HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-01-15, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009.Local teens to build school in KenyaTwenty-one members of theSt. Anne’s Catholic
Secondary School community
(18 students and three staff
members) will be flying to
Kenya on July 1 to help build
the school they raised the
money for.
Among them are Brussels-
area student Andre Egli and
Blyth-area students
Marc Dery and Tyler
Middegaal.
The trip will last for two
weeks and they will be the
only foreigners working on
this specific project.
After the provincial
challenge was issued earlier
in 2008 by Marc Kielburger,
chief executive director of
Free The Children at the Me
To We conference in Toronto
(attended by several
local youths), the students
of St. Anne’s jumped to
action.
They decided to put the
money raised by the school’s
annual walk-a-thon fundraiser
in October towards the
Kenyan school project and on
Nov. 6, students were able to
present Kielburger with a
cheque for the necessary
$8,500.
Kielburger visited the
school in November. His
presentation moved many of
the students to consider
travelling to Kenya to
physically participate in the
construction of the school
they raised the money to
build.
Word began to spread.
Initially there was a list of
nearly 40 students wanting to
travel to Kenya. After a series
of interviews with principal
Jodi Kuran, the list was
eventually whittled down to
18.
The students are from
Blyth, Brussels, Clinton,
Seaforth, Bayfield, Goderich,
Zurich and Mount
Carmel.
The final list involved
students, says Kuran, who
were academically,
physically, mentally,
spiritually and financially
committed.
When all is said and done, it
will cost nearly $5,000 per
student for the trip, something
not all were prepared to
commit.
There are further
fundraisers planned, however,
that Kuran hopes will raise
upwards of $21,000.
The hope in raising
this amount, she says, is
that each member will have
travel costs lightened by
$1,000.
Several workshops
have been planned by
Kuran and will be carried out
by the school. In addition, St.
Anne’s currently has a
member on staff who has
travelled to Kenya in the
past for a similar project.
The students will spend
some time with her in
order to prepare and know
what to expect when
summer rolls around.
Kuran says she’s very proud
to represent a school that was
the first school to reach the
target amount of all of
Ontario’s high
schools. Kuran also says the triumphwas due in large part to theparticipation of the staff whosacrificed body, looks and
fashion to assist in
fundraising.
One male staff member, she
says, offered to dress as a
woman if his class raised its
desired amount. There were
other staff members who
shaved heads, eyebrows, arms
and legs and one female
teacher who coloured her
hair the school colours
once her class reached its
goal.
The three area students
embarking on the trip admit
that while their first goal is
helping people and bringing
education to a developing
nation, that they wouldn’t be
travelling to Kenya if it
weren’t for the
experience.
They agreed that the
reasoning of the trip was
about half to help people and
half to see what it is like in
another nation such as
Kenya.
Egli, who has been through
Europe, but has never been on
a mission trip before says he
is looking forward to helping
people and that he’s proud of
his generation taking a
stand.
“Our age isn’t a barrier
anymore, it isn’t that big of a
deal,” he says. “That’s where
Marc [Kielburger] really
inspired me. Hearing him
speak was very inspirational
and it made me want to take
action.”
Dery says he wants to meet
and visit with Kenyans his
age and try and relate to them;
that’s the part that interests
him the most.
Egli also said that he really
just wants to see what people
have to deal with in Kenya
and to be in a different
environment.
“I just want to be with the
people,” he says. “I want
to see a different environment
and see how it actually
is.”
For more information on
the trip, the fundraising or if
you wish to contribute,
contact Jodi Kuran at St.
Anne’s at 519-482-5454
Extension 108.
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Off to Kenya
Eighteen students from St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary School are headed to Kenya in July to help build
the school which St. Anne’s raised all of the required $8,500 for through the Brick By Brick campaign. Of
the 18, three students are from the Blyth/Brussels area, from left: Marc Dery, Andre Egli and Tyler
Middegaal. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
By Shawn LoughlinThe Citizen
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