Young Jasperites go without

While most kids don’t like to spend their weekends at school, 33 Jasper Jr./Sr. High School students took part in a Friday night sleep-over as part of the 2009 annual Starve-a-thon.

Organized by the school’s Action Group, the event raised money to support six students from Jasper going to Kenya this summer on a volunteer trip.

According to Kai Okazaki, a Grade 11 student and Action member, the Starve-a-thon aims to “emphasize how the kids that are in need feel, so we change their perspective about how people feel about not eating for 24-hours ... how it feels to not have their daily needs met everyday.”

With 33 participants, Okazaki said response was “amazing” with a total of $2,005 raised by kids getting $50 pledges or more to take part in the event.

Coinciding with the event was an open mic night organized by high school music teacher Arissa Bosche, who said it was good to be able to support the kids taking part. 

The money raised from both events is going directly to the six students that are traveling to Kenya with Leaders of Today, part of the Free the Children organization, who were there on Friday night to give a presentation to the Starve-a-thon participants.

“Everyone is curious about what they’re doing with all these donations and they should be informed about it as well,” said Okazaki.

The 30-minute presentation, put on by Carly Charlebois, Eman Ismaeil and Clara Waxer, three of the students going to Kenya, highlighted some of the work the girls would be doing there, where they will spend two weeks getting their hands dirty, learning the culture and helping deliver an education to the population of a small town.

Clearly inspired and motivated to head off to Kenya, the girls spoke of creating a “sustainable” project that students in the future can return to, as well as contributing their learnings back to the community of Jasper when they return.