Blue Z Provides Strong Shot Of Support

For NHS’s Invisible Children Program

By Eliza Hallabeck

Roughly half the members of Newtown High School’s International Club sat inside the door to the Blue Z Coffeehouse last Thursday night, December 3, in an attempt to raise money for Invisible Children, a nonprofit organization seeking a peaceful end to what has been called Africa’s longest war.

A collection booth was set up, and the high school students, including Sam Kent, who brought Invisible Children’s Schools For Schools program to the high school last year when she was a junior, sold candy canes and handmade paper crane Christmas tree decorations.

The effort to raise money on Thursday night was a last-minute decision by the group, according to Sam. She said the International Club met earlier in the day, and Blue Z had informed the group Thursday they could choose that night or December 17 to set up a collection booth. Sam said the end date for collecting money for Newtown High School’s sister school through the Schools For Schools program, the Atanga Secondary School, is Monday, December 14, when the International Club will send all raised money to Invisible Children. Given that, the group had just hours to prepare for the collection booth at the Blue Z Coffeehouse.

“We had the paper cranes ready to go,” said Sam. “And I went out and bought the candy canes right after the meeting.”

According to Invisible Children, the Atanga Secondary School has a number of sister schools through the Schools for Schools Program, and combined, the schools in the United States have helped to raise more than $36,000 to date. Atanga Secondary school has been displaced for 13 of the last 24 years because of the ongoing war in Uganda, according to Invisible Children. More information on the Atanga Secondary School is available at www.s4s.invisiblechildren.com/school/uganda/atanga-secondary-school.

“Every other Thursday, Blue Z hosts an open mic night,” Sam said, “and they said we could set up a table and sell whatever else we wanted.”

Invisible Children created the Schools For Schools fundraising program in 2006 in response to the need for quality schools in Northern Uganda, where schools have been destroyed by displacement, rebel occupation, and lack of funding due to the 23-year war. Schools for Schools uses an online social community to help students see where their money is going and connect to different projects, fundraising ideas, and supporters.

One student’s mother was also at the Blue Z on Thursday night selling jewelry for the cause.

“And all the proceeds are going to us, which is awesome,” said Sam.

Sam said people who still wish to help support the Atanga Secondary School can help the International Club raise money by going to www.s4s.invisiblechildren.com, and clicking on the “Find Your School” link. Search for and donate on behalf of the Newtown High School. Sam also said people interested can drop donations off at the high school under the name of Invisible Children, or contact her by email at srkpeace@sbcglobal.net.

Along with raising funds for the Atanga Secondary School, Sam said the group is also holding a book drive through an organization called Better World Books, “Which is an organization that will buy your used books, then give you the money, it’s like 47 percent, or some odd percentage of the profits,” said Sam. “It is a little bit less than half. And so we are doing a book drive for that as well, and that ends in mid-January.”

The International Club has already collected five full boxes of books for the cause, and just needs one more box for the Better World Books organization to come and pick up the boxes free of charge.

My Place Restaurant also recently helped the group raise money by designating a percentage of one night’s proceeds to the International Club’s cause.

As a senior now at NHS, Sam said she is expecting the program to continue on without her when she attends college next year.

“The group definitely wants to keep going,” Sam said. She added the effort is too much for one person, but three girls will shoulder the Invisible Children program for the International Club next year: Megan Preis, Hannah Maret, and Abbey Dosky.

“We do a lot of other stuff besides this,” said Sam, regarding the Invisible Children program at NHS through the International Club, “but obviously this is our main focus for the first semester of school. We also teach languages to elementary age children. We teach Spanish, Italian, and French in the spring.”

Sam said next year’s Invisible Children Schools for Schools program, which always runs in the fall, will be bringing students from Uganda to visit the schools in the Schools For Schools program with the Invisible Children representatives.

“Hopefully someone will be from our sister school, Atanga Secondary School. That would be cool,” said Sam. “Unfortunately I won’t be here to meet him or her, but I’m definitely bringing [the program] with me to college.”

The paper cranes the students were selling had “Invisible Children” written on the wings. Hannah Maret designed the cranes and taught the other members of the International Club how to make them.

“In fourth grade we read a book called, Sadako And The Thousand Paper Cranes [by Eleanor Coerr],” said Hannah. “And they had a goal to create 1,000 paper cranes, and when you do, the person’s wish is said to come true. So our wish was to raise as much money as possible. So we made the cranes by the theme of that story, so that we might make our wish of making as much money as possible for the kids in Uganda.”