This article was published on Westmore News on June 17, 2016 by Claire Racine.
Water—the most basic of human needs and one most Americans take for granted. In South Sudan, however, finding clean water to drink can be a daily struggle.
Inspired by A Long Walk to Water, a short novel that includes the true story of a Sudanese Lost Boy and the fictional story of a young village girl, Port Chester Middle School students set out to do something to help. Their efforts to raise $10,000 over 10 weeks garnered them first place in a national contest and, consequently, another $25,000 to donate to Water for South Sudan, an African charity that builds wells and schools, giving children access to water and education to break the cycle of poverty.
“I want to thank an amazing group of students who did something out of the goodness of their hearts for other people,” said Port Chester Middle School Principal Pat Swift.
Every year, the students in Allison Silverman’s Leadership classes come up with a service project as part of the annual Lead2Feed Challenge. The challenge encourages students to partner with local nonprofits to create and act on ideas to help reduce hunger and other community needs targeting children, the elderly, homeless, veterans, and animals.
A Long Walk to Water is required reading for seventh grade English Language Arts. When trying to come up with a service project earlier this school year, students in the eighth grade leadership class remembered the story and decided to develop a project to help fight the global water crisis. The leadership class dubbed their project PC Hydration Nation and set out to encourage every student in the school to donate $10 over a span of two and a half months. They presented their idea to the principal and staff and then to the student council. They passed out rubber bracelets donated by the Alliance Rubber Band Company. They made announcements and encouraged every student to contribute just a little bit.
“I learned you need to take action and keep going even if you think you can’t,” said Aurora Sophia Montenegro.
The eighth grader and her fellow students stuck with it and got some good news about halfway through the 10 weeks of fundraising. The Lead2Feed Student Leadership Program announced they were one of six grand prize winners and $25,000 would be donated to the nonprofit selected by the Port Chester Middle School students as well as $10,000 worth of technology—they chose iPads—to the middle school.
About 2,400 schools submitted projects and there were three rounds of judges to get through. One round involved the founder of Lead2Feed, David Novak, the former chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands. Novak had just been to visit the refugee camps in Europe, seeing in person how important water is. “As a global society we really have to concern ourselves with water,” he told the judges involved in the process after seeing Port Chester’s entry.
A representative from Lead2Feed, as well as one from Water for South Sudan, attended a ceremony at Port Chester Middle School on Thursday, June 9. For the event, Novak had recorded a video for the Port Chester students. “You are helping to break the cycle of poverty,” he told them. “For eighth graders, that’s a big goal.”
The Port Chester Middle School students presented an oversized novelty check to Water for South Sudan thanks to Lead2Feed. They also, however, had another check to hand over. On the Tuesday of the 10th week, the leadership students had reached their goal and were able to present the additional $10,000 to the nonprofit. For their donation, two wells will bear Port Chester’s name in South Sudan.
Silverman told her students they had even impressed her, going above and beyond what she had expected. The middle school teacher, who said she always cries when she is passionate about something, had to pause several times as she kept getting choked up about the subject.
“This was one of the greatest accomplishments of my career,” she said.
