James Wood High School

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We got an exciting letter in the mail on Monday from a young BT supporter. Emily Crawford, a Key Club student at James Wood High School in Winchester, VA, learned about Building Tomorrow at last summer’s International Key Club Convention. As an active member of one of the largest high school volunteer organizations in the world, she recognized a cause that she was passionate about and chose to get involved.

build-a-school-activityOver the past year, Emily recruited the support of her classmates, teachers and friends. She gave a presentation to her fellow Key Clubbers about the need for schools in Uganda, and organized an activity to help them understand why it is so important. For this exercise students were divided into groups, half representing the US and half Uganda. Each group was provided with the following materials to construct a “school”: tape, index cards, tin foil and plastic straws. The catch? The US government spends 50 times what Uganda spends per student on public education each year. To represent this discrepancy, the US groups had 50 times the resources. According to Emily’s Key Club Advisor, “The results were most interesting!” The challenge made it clear to students that the availability of education infrastructure plays a vital role in a person’s ability to learn, and this motivated them to help as much as they could.

Throughout the year, Emily’s Key Club collected loose change and, included with the letter she sent us Monday was a check for $400. The students even constructed a “wall” out of paper bricks to show everyone what could be done with the change they collected. That’s enough for 4,000 bricks, desks for 25 students or 40 tin sheets for the roof of a BT academy in Uganda. Change definitely adds up!

Thanks for Building Tomorrow Emily & James Wood Key Club!

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