I met the Salmonberry School's Director Paul Freedman at Goddard college where I presented Amman Imman to undergraduate and graduate students in Goddard's Education program. Paul and I were both students at that time, reflecting about meaningful education and empowering students as leaders. Paul took the initiative back to his school and has continued to engage Salmonberry students as leaders and activists. This year they walked for water. Paul shared this press release with me:
Orcas Island, Washington State, March 23 - Salmonberry School students celebrated World
Water Day with a walk for water through the village of Eastsound. Preceding this walk-a-thon event
students secured pledges from friends and family and then set out to walk to
raise awareness of water resource issues around the world and to raise funds to
drill wells in a draught stricken region of Niger, called The Azawak. In this poorest region of the poorest
country on Earth in some seasons children have to walk up to 35 miles to get
access to fresh drinking water.
Salmonberry’s 1st and 2nd graders had
been studying many aspects of water this year. This study ranged from literature to biology, chemistry and
ecology. As classroom teacher,
Jamie Mulliga-Smith describes it, “we have realized what a precious resource
water is and how lucky we are in the Pacific Northwest to have such an
abundance of this life-giving element.
When we heard about communities that are less fortunate, these young
kids were moved to try and help and the adult community has rallied around this
caring intention. Soon the third,
fourth and fifth graders joined in too and the whole school caught the
infectious spirit of helping.”
The teachers set World Water Day as the particular date for
this event and 25 walkers, age 6-11 set out that afternoon with the goal of
walking a cumulative 50 miles.
When the day was over, however, these kids more than doubled this goal
and exceeded 125 miles in all. “I
could have kept going,” said Ethan White, age 11. “I wanted to jog so I could go farther but they (the
teachers) said we had to walk.”
The walkers completed half-mile loops through Eastsound and teachers
kept a tally of all the laps as they were completed.
Salmonberry Program Director, Paul Freedman said, “I believe
that kids have an incredible capacity for caring. We don’t need to shelter them from the realities of the
world nearly as much as we do.
However, it is critical that as they learn about injustice and hardship,
we also make sure there are tangible actions that the kids can take to
contribute to positive solutions to the world’s problems. Otherwise, there is a risk that kids
are left feeling overwhelmed or with a sense of hopelessness and
helplessness. Instead of “solutionaries”
there is a risk that they just feel guilty and depressed. The adults must
support the kids’ efforts to make this world better. Then service learning can become a really transformative
experience.”
This walk was done in conjunction with the organization,
Amman Imman: Water is Life, and their particular youth-based fundraising
project called, Wells of Love.
Interested people can make donations through their website at http://www.ammanimman.org/
This was Salmonberry School's second Walk for Water, and each time has been such a transformative learning experience for the kids, parents and teachers. At a time when coming into consciousness about the world can be so depressing and can easily lead young people towards despair, hopelessness and guilt, projects like these provide the antidote. Rather than deceiving kids into believing mythology and rhetoric about peace, justice and equality, I believe it is critical, with great sensitivity to developmental readiness, to expose kids to truths about the injustices of the world. But then we must simultaneously provide real opportunities for the kids to "be the change" and work towards a positive world vision.
ReplyDelete26 Salmonberry School students ended up raising approximately $2,500 for Amman-Imman. They felt such pride in this accomplishment and in knowing that they were making a difference for people in the Azawak.
It is an honor to work with this organization. My most sincere thanks to all who are involved in this important work and especially to those educators who bring this opportunity to their students.
Paul Freedman
Program Director
Salmonberry School