TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Freshmen Press Toward Goal To Help African Children

Marc Valero/Highlands Today

From left: Sebring High freshmen Josilyn Singha and Carly Mourer check their inventory and receipts at the end of the school day Tuesday after selling snacks to their fellow students.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC VALERO | Highlands Today

Published: January 26, 2008

SEBRING — The deadline to raise $10,000 to help Ugandan children is approaching with a group of about 20 Sebring High freshmen feeling optimistic about their effort to help the oppressed students of Africa.

If the school reaches the $10,000 goal by Feb. 1, the School for Schools program will send four Sebring High students and a teacher to Washington, D.C., to meet a Ugandan representative.

With about $7,000 collected thus far through various fundraisers, about $3,000 is needed to reach the goal.

"I don't think we can do it by our goal, but we can do it," said freshman Simone Sample.

The winter festival/barbecue fundraiser was fun, she said. Also, one week everybody brought items in for a bake sale.

"It was especially good," she said of the bake sale. "We raised a lot of money with that."

Students kicked off the effort around Nov. 1 with a change drive within their school. Collecting money in every first-period class netted more than $2,200.

"We profited almost $4,000 from our barbecue," teacher Allison Rapp said. "It doesn't look like we are going to make our Feb. 1 goal, but that doesn't mean we are going to stop raising money. We are going to keep trying for that $10,000 goal even if it means forfeiting the competition, because it's not about us, it's about them."

The money the students raise is going to Schools for Schools, which is a program of the nonprofit group Invisible Children Inc.

The United Nations says the conflict in northern Uganda, which pits government troops against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has uprooted 1.6 million people and caused one of the world's most neglected humanitarian disasters.

BBC News reported in 2007 that about 20,000 children have been caught up in the conflict between government forces and the LRA.

Schools for Schools' goal is to rebuild schools in northern Uganda and to ultimately bring 10 of the country's war-torn schools to a nationally competitive standard.

Sebring High's barbecue profits were sent in this week and have yet to be recorded by Schools for Schools, but with a recorded total of $2,529 dollars, Sebring High ranks 110th of the 1,046 schools and universities that are participating.

Those who want to make a donation should call Sebring High School at 471-5500. Checks can be made out to Sebring High School.

For additional information about Schools for Schools go to the Web site s4s.invisiblechildren.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT