A Pine Lake Middle School sixth-grader doing community service hours for his social studies class has already surpassed the amount of money he had planned to contribute to a foster care nonprofit — and he’s only a quarter of the way through his campaign.

Noah Searles set a goal to raise $1,000 in cash and clothing donations for Treehouse, a Seattle-based organization that supports children in the foster system.

“It’s very disheartening when (a child is) thrown out of their house, or taken out of their house,” Searles said about why he chose Treehouse. “That’s why I wanted to help.”

He planned to do it over four weekends spent outside stores in Issaquah and Bellevue soliciting donations and selling loom bands.

But in one weekend at Fred Meyer in Issaquah, he collected $600 in cash donations and $500 in clothing — plus $300 online.

“I was really surprised,” he said.

Now the middle schooler — whose favorite subject is math and enjoys building his rock collection in his free time — has set a new goal of $5,000.

Searles estimated he had already far surpassed his 10-hour community service requirement, and that he would multiply the requirement many times over during the next three weekends.

His mother, Melinda Lytle, said she wanted her son to know the value of working beyond the bare minimum.

Lytle said Noah is seeking donations of toddler clothes — from 2T to 5T.

Noah and his volunteers will be outside Nordstrom Rack in Factoria March 28 and April 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. He will be outside Fred Meyer the same time on April 11 and April 12.