February 24, 2005: Headlines: COS - Indonesia: COS - Mali: Tsunami: Sudbury Town Crier: Next month Mali RPCV Chris Hundley will visit all of the elementary schools for grade level presentations on the culture and geography of Indonesia and explain the science and cause of a tsunami

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Peace Corps Library: Disaster Management: February 11, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Tsunami Relief : February 24, 2005: Headlines: COS - Indonesia: COS - Mali: Tsunami: Sudbury Town Crier: Next month Mali RPCV Chris Hundley will visit all of the elementary schools for grade level presentations on the culture and geography of Indonesia and explain the science and cause of a tsunami

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Next month Mali RPCV Chris Hundley will visit all of the elementary schools for grade level presentations on the culture and geography of Indonesia and explain the science and cause of a tsunami

Next month Mali RPCV Chris Hundley will visit all of the elementary schools for grade level presentations on the culture and geography of Indonesia and explain the science and cause of a tsunami

Next month Mali RPCV Chris Hundley will visit all of the elementary schools for grade level presentations on the culture and geography of Indonesia and explain the science and cause of a tsunami

Kids helping kids

By Carole LaMond/ Staff Writer

Thursday, February 24, 2005

As Lynn Schwalm watched the televised scenes of devastation in the Indian Ocean countries hit hardest by the Dec. 26 tsunami, she knew she wanted to channel her feelings of helplessness into action.

The mother of four school-aged children, she also knew that she wanted to involve the school community in the effort, especially when she learned that many of the victims were children. She quickly came up with the idea of a t-shirt that could be sold as a fundraiser. She even sketched a design and came up with a slogan, "Children Helping Children."

"I wanted to involve the children so that they feel they are part of a community effort. The t-shirt would be something tangible that would be a reminder of what they were doing," said Schwalm.

Another mother, Jane Hundley, Social Studies Specialist for the Sudbury elementary schools, was also watching the images of the disaster, shocked by the scenes of death and devastation. Hundley was once an exchange student to Indonesia, and as a former Peace Corps volunteer in Mali she knew "to have everything taken away so quickly, when you have so little, would be just devastating."

But Hundley was receiving even more graphic information from a friend, Christine Knudsen, a relief worker in Aceh Province near the epicenter of the catastrophic earthquake. Knudsen is a child protection specialist with Save the Children, an international non-profit child-assistance organization, which has had operations in Indonesia for 30 years quickly sent workers to the disaster areas.

The official tsunami death toll in the affected countries ranges from 169,070 to 178,118 with an estimated 128,426 missing and presumed dead. Estimates of the number of people who are homeless are as high as 1.5 million people.

Knudsen told Hundley that entire areas need long-term financial support to repair roads and rebuild homes and schools. The tsunami wiped out in minutes what officials estimate will take five years to re-build.

"They need long-term financial commitment from people, but as soon as things are out of the news people tend to stop giving," said Hundley.

Hundley knew the schoolchildren of Sudbury would want to contribute to the relief effort and asked Knudsen to put her in touch with a Save the Children development officer about a re-building project. As a social studies teacher, she was also focused on finding a way that students could learn more about Indonesia's culture and geography.

Schwalm and Hundley weren't the only ones who were focusing on ways to contribute to the relief effort.

Teachers were also making calls to room parents and administrators to discuss ways to discuss the disaster in their classrooms in a way that was age-appropriate for each grade level. One of those room parents, Jamie Dorsey, was called by General John Nixon School teacher Suzanne Choquette who wanted to brainstorm a small fundraiser the first grade could plan.

Six-year-old Taylor Dorsey suggested the first grade could sell colored silicone bracelets similar to the Live Strong bracelets popularize by Lance Armstrong. That idea was to become a reality, with bracelets eventually being sold at all four elementary schools.

As the schools re-opened after the winter vacation, Superintendent John Brackett was receiving calls from parents and staff, all of whom wanted to contribute to the tsunami relief effort. Hundley suggested the school district commit to a sustained relief effort.

"We wanted to harness these efforts in a way that has the most impact and also wanted to make sure the money was getting to the right people," said Brackett.

Two Ephraim Curtis Middle School students, David and Danielle Sacksteing, 12, already had a fundraising idea well under way that would benefit Rooms to Read an organization building schools and libraries in Sri Lanka while Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School students were raising funds for Oxfam.

Administrators decided to designate Save the Children as the district-wide K - 5 tsunami relief charity.

"I knew through the work Chris has done over the years, and from being in the Peace Corps, how difficult it is to get funds into the hands of the right people," said Hundley. "I have no doubt that Save the Children will deliver the funds where they are needed."

The funds will be used to rebuild a school in the Aceh Province, which would eventually form a sister-school partnership with the Sudbury schools.

"This is exciting because it has become far more than a fundraising effort, it is an opportunity to reach out and actually connect with a community and a school, and hopefully build some relationships that will be ongoing," said Brackett. "It is about social action, but it is also about learning. We are going to use it as a real way to learn about other cultures and ways of life and to get an understanding of what this part of the world is about."

The school district chose the slogan "Kids Helping Kids" - the shorter version of Schwlam's original proposal "Children Helping Children" because it fit better on the bracelets - for the campaign and fundraising efforts are currently underway at the four elementary schools. All of the schools are selling silicone bracelets for $3, as well as the t-shirts which are $15.

At Nixon, bracelet sales began on Feb 7, and by Wednesday all 500 had sold out.

"We took in over $2,000 because some of the kids brought in $5 bills and told us, 'My mom said to keep the change,'" said Dorsey. "I've ordered 540 more."

Israel Loring School took orders for 900 bracelets in a variety of colors by the end of last week, for a total of $3,000. Peter Noyes School ordered 750 bracelets in blue, their school color for a sale beginning on March 1. Josiah Haynes School will also launch their sale of tsunami relief bracelets in red, white and blue next week.

Schwalm says t-shirt sales are also brisk. Sudbury Farms and a number of local nursery schools are selling the shirts, and Sudbury Pizza has a sample shirt and order forms available to customers.

Eleven-year-old Dima Kaye bought both a t-shirt and a bracelet at the recent Nixon literacy night.

"I think it's a great idea," said Kaye, a Nixon fifth grade student. "It's sad what happened in Asia and this helps the relief effort."

Next month Hundley will visit all of the elementary schools for grade level presentations on the culture and geography of Indonesia and explain the science and cause of a tsunami. In addition Christine Knudsen of Save the Children will give a presentation for parents in late March.





When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Date: February 7 2005 No: 438 The Peace Corps Library
Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.
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Story Source: Sudbury Town Crier

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Indonesia; COS - Mali; Tsunami

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