RALEIGH, N.C. -- A group of Raleigh Elementary School students are opening their hearts and their pocketbooks for the family of a 7-year-old Johnston County boy killed last month by an accused drunk driver.

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"We say the news story and it really touched us," said Chad Teres, a fourth grade teacher at Pleasant Union Elementary School. "We rally wanted to do something for his family."

Teres' class of more than 20 students already has raised $250 dollars for Marcus Lassiter's family.

Lassiter was a Cooper Elementary School student killed while crossing the street near his grandmother's Four Oaks home.

Hipolito Hernandez, 29, of 313 E. Dundee St., is charged with second-degree murder, felony hit and run, motor vehicle theft and drunken driving.

Although a tragedy, Teres said his students have learned a very important life lesson--that they can make a difference beyond their classroom and beyond their school.

"Once they made that real-world connection, they really realized what we were doing and why we were doing it," he said. "We have used it as a teaching tool."

Fourth grader Altarone Evans said raising the money has made him "feel good."

"It was nice to do a good thing," he said.

The school recently gave the money to Lassiter's family and received a "nice note and picture," Teres said.

Hernandez, also charged in a separate drunken-driving incident in Aug. 2007, is set to appear in Johnston County Superior Court on July 7.