BLOOMINGTON - On Ash Wednesday, Catherine Cannon woke up thinking about how good things can rise from bad.

Her four sons, now 23 to 29, had attended Bent Elementary School, 904 N. Roosevelt Ave., where an arson fire last weekend destroyed the first-grade classroom of Trudy Koch.

"That school treated my kids graciously," Cannon said.

So, she set up an impromptu garage sale at her home on Cottage Avenue in Normal, and collected $119 for Koch and her class. Items were free; she asked for a donation and for donors to sign a birthday card for the teacher and her class to signify the rebirth of the classroom.

Most of the passersby weren't even in the same school district. "It's not much, but it could mean everything to the teacher," Cannon said.

But the kindness moved Koch, a 25-year teacher, to private tears on Friday. Her students "would worry," she said. "It's all about my baby chicks," as she frequently describes her students.

District 87 Superintendent Bob Nielsen expects Koch and her students back in the classroom by early next week.

About 20 custodians and maintenance workers, along with professional cleaners, have worked pretty much around the clock since Sunday, first demolishing the classroom and then reconstructing it. Heating, air conditioning, ceiling, flooring and lighting all had to be replaced. It will cost "tens of thousands" of dollars to repair the room, Nielsen said.

Principals from other District 87 schools helped get desks and supplies to the school, which houses students in grades K-5. Unit 5 faculty and students also offered help.

Nielsen said the district and its insurance will replace all the things the teacher requires. Some curriculum materials were borrowed; others are ordered. "What we can't replace are her (Mrs. Koch's) personal things," he said.

Students also lost personal items, including a few pair of eyeglasses left in their desks.

On Friday, in temporary quarters, 26 first-graders read as donated Beanie Babies sat on their shoulders. The students wrote stories about their feelings concerning the fire and colored pictures of their "condo pets."

"I felt scared," Ian Hogenson, 7, said. Now he looks forward to seeing the new classroom.

School social worker Janet Reckard told the children that something bad happened but they could choose to find the good in it.

Also finding the good was Laurie Sexton, a room mother at the school and a teacher at Illinois State University. She and her husband Mark set up a Web site and other fundraisers as a way to help.

Koch lost hundreds of dollars worth of items she's used over the years to make her classroom feel like a home. "I can't even imagine," said Sexton, whose daughter, Savannah, 6, is in the first-grade class.

"It's a tragedy that this happened," Nielsen said. "We certainly never want to do this again. But it could be a lot worse. We could have lost a building."

A 15-year-old juvenile was arrested in connection with the fire. The teen admitted starting the fire, Bloomington police said previously.

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How to help

• Make a donation that will be used for a gift card at the School Shop, 1224 Towanda Ave., Bloomington.

• Use a voucher during a book fair March 15 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 1701 E. Empire St., Bloomington.

• Donate miscellaneous classroom supplies, such as snacks, a Polaroid camera and film, cassette player and music, books and toys.

To help: Call or email Laurie Sexton at (309) 838-3336, lauriesexton@verizon.net; Mark Sexton, (309) 838-2252, strouthion@verizon.net; or Kimberly McCormick, (309)846-0415, Kimberly@retirewithcoupons.com; or visit http://restoretheroomforkoch.blogspot.com/