Laguna Blanca School - 4125 Paloma Drive - Santa Barbara - California - 93110- thefourthestate@lagunablanca.org
Volume XVI
February 10, 2010
Issue 4
Club Receives Recognition for Fundraising Efforts By DARIA ETEZADI
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mmediately after the showing of the documentary film presented by the Invisible Children Organization in assembly, Laguna students Lillie Hodges, Maaya Hensman, and Eva Davis gathered outside and formed Laguna’s own Invisible Children Club. “When I was watching the movie, I knew immediately that this is something that I wanted to contribute to,” junior Eva Davis said. The club originally started to take part in the ‘Schools for Schools’ contest which is part of the Invisible Children Program to raise money in order to fund schools that are being built in Northern Uganda. Participating schools are separated into ‘clusters’ and are each assigned to a specific Ugandan school. “Laguna’s Invisible Students Club was assigned to the Keyo Secondary School which is responsible for educating nearly 800 kids,” explains Eva Davis. After 90 days of creative fundraising, the Laguna Blanca branch raised over $10,000. “We placed 4th in our cluster and 14th out of 1,163
schools,” Lillie Hodges said. A total of $1,093,371.52 was raised from all of the participating schools. Donations will be used to build and fund schools in order to educate the under privileged children of war-torn Uganda. In recognition of their outstanding leadership, the club leaders received two invitations to attend the global conference which takes place this summer. Invisible Children began when three American student filmmakers traveled to Africa and learned about the brutal history of Uganda first hand. They used their equipment to film and produce an uncut documentary of a war that tormented millions of people while the rest of the world stood by in oblivion. The film is titled “Invisible Children: Rough Cut.” “We set out to win the competition and improve the lives of students like us who weren’t born with the privileges that we often take for granted. We are hoping to establish a pen pal network with a school in Uganda that would help to develop both the club itself and the students who take part in it,” said Lillie.
PHOTO: EVA DAVIS
Seeking ways to fundraise for the Invisible Children Club Eva Davis, sold beads. Above a T-shirt from the Schools for Schools organization and a photo of the students in the Keyo School.
Students Plant a Garden to Feed Local Homeless
PHOTO: LILLIE HODGES
Laguna Students Awarded “Youth Innovator of The Year” Reprinted from Laguna Blanca January E-News
Inspired by several trips to build housing in third world countries, and a speech by Laguna father Drew Dusebout inspiring teenagers to do great things, Spencer Dusebout ’11, Jack Davies ’12, and another friend, Scott Schurmer, joined forces in 2008. They decided to accept a challenge of global proportions and created Hands 4 Others (H4O), a nationwide movement of young people bringing clean water to children and their families in countries around the world. Already, villages in seven countries are being helped by their efforts and the generous contributions of their supporters. On January 21, they (H40) will accept the 2011 Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce Youth Award for Innovation. “Most Americans don’t realize this, but 1.1 billion people in the world lack access to clean water,” Spencer says. “This is a problem that is real. There are people in this world walking up to six hours a day for water we would not bathe in, let alone
drink. Literally brown mud.” Their goal is to raise enough money for 500 villages to have clean water by the year 2015. “We realized that as a movement of young people we’re not actually going to build the water systems ourselves, so we joined forces with an organization that does,” Spencer explains. Water Missions International is a nonprofit Christian organization serving the water and sanitation needs of people in developing countries and disaster areas. “We formed Hands 4 Others in the hopes of creating an organization of teenagers around the world to support this effort,” Spencer says. H4O uses the phrase, “Be the generation” to motivate others their age to build awareness by networking and creating chapters around the country. They are working to gain corporate sponsorship, targeting companies that consider teenagers to be prime customers. Generally, it takes $25,000 to provide an entire village of 3,000 to 4,000 people with a system to provide clean water. But the
students have an arrangement where they raise the $10,000 which covers the equipment and Water Missions International matches the funds with the remainder needed. Donations can be made via cell phone by texting “H40” to 85944.Spencer’s sister Jessie Dusebout ’13 and schoolmate Samantha Schurmer are also involved in the effort and will attend the award ceremony next week. “We’re going to make a presentation to the entire Upper School at the end of February,” Spencer says. He hopes more Laguna students will get involved. When asked what has been most rewarding about this experience so far, Spencer replies quickly. “Sitting in the jungles of Honduras and Africa and watching people take their very first drink of clean water! They’re a little afraid of it at first. It’s really rewarding to see their faces at that moment.” Visit hands4others.org to learn more about Hands 4 Others and what is motivating its students to make an indelible mark on the world.
By ANASTASIA ANTONOVA
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nyone treading up the stairs to Spanish class will pass the small but charming vegetable garden sitting on the hilltop. Last year its short rows were filled up with swiss chard. This year it was planted by Andrew McCaffery and a group of fellow students. It was filled with even more winter vegetables and plants such as broccoli and lettuce. The garden was created by Andrew to be student planted, grown, and eventually harvested with organic vegetables. Andrew’s goal is to harvest his vegetables and cook homemade soup which he will donate to the Transition House through his church, All Saints by the Sea. It all started last year when he was trying to reach the Eagle Scout rank with the Boy Scouts of America program. In order to reach this rank, one must plan and hold a service project of 60 plus hours that would give back to the community. With his tough goal in mind,
Andrew came up with the concept of creating a garden at Laguna, an idea that came from his own home’s vegetable garden. So, with the help of the Environment Club, he created the garden and harvested a whole five pounds of chard to make his soup. This year, instead of being under the wing of a group, Andrew started his own group to make the soup again. The members this year include Austin Abrams, Kelly Furukawa, Justin Shand, Alex Greer, Bryana Schantz, Milo Filip, Monica Watson, and Erika Keane. Although this is just supposed to be an annual planting, Andrew hopes to have more than one planting a year, such as another one in the spring. When asked what he got out of the experience, not just what he gave, Andrew replied, “Personally, I’ve learned a lot about gardening. Also, I’ve learned how to go out into the community and ask for something. I’ve learned certain leadership qualities as well.”
PHOTOS: ANDREW McCAFFERY Hands Getting Dirty: Junior Justin Shand helps to plant green veggies in Andrew’s recently planted garden on the side of the Seminar Room. Below: Students get their hands dirty as they put the finishing touches on the garden.
Andrew added that he got most of his gardening supplies, from stores such as Agriturf Supplies. He concludes that he hopes that the garden will continue even after he graduates LBS, creating another charitable and unique way to ‘give back’ here at Laguna.