I got a late tip that the sneaker drive is being profiled on WCAU Channel 10 at 6:15 P.M. tonight.
UPDATE: 7:30 P.M. Great story! See the Morrisville High School National Honor Society in action. Congratulations to advisor Elizabeth Glaum-Lathbury, junior Michael Leather, 8th grader Keivanna Lacey, junior Nichole Kamann, and the rest of the middle and senior high honor society members for a job well done.
Maybe you can bring a pair of sneakers to the board agenda meeting to prove to the naysayers on the board that people out there still care about the great job Morrisville kids are doing inside and outside of the classroom? The next agenda meeting is Wednesday April 9 at 7:30 P.M. and the next business meeting is April 23.
Video and Still Pictures or if you want to help
Students Step Up, Send Sneakers To Africa
POSTED: 5:57 pm EDT April 7, 2008
UPDATED: 6:55 pm EDT April 7, 2008
MORRISVILLE, Pa. -- Bucks County is a long way from Africa. But some students there with big hearts are taking a big step to bridge the borders with, of all things, old sneakers.
In Morrisville Middle/Senior High School classroom, you might not be able to tell what lesson the students are learning from a bunch of old sneakers, but the lesson is one of compassion.
"All my friends know me for having a lot of shoes," Michael Leather, an 11th-grader, said. "I always like to have great shoes."
Leather is learning that not everyone can afford great shoes, clothes or even food. He is one of several students gathering old sneakers to help people living in African villages.
Keivanna Lacey, an eighth-grader, said she knows about poverty in Africa firsthand. She visited Chad with her family three years ago during the sweltering summer.
"We have air conditioning and everything, and people there were just fanning themselves," Lacey said.
French teacher Elizabeth Glaum-Lathbury read about the program called the Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation in a magazine.
"Lot of the kids come back from Christmas, and they have a new cell phone, and they have a lot of gadgets," Glaum-Lathbury said. "I think it's important for them to understand that not everyone has everything."
The donated shoes are refurbished and sent to Ghana. That's where they're sold, and the money from the sales helps families in Africa.
The school's goal is to collect 600 sneakers by the end of the school year.
That will give a family intensive training and resources in organic farming for a year to help sustain them for decades.
"I think it's a rewarding experience because we're able to collect shoes and give hope to other people in different countries," Nichole Kamann, an 11th-grader, said.
Kamann said she hopes someday she can see her footprint on the world.
"I really want to go over there and see what kind of a difference we can make," she said.
In that sense, the school lesson is really a life lesson.
For information on how you can donate, click here.
Monday, April 7, 2008
“We do pretty well for a small school.”
As a followup to the MHS Students Working in Community post on March 24, the BCCT has an update. I love the last line though. For all you anti-Morrisville school people, read and be ashamed and ask yourself: What did YOU do to help other than to come out to a board meeting and trample on the work of these students and their teachers?
Sneakers make tracks to Africa
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Do you have any sneakers hanging around unused at home?
Don't throw them away.
Drop them off at Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, where students are trying to collect at least 600 pairs to help families in African villages.
So far, National Honor Society adviser Elizabeth Glaum-Lathbury and her middle school counterpart, Patti Ebert, who represents the school's 21st Century Service Learning Club, have collected about 70 pairs for the project.
The money made from refurbishing and selling the sneakers could kick-start a new family farm or provide clean drinking water.
“We get to help other kids who aren't as fortunate. It's something we can do to help kids on another continent,” said Kyle Burger, a sophomore and one of the 25 members of the honor society.
Glaum-Lathbury saw the idea in a National Honor Society Leadership magazine, in which she read about Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation. It's a nonprofit organization trying to collect sneakers across the nation.
While the foundation wants only sneakers in adult sizes seven and larger, Glaum-Lathbury and Ebert welcome people to clean their closets of any size.
“I'll give the smaller sizes to other organizations, like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army,” said Glaum-Lathbury, who has gathered 25 to 30 small pairs so far.
Her classroom has a round bin about 4 feet high that's filling up with athletic footwear. The side of the bin is printed with a vertical ruler displaying what the old footwear could buy. For instance, 50 sneakers can purchase a bicycle. Three hundred is good for a colonized bee hive, which could serve as a starter hive for a honey farmer. Five hundred sneakers are enough for a quarter acre of a vegetable farm, while 600 sneakers buy more than a year of training in intensive organic farming.
Irrigation systems, malaria medication and micro-finance training are just a few of the other possible long-term benefits.
Glaum-Lathbury handed out fliers about the program to students from sixth to 12th grade, and Ebert and another teacher distributed fliers to community groups. Students passed along the message to donate sneakers among friends and family.
Kyle said he would like to do more service projects that touch international communities.
Right now, the students are involved in other, locally oriented service projects.
Both middle school and high school students will walk up to 8 miles in Newtown's Tyler State Park to raise money for multiple sclerosis on May 4.
The students try to do 10 service projects a year, including a monthly food drive with a specific theme, like juice, baby food and cereal.
A future idea to raise donations is to charge both a bit of cash and a donated item like a sneaker or a can of food to get into a school dance, said Ebert.
“Next year we'll try to team up and get someone from Philabundance [hunger relief organization] to talk about what's needed in area communities,” said Glaum-Lathbury. “It would give students a true picture of what's needed.”
Then the students can pick better themes for food collection next year, she said.
“We do pretty well for a small school.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For more information about the nonprofit Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation and a comprehensive list of sneaker collection sites, go to http://www.pppafrica.org/. You can drop off your old sneakers and soccer cleats at the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School's front office, at 550 West Palmer St. in Morrisville.
Manasee Wagh can be reached at 215-949-4206 or mwagh@phillyBurbs.com.
April 7, 2008 5:07 AM
Sneakers make tracks to Africa
By MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
Do you have any sneakers hanging around unused at home?
Don't throw them away.
Drop them off at Morrisville Middle/Senior High School, where students are trying to collect at least 600 pairs to help families in African villages.
So far, National Honor Society adviser Elizabeth Glaum-Lathbury and her middle school counterpart, Patti Ebert, who represents the school's 21st Century Service Learning Club, have collected about 70 pairs for the project.
The money made from refurbishing and selling the sneakers could kick-start a new family farm or provide clean drinking water.
“We get to help other kids who aren't as fortunate. It's something we can do to help kids on another continent,” said Kyle Burger, a sophomore and one of the 25 members of the honor society.
Glaum-Lathbury saw the idea in a National Honor Society Leadership magazine, in which she read about Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation. It's a nonprofit organization trying to collect sneakers across the nation.
While the foundation wants only sneakers in adult sizes seven and larger, Glaum-Lathbury and Ebert welcome people to clean their closets of any size.
“I'll give the smaller sizes to other organizations, like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army,” said Glaum-Lathbury, who has gathered 25 to 30 small pairs so far.
Her classroom has a round bin about 4 feet high that's filling up with athletic footwear. The side of the bin is printed with a vertical ruler displaying what the old footwear could buy. For instance, 50 sneakers can purchase a bicycle. Three hundred is good for a colonized bee hive, which could serve as a starter hive for a honey farmer. Five hundred sneakers are enough for a quarter acre of a vegetable farm, while 600 sneakers buy more than a year of training in intensive organic farming.
Irrigation systems, malaria medication and micro-finance training are just a few of the other possible long-term benefits.
Glaum-Lathbury handed out fliers about the program to students from sixth to 12th grade, and Ebert and another teacher distributed fliers to community groups. Students passed along the message to donate sneakers among friends and family.
Kyle said he would like to do more service projects that touch international communities.
Right now, the students are involved in other, locally oriented service projects.
Both middle school and high school students will walk up to 8 miles in Newtown's Tyler State Park to raise money for multiple sclerosis on May 4.
The students try to do 10 service projects a year, including a monthly food drive with a specific theme, like juice, baby food and cereal.
A future idea to raise donations is to charge both a bit of cash and a donated item like a sneaker or a can of food to get into a school dance, said Ebert.
“Next year we'll try to team up and get someone from Philabundance [hunger relief organization] to talk about what's needed in area communities,” said Glaum-Lathbury. “It would give students a true picture of what's needed.”
Then the students can pick better themes for food collection next year, she said.
“We do pretty well for a small school.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For more information about the nonprofit Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation and a comprehensive list of sneaker collection sites, go to http://www.pppafrica.org/. You can drop off your old sneakers and soccer cleats at the Morrisville Middle/Senior High School's front office, at 550 West Palmer St. in Morrisville.
Manasee Wagh can be reached at 215-949-4206 or mwagh@phillyBurbs.com.
April 7, 2008 5:07 AM
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