It was the community spirit at its very best.

That’s what I saw last Saturday at Wrigley Field during Skate for Haiti, a fundraiser put together by Congressman Mike Quigley (5th) that raised around $15,000 for relief efforts.

“As cold as it is here, we’re trying to keep warm thoughts,” said Quigley, acknowledging that the Cubs donated the rink and parking and Westrec donated the skate rental. (FYI: Adorable was Cubs vice president of community affairs Mike Lufrano’s son, Drew, 2).

Monies go to the Red Cross, and Susan Vernon, manager of resources and development for the organization in Chicago, called Quigley “very generous, wonderful.”

“We are very excited about this opportunity to help the Red Cross and help the people of Haiti,” Vernon said.

Edgewater resident Dan Hyppolite is one person grateful for that help, as his grandfather and his wife were both working in the Hotel Montana when it collapsed. Thankfully, Grandpa only suffered a few bruises and broken ribs, and his wife was found in the rubble, OK.

“It’s fantastic,” Hyppolite said of the event. “You see the money being raised and the attention it’s getting … for a country that already needed it, it helps.”

Community members, leaders and several pols, including Ald. Vi Daley (43rd) and Sen. Dick Durbin, came out in support.

“We have a tragedy and people of this community are very generous and very quick to help,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (12th). “We’re fortunate to be able to do this in a tough time when everyone is struggling. But helping is very healing.”

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) said he thought it was a great community effort.

“It’s a combination of Saturday fun at the rink and giving back,” said Tunney. “That’s what life is all about.”

I’m with you, Ald. Tunney. And to everyone who crawled out of bed early on a cold Saturday morning to help out or skate: you did good. There were, as Cong. Quigley called them, a lot of “warm hearts for Haiti.”

LESSON IN GIVING Students from Lake View’s Mount Carmel Academy initiated their own Haiti fundraiser recently. A bake sale led by sixth graders raised $355, a special out-of-uniform jeans day raised $550 and parent donations added another $1,100. The grand total: more than $2,000 for Catholic Relief Services’ Haitian efforts.

The bake sale was successful but by the time the last kindergarten class made it to the sale everything was sold out and the kids were disappointed, Principal Shane Staszcuk said. Yet one student ran up and gave him a dollar stating, “she wanted to donate her money even without getting the cookie or cupcake” and added “the dollar was from her own wallet.”

“The generosity of our students continues to amaze me,” Staszcuk said.