A student organized bike-a-thon titled "The Water Cycle" where the student cyclists collected pledges from donors to sponsor their ride and local cyclists were invited to bike for a $25 charge. The length of the course, approximately ten miles, representing the average mileage people around the world travel daily to retrieve water. At the Saturday event students creatively displayed information at the start/finish point about the global water crisis and information about the village where the colleted funds would be used to build a well for AIDS orphans in the village of Dzama, Malawi. The students designed a logo that they screen printed on t-shirts: worn by cyclists and sold to on-lookers.

 

The students and teachers felt that the project was a great success! One student commented, "A group of teenagers with no previous experience in advertising or publicity were able to put on a really huge event and then having it be really successful was pretty impressive." The students raised $3,950.00, which was enough to build a well in Dzama, to fix a well in a neighboring village, and to pay the teacher's salary for one year at the Dzama Orphanage. In a letter from one of the teachers, she states, "It is a terrific testimony to the wonderful work we can do when many hands and hearts come together toward a common purpose. This was outstanding community service."

 

 

Excerpts from the class prepared mission statement of their project:

 

“As students of the Carolina Friends School, we realize that we have the tools and the motivation to help end the genocide in Darfur. As privileged Americans, we recognize that it is our responsibility to use our power and resources to bring about change. And as citizens of the world, we feel a need to reach out to our neighbors in Sudan. Our project has three main goals: to raise awareness, to raise money, and to raise political will. We wish to educate the public about the atrocities happening in Darfur today: the over 400,000 innocent civilians murdered, the 2,500,000 displaced, and the countless number of lives disrupted. We also want to raise money for the people of Darfur to provide them the basic human rights of food, water, and shelter. Finally, we need to raise the level of commitment by our government, on both the state and national level, to take action and show the world that we care. We hope that you will join us by asking yourself what you can do to end the genocide in Darfur. Together, we can make a difference now.”

 

The students ultimately raised $765 for the International Rescue Committee. The students started a club in the following year to continue the project.

 

 

The students organized a walk-a-thon. The goal was to raise $1800 for six Ugandan children to go to school for a semester. In the weeks leading up to the walk-a-thon the students asked twelve upper school student volunteers, from various grades, to wear camouflage t-shirt with images of Ugandan children on the front and statistical quotes on the back. The volunteer students wore the t-shirts with striking images and alarming facts for the first part of the day. As they encountered other students’ questions they were instructed to answer that more information would be revealed during Assembly. The students from the case study then used the Assembly time as a way to bring greater clarity and focus to the issue. Their presentation included slides, a clip from the a video, and a well organized and well rehearsed script that encouraged the student body and school community to participate in the walk-a-thon.

 

The teacher reflected on the event stating, "The walk was fabulous: 53 humans and 3 dogs participated. They took in nearly $1500 yesterday with more coming this week. They will easily make their goal and have decided to extend the fundraising through the end of the month ... The girls were thrilled by this outcome!" In the end, the class raised over $2,800. The funds were donated to the Invisible Children organization.