Let Hear It For The Kids! May 29, 2010
It has been a long haul for the people of Haiti over the past five months! All our efforts seem to move at a snails pace when the country suffers daily. The stress has been imminent for everyone involved in the relief efforts and I never thought my mood would be lifted. But because of the efforts of some truly wonderful young people in Canada and the US over the past few months, I feel a new sense of energy and determination.
The first group of students I am talking about are only a forty minute drive from where I live in Southern Ontario. Oddly enough, it was them that approached me. In response to the earthquake, the Lady Mackenzie Public School choir class, under the guidance of choir director Ms, Cindy Baldwin, set out to raise money for those in need in Haiti. They soon got their whole school behind the fundraising efforts.
LMPS Elementary resides in Kirkfield Ontario. It's a tiny rural town that I would have never suspected to be a promising source of funds, but one evening event revolving around student composed stories and poems about Haiti and a three day coin drive yielded over $2300. The event was called Helping Hands For Haiti.
Cindy then set out to find an organization worthy of her students hard earned money. From what she told me, they went through a battery of applicants before stumbling across SOPUDEP. I suppose they were struck by the project and quickly invited my Dad and I to come out to give a presentation. This morning assembly, in which they got out local media to attend, started with a number by the choir and a few students giving a presentation before we were invited up to speak. This is the first time I have been to a school to speak, but I found the students very responsive and sensitive to the SOPUDEP project. They even made special t-shirts for us and a banner for the students at SOPUDEP that I will be taking with me to Haiti in July.
All in all it was a wonderful experience and from what I've heard, they are back to fundraising for SOPUDEP and seem very committed to supporting them. They are even trying to enlist other schools in the surrounding area to join them in their efforts. SOPUDEP School and The Sawatzky Family Foundation thank Lady Mackenzie Public School for all they have done!
The next young student who is doing amazing things for SOPUDEP is Margalit Shapiro-Katz from Boston. On her own initiative, she set about to put on an awesome fundraiser with a dance, a raffle and presentations from Haitian speakers on the subject of the desperate situation going on in their country. Margalit is all of fifteen years old, but is already highly involved in human rights activism.
We were introduced last summer when we received a donation and a extremely eloquent letter from her. She had taken her summer job money and wanted SOPUDEP to have a good potion of what she had earned. Shortly after that first encounter, she informed me that she was planning to do a large fundraiser at her school dedicated to SOPUDEP School.
She attracted the attention of local media (you can read her interview here) and the fundraiser was a huge success with over 150 people in attendance. She told me that they went raised more money than they thought they would make. Their net amount came in at over $1700. I think it is amazing what she did pretty much single handedly and now so many more people know about SOPUDEP School and the great things they are doing for their community.
I thought her speech for the event was really, really good and I have included it at the bottom of the page. Again, for someone so young to have such a depth of understanding on this subject is really cool!
All these young people not only show a type of zeal and idealism that we should be reminded of and even try and emulate, but they will surely go onto do good things for the world in their adult years.
We can't thank them enough for what they have done for SOPUDEP and the people of Haiti!
Ryan Sawatzky
Margalit Shapiro-Katz speech from her fundraiser on May 22, 2010
Welcome, My Name is Margalit Shapiro-Katz I would like to start off by saying thank you. Thank you, my parents Nechama and Serena for being a HUGE help getting ready for this event.
Without you we would not be here today, I would also like to thank our speakers, Reginald Verdiue, Dr. Marie Jean-Baptiste, our Poet Letta Neely and Story teller Charlot Lucien. I would like to thank Matthew Haber and Lexi Zotov, for lights, Sound and Music, and my temple for hosting us tonight. Lastly thank you everyone who came and everyone who has helped.
Today we are here to raise money for a school in Haiti called Sopudep; this school provides Education to some of the poorest kids in Haiti. The Initial enrollment was 160 children and now has risen to over 500 with 30 staff members as of 2008.
In Haiti 40% of kids attend school at all and of these only 4% continue to finish grade school.
The School is located in Petion-Ville, which is very close to Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. It like Port-Au-Prince was significantly affected by the earth quake. In its area it became one of the only buildings still standing, within a few days the school was no longer safe to be used as a school. The Founder and Director of the school Rea Dol opened the building to the community and offered her heart taking responsibility for feeding the 16,000 people in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Before the earthquake even happened, I had been in contact many times with the School. I had already known I wanted to do something to raise money for the school, and when the Earthquake happened I knew now was the best time.
From seventh to eighth grade, I had a Haitian teacher at school who really influenced my learning and my life. When I graduated from that school, two years ago, I wanted to say thank you to him and others of my teachers. So I looked online for schools in other countries to make donations to, I ended up deciding on a school in Haiti called Sopudep.
I picked a school because I love children and value learning. Also, my mom had worked with the Haitian community in Cambridge, when she worked as a hospice social worker.
Haiti Has Always been a special place to our family and me, for a long time I have wanted to spread my love with its people.
Education is Really Important to me; I believe that Education is a right and not a Privilege. To me it’s important that everyone and anyone has an equal right to education, as it is the key that opens all doors to all dreams.
The reason I wanted to create this fundraiser was because I wanted to bring people together to make a difference. Tonight we are supporting a school in Haiti, tonight we are supporting a school who will educate its children to speak up for what they believe and fight to make Haiti strong and strengthened. Now that Haiti has been devastated by the Earthquake we must fight now even harder than before, as a community.
And so standing here right now, I’d like to bring everyone’s voices together.
So let’s say this together everyone!... we can and we will Re-strengthen Haiti! WE CAN AND WE WILL RE-STRENGHTEN HAITI....but this can only happen if we all work together, we all hold hands like we never have before, we support one another and bring others into this circle. With that strength Haiti’s people will one day no longer live in the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and the sun will shine even stronger than it does now... but this can only happen if we start small. We must work our way to fixing the whole entire problem. because when there is a country so in need of help, there is never just one problem so tonight we are starting with one city, one town, one school a school that will educate its children to grow up to be strong individuals, to grow up and want to take charge and lead their nation. Just like their powerful leader Rea Dol. It is that seed and her Dedication that will help re-build the country and spread hope through the world. So I’m asking you to not think of Haiti only after a disaster has occurred but to continue to act and change, before the next one can happen. Again it is up to every individual in this room, in this nation, in this world to show our kindness, because everyone has it. We must show these kids, these kids who are just like you and me, that they matter that they are important because everyone is! So let’s raise this money, let’s raise our hands and let’s raise our hearts! Let us raise our hope because we are going to change our world! One step, one child, one day at a time! Thank you, thanks for coming and thanks for supporting such a wonderful school like SOPUDEP!!