'Read-A-Thon' raises money for orphanage in Aceh

'Read-A-Thon' raises money for orphanage in Aceh

Yenni Djahidin, Contributor, Washington

The morning was bitterly cold, so cold that school was delayed
for two hours.

Clad in warm winter clothes, students arrived, one by one, in
the third-grade classroom. The first to arrive was nine-year-old
Zubeir Ali. His big brown eyes looked with suspicion at a strange
face in his classroom.

Quietly, he took off his heavy coat and hung it at the
back of the room.

When asked if he had read something for the Read-A-Thon,
Zubeir flashed a friendly smile and gave a positive answer. "I
raised US$20," he said proudly. Zubeir said his father promised
to give him the money for the Tsunami relief effort.

Zubeir and about 120 other third-graders are raising money
to help build and maintain an orphanage in Aceh. The idea came
from a third-grade teacher, Barbara Blazek. She is also an
adviser to Orphan International (OI), a nonprofit organization
that builds and maintains orphanages around the world.

OI now supports two orphanages in Indonesia: one in Bali, the
other in Sulawesi.

Blazek said she wanted a fund-raising campaign where students
were actively involved. After several ideas, she and other
teachers came up with the "Read-A-Thon.

Blazek said the idea was simple. For a week, the students
would be freed from their regular homework assignments,
except for mathematics. Instead, they were asked to read to earn
money for tsunami victims. They would be paid based on how many
pages they read.

They were also asked to recruit sponsors, mainly family
members and close friends.

"I think it's so important that kids be involved in raising
the money," said Blazek, before her class started.

She also said they wanted to do something fast without a lot
of planning, so they could raise the money quickly. She expects
to raise around one thousand dollars from the Read-A-Thon.

"I told the kids to read a lot and make me poor because I will
support everyone," she said. Blazek hoped that the parents would
help support the students' efforts.

Rebecca Shaw, 8, who arrived at school just after Zubeir, said
she had raised $30 by reading the book Hamster the Holy.

Blazek, 33, has been helping Orphan International with
developing its curriculum and house parent training. She has
also taught around the world at schools in Cairo, Moscow and
Brazil.

"I loved Orphan International's goal of keeping the kids in
their home country and giving them the best education and best
family support to be good leaders and citizens," she said.

Blazek has been teaching at Spring Hill Elementary School for
a year. The school is part of the Fairfax County public school
system, one of the largest and best public school systems in the
United States.

Located just outside Washington DC, the school is attended by
children from many cultural backgrounds. Many children speak
languages other than English.

The gymnasium has 58 flags, including one from Indonesia, to
represent the countries of origin of the students.

School principal Roger Vanderhye also gained international
experience before joining Spring Hill Elementary. He worked as a
principal in Saudi Arabia and Belgium.

Besides the Read-A-Thon, Spring Hill students will also raise
money for OI through selling candy-grams for Valentine's Day in
February.

On the Net:

Orphan International Worldwide: http://www.oiww.org