Amy Beverland takes action for education
Students at Amy Beverland Elementary display their bricks. As part of the Brick by Brick campaign, these bricks and others will build a school in Kenya.
The students and educators of Amy Beverland Elementary School in Indianapolis, Indiana are taking action for education and beyond.
This year, the entire school took on the Brick by Brick campaign, reaching their fundraising goal to build the Motony Primary School in the Masai Mara region of Kenya. Students bought bricks, personalized them and added them to the Brick by Brick school poster, which represented the building of their school.
Amy Beverland has been so successful that they decided to go one step further and fundraise for the Adopt a Village: Alternative Income campaign, buying goats to support the same village. The school’s dual efforts to build a school and provide alternative sources of income create sustainability, enabling community members to support the running of the school with their new income.
In May, the school held their final celebration, complete with inspirational speakers and a West African drumming group. Congratulations, Amy Beverland!
Donwood Park tackles the Vow of Silence
Students at Amy Beverland Elementary display their bricks. As part of the Brick by Brick campaign, these bricks and others will build a school in Kenya.
More than 25 students in Mr. McLennon’s Grade 6 class decided to stay silent for 24 hours on March 1 through the Vow of Silence campaign as a class project.
A core group of students designed posters, made announcements and handed out pledge forms, and all the students in the class helped to spread the word and collect pledges. To ensure that the day was as successful as possible, the students held practice times of silence before the actual day. They spent some lunch hours and recesses in silence to see what challenges they would encounter so that they could troubleshoot these problems before March 1. By asking friends, family and neighbours to support their efforts, the students collected more than $1,000 for Free The Children’s education projects in Kenya.
It doesn’t end there! The students found the Vow of Silence to be such an amazing learning experience that they are planning two days of silence in the coming months to raise more awareness about and funds for their school’s Brick by Brick campaign.
Congratulations Donwood on your amazing work!
News from around the country!
British Columbia
100 students at York House in Vancouver, British Columbia painted beautiful canvases to raise funds for the school they are building through Adopt a Village. Each painting sold for $100!
Hi Youth Leaders!
I would like to share with all of you an amazing event that happened with students at York House in Vancouver last month.
To reach their goal of raising $10,000 to build a school through our Adopt a Village campaign, 100 students in the school painted an art canvas under the theme of “loving to learn.” Each canvas was beautifully and uniquely decorated and sold for $100 at the end of the evening. The evening consisted of a dazzling array of performances, including a student pianist, the school’s talented jazz choir and an astounding Japanese Taiko drumming group. In the end, York House students raised more than $11,000!
For me, this was a reminder of how much power our ideas can have. It begins with one small spark, and when we bring our ideas out into the world (such as onto a canvas!), they can truly bloom into something extraordinary.
Let your passion blossom,
~Emily and Hilary
emily@freethechildren.com
hilary@freethechildren.com
Québec
Hello World-Changers,
First of all, congratulations to all of you on your accomplishments this year. You inspire me every single day!
I’ve seen so many amazing actions taken this past month.
April was Youth in Action Month at The Study, a Montreal high school, where they raised awareness and also fundraised with their infamous penny drive! To highlight a few other fundraisers: Royal West Academy held their annual film festival; Massey-Vanier high school in Cowansville held their annual Fast; Margaret Manson Elementary held their first ever Comedy Night; Joshua DeFazio’s “Kidz Helping Kidz” organized a dance; and students from Vanier threw their awesome benefit concert, “Generation for Change.”
In May there’s even more to look forward to. In particular, I’m super excited for our Regional Leadership Retreat at Mount Royal this Victoria Day! It promises to be a fantastic day with a potluck lunch, watching the Tam Tams, playing sports and team-building games and giving workshops to educate each other.
Keep up the incredible work!
~Jaclyn
jaclyn@freethechildren.com
Atlantic Canada
Happy Mothers Day!
May has arrived, bringing with it Mothers Day, a day to celebrate the coolness of the mothering figure in many of our lives. There are so many ‘mothers’ in this great world of ours, and it’s awesome we get to have a day to think about all of them.
These ‘mothers’ range from the grandmothers on the African continent, who are left to carry on after the devastation of HIV/AIDS, to the foster mothers in our own towns, caring for those who need a safe and supportive home.
The awesome Youth in Action group at Marshview Middle School in Sackville, New Brunswick have decided to use their celebration of the mothers of the world to sell hand-made Mothers Day cards at the local market. Dedicated to raising funds for the Adopt a Village: Alternative Income campaign, they have taken this tiny town by storm!
What better way to celebrate Mothers Day than by supporting mothers around the world through alternative income projects, enabling mothers to support their families?
Adios,
~Erin
erin@freethechildren.com
