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EUGENE, Ore. (April 18, 2005) -- Sheldon High School senior Eric Hayes immediately recognized it as a noble and worthy cause: a daylong sale to raise funds to send a Haitian child to school and to help local families served by FOOD for Lane County.
But he saw another potential benefit for himself and other student body leaders, as well as the Life Skills students - all of whom have mild to moderate cognitive impairment - who are spearheading the effort.
"When I heard about it, I saw it as a really good opportunity for us in leadership not only to help our community and the world, but also to get involved with breaking down barriers with the Life Skills kids," said Hayes, who volunteers in the Life Skills office. "They're really cool, and sometimes we don't have the opportunity to meet them or really get to know them."
The partnership was humming along nicely Friday, with Hayes and a half-dozen others from the leadership class helping teacher Dea Lisk's 20 Life Skills students finish making bright-yellow posters advertising the upcoming event. One group took an armload of completed posters and roamed the hallways, searching for blank walls. The leadership students, well-versed in organizing school functions, showed the Life Skills students how to make "tape circles" and affix posters to the walls.
The inspiration for the fund-raiser was Michael Schapiro, an acquaintance of Lisk's who spoke to her class two months ago about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Haiti from 2001 to 2003. Lisk could tell Schapiro's presentation and descriptions of Haiti's grinding poverty made an immediate impression on the students.
"That class in particular was one of the favorite presentations I've ever done," said Schapiro, who upon his return founded a nonprofit organization - the Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation - to aid Haitian communities. "They were so involved and interested, and asking very particular questions about water and infrastructure and poverty."
While some of the Life Skills students can't recall the particulars of the presentation, they all held on to the images and the notion that some kids are not able to attend school unless they can pay for it.
"It was pretty interesting to me," said 16-year-old Jeff Woolcott, who said it feels good to be helping others.
"They have no clothes because they're poor," said Sheri Clack, also 16. "We might send two (to school)."
Lisk saw a teachable moment at hand. They'd been discussing world poverty in her current events class, and in a social skills class had learned about the "eight steps to a satisfying life."
"One of those is performing acts of kindness," said Lisk, who is in her first year teaching in the Life Skills program, which serves nearly 100 students from throughout the Eugene School District. "I wanted them to know that you don't have to just hear about it - here's an action that you can do to help."
With students' input and full agreement, the benefit project got under way, she said. It was Lisk's idea to expand its scope to include FOOD for Lane County, and the kids liked it. Students - many of whom live in poverty themselves, she noted - specifically wanted to call it a "benefit" sale, rather than a "garage" or "rummage" sale.
Collaboration from the leadership class was icing on the cake, Lisk said. "One of our big goals for this program is inclusion," she said.
Students from both classes will spend much of this week pricing items, which include clothing, games, toys, jewelry, blankets, videos, tools, kitchenware, lamps, cassette tapes, furniture, framed pictures and much more. Most will work at least one two-hour shift at Saturday's sale, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"Our goal is to raise $1,000," Lisk said. According to Schapiro, that's more than three times the average annual household income in Haiti, and enough to pay the annual private school tuition of as many as 20 Haitian children.
Contacts:
Anne Williams, Reporter, The Register-Guard
awilliams@guardnet.com
Terry Kirby, Communications Director, FOOD for Lane County
(541) 343-2822
tkirby@foodforlanecounty.org
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