Mount Si holding book drive for Ugandan students
November 6, 2008
By Laura Geggel
Almost every class at Mount Si High School requires books — a resource sorely lacking in the Uganda education system.
Working through the Invisible Children non-profit, the National Honors Society, Key Club and other student groups, Mount Si High School has banded together to raise money and books for Ugandan students.
If they collect more than 10,000 books, Invisible children will pay their shipping fees.
Kimberly Calhoun, a North Bend resident, commended the students for their fundraising efforts. Calhoun works with the Adopt-A-Classroom program, which helps organizations collect money for school supplies for students in underprivileged classrooms.
Calhoun works with community members to raise funds for Ugandan students. She has visited Uganda for the past three years with In the Field Ministries, a group she founded with her husband.
“They definitely need books,” Calhoun said.
She recalled the Ugandan students’ expressions when she helped pass out books and school supplies.
“The kids just sat there and looked at them,” Calhoun said. “They have to convince the kids they could keep them. They were just in shock. A lot of them have never received a gift before.”
Only 4 percent of Ugandan children have books. Mount Si High School students are hoping to increase that statistic.
By standing outside the North Bend QFC, high school students have already raised $1,000 they plan to donate to Invisible Children. They’ve collected about the same number of books.
“I donated my old childhood books,” said senior Gillian Kenagy, co-president of the National Honor Society. “We had shelves and shelves we were no longer reading.”
Students have placed book collection boxes in Snoqualmie Valley schools, businesses and libraries. The community is also invited to drop off books at the Mount Si High School gymnasium from 2-7 p.m. Nov. 22. The drive lasts until Dec. 1.
Senior Brooke Moorhead, Key Club member, said she plans to donate her books Nov. 22 to help Key Club in a competition against the National Honor Society.
All types of books — from picture to chapter to academic — will be accepted.
After the National Honor Society learned about Invisible Children, they learned about Uganda’s history with civil war and child soldiers.
“Helping out their children through education,” in other words — books — could bring positive change to a child’s future, Kenagy said.
Invisible Children, founded in 2004, was named after a documentary with the same name that follows the hardship children in northern Uganda face. The non-profit sponsors two programs — the Invisible Children Education Program, which awards scholarships, supplies and mentors to Ugandan students, and the Invisible Children Bracelet Campaign, which employs Ugandans to make bracelets out of recycled wire. The bracelet profits help fund the education program.
Moorhead encouraged people to donate money or books to help Ugandan students.
“It’s a good cause and we all need to help out in the world in some way,” she said.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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