one thing that they have done to pay it forward. The chain will continue to grow during the 2001-02 school year as children will continue to write of the things they are doing to pay it forward. For young children who are not yet able to write, the children have drawn pictures of what they have done to pay it forward. The pictures are on white paper, trimmed in a red and blue border - to keep with our patriotic theme. These pictures are posted in the halls on the first floor.

Many children who have paid it forward have had their photos taken. These photos have been made into posters that are throughout the halls. The caption on the posters is "I've paid it forward, have you?" The children are beaming in these photos as they are very proud of how they have paid it forward.

We are a school of 730 students, grades kindergarten through fifth grade. All students and staff are involved in pay it forward activities.