Tom
Bateman/Daily Herald-Tribune
(From left) St. Joseph High School finance secretary Sandy Douville,
students Kassidy Doucette and Danielle Brausen, and teachers Trevor
Prichard and Colleen Blimkel are involved with the Interac Club, which
raised $10,000 US for a school and other infrastructure in Ratanakiri
province, Cambodia.
A group of St. Joseph High school students has raised $10,000 US to build a new school in Okalla, Ratanakiri province, Cambodia.
The Interact Group, comprised of about 30 students and several
teacher and administrator leaders, raised the funds through a series of
small fundraisers. The club is just over a year old.
Interact’s parent organization is the After Five Rotary Club in Grande Prairie, which offers guidance and organizational assistance. Interact played a role in the Rotary’s Soapbox Derby held in May and other initiatives in exchange for the club’s oversight.
Running the club has been an exercise in organizational procedure for the club’s president, Kassidy Doucette and secretary Danielle Brausen.
“It’s identical (to a Rotary Club) in terms of bylaws and everything, it’s an international organization, the same as Rotary.
“I think it was really cool, I want to go into law so it was a really good opportunity not only to run our meetings but also just to communicate with the After Five club and some of the people who are running organizations that we are donating money too,” said Doucette.
The club met weekly though the year.
Okalla was chosen as the benefactor because of a personal connection. Trevor Prichard, a teacher at St. Joe’s, is friends with Delayne Weeks, the vice-president for Ankora Gold – a Grande Prairie-based company that has mining holdings in the area the school was constructed.
Weeks helped facilitate the humanitarian work; advising students on their efforts and allowing as much of the money raised to be diverted directly to the project as possible.
“Every single cent of what we did went to just the project, there were no administration fees,” said Prichard. It was that reasoning that led Interact to overlook needs closer to home in favour of funding a project abroad.
“Because we worked with Angkor Gold, they fronted all the manpower, all the labour, all the admin. We weren’t going through a charitable organization,” added club advisor Sandy Douville, St. Joe’s finance secretary.
Originally the group had hoped to visit Okalla for the school’s opening. Safety concerns led the Grande Prairie Catholic School Board to disallow the trip, which was disappointing for the group, said Doucette.
Regardless, seeing the results of their fundraising in photos and messages, brought back to the Swan City by Weeks has been rewarding enough, said Prichard.
“You made a true effect; you had an impact on what they were doing,” he said.
“I thought it was really cool, they dedicated the school to us; they wouldn’t use any of the facilities that we built until they dedicated them to us,” added Doucette.
The new building means a lot more to the community than just a new school, Prichard said.
“(The school) is used for their town hall meetings, their polling station, education centres, town health centre, it was so much more to that entire community.”
In addition, the Interact funds purchased supporting materials. The money collected also covered the costs for new books, desks, tooth brushes, cotton T-shirts, sanitary latrines, hand washing stations and rainwater harvesters. The previous school was a two-room outfit that served 150 students. It wasn’t equipped with washrooms or school supplies.
The details of the project, especially regarding sustainability, were eye-opening for Doucette. For example, the students in Okalla School were taught to brush their teeth with salt water because toothpaste isn’t consistently available.
“I think that’s really why we wanted to go – to see that in practice,” she said.
The majority of the funds were raised via small volunteer efforts. Members of the club did hotdog sales, safety flagging at a motocross race, garbage picking, and grad cleanup. The students also worked to attract corporate sponsorship, the most notable of which was a $3,000 contribution from Lyons Production Services. Brausen babysat for the owner of the company, Kevin Lyons.
Both Doucette and Brausen are pursuing international development after high school. Brausen is heading to Camrose to major in Global and Development studies at the Augustana campus of the University of Alberta. Doucette will start a political science degree at the University of Lethbridge; she intends on going into law and work for the United Nations after her undergrad.
“I’d always been interested in (international development) and this just gave me experience in knowing that this is what I wanted to do; it solidified it,” concluded Brausen.
Interact’s parent organization is the After Five Rotary Club in Grande Prairie, which offers guidance and organizational assistance. Interact played a role in the Rotary’s Soapbox Derby held in May and other initiatives in exchange for the club’s oversight.
Running the club has been an exercise in organizational procedure for the club’s president, Kassidy Doucette and secretary Danielle Brausen.
“It’s identical (to a Rotary Club) in terms of bylaws and everything, it’s an international organization, the same as Rotary.
“I think it was really cool, I want to go into law so it was a really good opportunity not only to run our meetings but also just to communicate with the After Five club and some of the people who are running organizations that we are donating money too,” said Doucette.
The club met weekly though the year.
Okalla was chosen as the benefactor because of a personal connection. Trevor Prichard, a teacher at St. Joe’s, is friends with Delayne Weeks, the vice-president for Ankora Gold – a Grande Prairie-based company that has mining holdings in the area the school was constructed.
Weeks helped facilitate the humanitarian work; advising students on their efforts and allowing as much of the money raised to be diverted directly to the project as possible.
“Every single cent of what we did went to just the project, there were no administration fees,” said Prichard. It was that reasoning that led Interact to overlook needs closer to home in favour of funding a project abroad.
“Because we worked with Angkor Gold, they fronted all the manpower, all the labour, all the admin. We weren’t going through a charitable organization,” added club advisor Sandy Douville, St. Joe’s finance secretary.
Originally the group had hoped to visit Okalla for the school’s opening. Safety concerns led the Grande Prairie Catholic School Board to disallow the trip, which was disappointing for the group, said Doucette.
Regardless, seeing the results of their fundraising in photos and messages, brought back to the Swan City by Weeks has been rewarding enough, said Prichard.
“You made a true effect; you had an impact on what they were doing,” he said.
“I thought it was really cool, they dedicated the school to us; they wouldn’t use any of the facilities that we built until they dedicated them to us,” added Doucette.
The new building means a lot more to the community than just a new school, Prichard said.
“(The school) is used for their town hall meetings, their polling station, education centres, town health centre, it was so much more to that entire community.”
In addition, the Interact funds purchased supporting materials. The money collected also covered the costs for new books, desks, tooth brushes, cotton T-shirts, sanitary latrines, hand washing stations and rainwater harvesters. The previous school was a two-room outfit that served 150 students. It wasn’t equipped with washrooms or school supplies.
The details of the project, especially regarding sustainability, were eye-opening for Doucette. For example, the students in Okalla School were taught to brush their teeth with salt water because toothpaste isn’t consistently available.
“I think that’s really why we wanted to go – to see that in practice,” she said.
The majority of the funds were raised via small volunteer efforts. Members of the club did hotdog sales, safety flagging at a motocross race, garbage picking, and grad cleanup. The students also worked to attract corporate sponsorship, the most notable of which was a $3,000 contribution from Lyons Production Services. Brausen babysat for the owner of the company, Kevin Lyons.
Both Doucette and Brausen are pursuing international development after high school. Brausen is heading to Camrose to major in Global and Development studies at the Augustana campus of the University of Alberta. Doucette will start a political science degree at the University of Lethbridge; she intends on going into law and work for the United Nations after her undergrad.
“I’d always been interested in (international development) and this just gave me experience in knowing that this is what I wanted to do; it solidified it,” concluded Brausen.
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