The action taken by students to achieve their Extraordinary Acts truly embodies the notion that we are all capable of achieving incredible things in our lives. By schools combining forces and funds raised, the fundraising goal is achieved.
Check back often to read about the progress schools and students are making. As information comes in from the schools participating, we will tell their stories here.
The Coulee Kids from La Crosse, Wisconsin have been busy raising money for the Flona School Project. We have been working on several fundraising events. We held a bake sale at our school, students made and sold bracelets at the school dance which helped us to contribute to the cause, a school skate night was held at High Roller Skating Rink, local businesses contributed to our drive, a pen sale is currently being held at our school, and little by little our profits are going up. We have an additional bake sale this weekend, and several viral videos will soon hit the Internet educating people about i2P and encouraging others to give to the cause. Next Tuesday, we will hold Taquara Tuesday to culminate our fundraising efforts! The students are excited about becoming global citizens and making the world a better place. It is inspiring to see young people engaged in a productive goal that benefits others.
- School Contact: Jeanne Halderson
Verona Area High School is located on the fast-growing southwest side of Madison, WI and serves has a little over 1540 students in grades 9-12. Students at Verona Area High School have access to a quality education, abundant sporting and extra curricular opportunities and a wide variety of music and theatrical performances.
The students at VAHS feel very fortunate and believe that everyone deserves an education. When student council members heard about the inspiring stories and projects i2P was involved in, they wanted to make a difference as well. Since October, Verona Area High school has been working extremely hard to insure that the indigenous people of Taquara, Flona de Tapajos receive the education they deserve. Many of us take our education for granted, just because we have always grown up with sufficient schools and good learning environments. As a student it is hard to imagine a world without school; the friends you make, the teachers you learn from, the activities you participate it, and foremost the knowledge you accumulate. Schools build the base of one’s life, the knowledge you gain helps determine where you will go the rest of your life.Verona felt the need to reach out, to collaborate with schools across the nation to build an ideal learning environment for students who aren’t receiving the education they deserve.
Everyone was up for the challenge, and extremely excited about it to say the least. After much brainstorming we came up with having one big event, to be held on November 30th. Expedition Amazon will be a combination of many aspects. The main event of the night will be a student vs. staff volleyball game. Inserted throughout the big volleyball game will be performances by our dance team and cheer squad. On top of all this excitement we will be holding a raffle. Many prizes from local businesses and attractions are to be awarded. To continue to add to the fund, t-shirts and wristbands are being sold beforehand and at the event. School participation is anticipated to be extremely high along with attendance from the community. Verona saw the need to help, and jumped at the opportunity. We believe everyone deserves an education. We have come together to make the impossible possible.
- School Contact: Hope Mikkelson/Rita Mortenson
Here at McCloskey Elementary, our 58 Grade seven students took on the Toonie (Canadian $2 term) Tuesday. It was a great opportunity for fundraising! We are currently in the midst of a bottle drive that will conclude on Monday.
- School Contact: Peter DeContia
At Burley School in Chicago, we had our I2P Button Sale. 4th graders designed buttons with rainforest animals on them, and then they had an advocacy and button sale station on our Report Card Pick Up day. What a success! We will be continuing to sell the buttons over the next few weeks.
- School Contact: Carolyn Skibba
The grade 2's at were MacLachlan College able to raise over one hundred dollars. We sold silly pencils (since we were fundraising for a school) and had students pay to come in and play Amazon Adventure games on iPads. It is not as much as we had hoped for, however as a tiny class of 4 and a school full of competing fundraisers we were proud of the accomplishment. We showed a movie that we made and showed for a school assembly to let the rest of the school know about Impossible2Possible and your wonderful program. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of the Impossible2Possible 2010 Jungle Trek!
- School Contact: Shelley Steadman
Here at Parkland Composite High School Youth Rotary Interact, it is our hope to raise up to $3000 for the Amazon. We have started a money jar and from that we have already raised over $233. We plan on selling "jungle juice", amazon themed cupcakes, and amazon/interact sweatpants. We are also planning on selling Impossible 2 Possible bracelets. Our big goal is to have a mini art auction, as students and local art artists are donating art which they would like to sell to raise money for the school in Amazon. We also have students at Pine Grove Middle School who are also raising money.
- School Contact: Yvone Joubert
In the upcoming weeks, the Montessori School of Celebration will be having teacher dress-down days where teachers will pay to wear casual clothes!!! They will run the event through December.
- School Contact: Ann McGregor
JUNGLE MANIA has hit D’Arcy McGee! Ms. Jessica White’s physical education classes are going into the bush to find authentic information on deforestation in their community. This precious area near the school is part of the Gatineau Park. Five years ago it was home to many black bears, snakes, deer etc. The forest is now being cut down and houses are being built everywhere!
After being introduced to the i2P website, students are going to discuss training programs and food needed to trek in the Amazon’s unique conditions. Students are going to learn about deforestation (slash and burn) as well as the native food of the Amazon. There will be discussions on food scarcity and native food/game of both the Amazon and in our own community.
Finally, the pièce-de-resistance…..each group will be given a camera to record their findings of local vegetation and food sources!!! The goal will be to create a power point, photography collection or youtube clip to educate others about what they found!
Each lunch hour, a different aspect of the i2P website will be on display. A Biodiversity Question of the day will be posed and students will have the chance to enter their answers for a prize draw. More ideas are in the making!
If that’s not interesting enough….D’Arcy McGee High/Symmes Middle School will be fundraising for the Flona School Project by selling tickets for a BIODIVERSITY LECTURE SERIES which will begin on October 19th. Over the course of three moths, CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) specialists will be speaking about various biodiversity topics followed by biodiversity video clips/movies. What an event this will be!
Ms. White will also be leading a “Yoga for Flona” class where any money donation by participants will be accepted for the Flona School Project. Ohm!
Pictures to come!
- School Contact: Adriana Rossi
Ironically, this is the first year that Bethlehem High School began the school year without any construction workers of their own and so it seems only fitting that we would put our energy and resources towards helping to build a school somewhere else!!
It began last Friday. The school's first Sr. Football game of the season seemed like a perfect reason for school colors and a staff “jeans day”. Since jeans are not part of our staff dress code, the privilege of wearing them to school does not get missed! Staff donated and sported snazzy stickers made by our student Social Justice Club as a reminder that it wasn't about the jeans, but about supporting teachers and students we may never meet and helping their community build a school.
We're looking forward to SKYPE with Ray on the 7th! We'll be packing the whole school into the gym again this year and playing a couple rounds of BINGO for BIODIVERSITY after the chat!
The following is a tried and true recipe for a successful i2P event!
BIODIVERSITY @ Bethlehem
Note: Numbers and details may be modified to suit your school! :)
A week prior to event:
Make posters to advertise and pre-sell BINGO cards during breaks and
noon hours.
Ask students to submit questions they'd like to ask during SKYPE.
Invite students to audition to be the BINGO caller.
Collect prizes and have them on display. (We had things like gift
certificates to our cafeteria, movie coupons, chips and candy, etc.)
The day of the event:
Dress in GREEN and BLACK (i2P colors of course)!
Pack over 1000 students and almost 200 staff members into the gym at
10:50am.
Add a large screen, projector and 3 mac computer! (I work with several
technology geeks! You really only need one computer.)
Log in to "Bethlehem Stars" skype account and wait patiently for Ray to
call.
When you can see Ray's pretty face:
Have several students ask their questions. (We had about 15 questions in
all.)
Allow the rest of the student body to watch, listen and react
accordingly.
After SKYPE conversation:
Turn the lights back on and pass the mic to a louder, more energetic
teacher!!
Give him 2 minutes with the students and prepare yourself for quite the
sight: All School BINGO for BIODIVERSITY
Each student should find enough floor space to spread their BINGO cards
out in front of them!
As each number is called, students should highlight the number on their
card and hope to win the big prize.
Play three games (or as many as you can) and enjoy the energy in the
room!!
Note: The event is far more fun if every student has one (or three) bingo cards to play. Let staff get creative when encouraging students to purchase cards. If someone from my homeroom won, I promised them an ice cream cake! The more that played, the better their chances were of winning!!
Good luck in all of your fundraising initiatives! Remember that big or small, each thing we do in our own corner of the world will benefit the students of FLONA and their community.
- School Contact: Dominique Bokshowan