{"id":24991,"date":"2015-03-16T11:30:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=24991"},"modified":"2015-03-16T11:30:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T15:30:43","slug":"patton-students-stage-walk-for-water-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=24991","title":{"rendered":"Patton students stage Walk For Water, Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired by a book, students work to fund water projects in Uganda and Dominican Republic<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Charles F. Patton eighth grade students display the book “A Long Walk to Water” which inspired them to help children in developing nations get clean water. A Walk For Water event this Saturday is being run by the students, who hope to raise $5,000 to help pay for projects in Uganda and the Dominican Republic.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 With today\u2019s world of digital distractions, it can be hard to get an eighth grade student to pay much attention to anything beyond his or her handheld digital devices. But a group of Charles F. Patton Middle School students are looking far beyond their own world and community and raising money to build a well for a school in Uganda and a water filtration system for a school in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

The major fundraiser for both projects will be a Walk For Water, this Saturday at the school. Students will walk five kilometers \u2014 the average distance children in developing countries have to walk to get water \u2014 and will carry gallon jugs of water to raise awareness and show support for those students thousands of miles away. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Registration\/check-in begins at 8:15 am on Saturday, with the walk beginning at 9 am.\u00a0 Donations can be made online via the organization website prior to the event, or even after the fact, and donors will receive an automated tax receipt.\u00a0 Participants can also make donations day of event, but those must be cash or check.\u00a0Receipts will be provided.<\/p>\n

Although the event is being organized and managed by Patton students, it is open to the community, and everyone is welcome to come walk and help support the project.<\/p>\n

The event is timed to coincide with World Water Day, which is Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Students at the Agama Primary School in Uganda \u2014 where Patton Middle School students hope to raise funds to build a new well.<\/p><\/div>\n

Patton is one of just 12 schools in Pennsylvania participating in the event \u2014 those individuals who would like to support the effort with a financial donation can click this link<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

The students hope to raise a total of $5,000 to help pay for the building of a well at the Agama Primary School in Uganda and a hand washing station\/water filtrations system the Escuela Primaria de Santa Maria in the Dominican Republic. Through a partnership with H2O for Life, the 8th graders at Patton Middle School are truly engaged global citizens.<\/p>\n

The students\u2019 interest in doing something for those in need of fresh, clean water was sparked in part by the book\u00a0 “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park, said Patton Geography teacher Janice Lear.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of students said, \u2018It is not OK that kids around the world don’t have clean water,\u2019 \u201d Lear said. \u201cThere was a palpable sense of urgency and commitment to raise awareness within our community about the global water crisis, and to raise money to fund the building of a well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lear said that the school\u2019s geography faculty had been looking for ways to incorporate service into the curriculum, and Walk For Water proved a good fit, Lear said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had certain criteria: it had to be student-centered, authentic, tied to our curriculum, and a meaningful experience for our students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Patton students are raising funds to help build a hand washing station\/water filtrations system the Escuela Primaria de Santa Maria in the Dominican Republic, with Saturday’s Walk For Water.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lear said she attended the National Council of Social Studies Conference, and participated in a workshop on service learning, that was hosted by the organization H2O for Life Schools, which turned out to offer the perfect project for Patton\u2019s students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was serendipitous because I had just finished reading A Long Walk to Water to my students, and we were just finishing our unit on Natural Resources,\u201d Lear said. \u201cWhen I brought the idea back to my students, they did not hesitate. They embraced this challenge with fierce determination and great energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been so impressed with the eighth grade students\u2019 compassion and spirit,\u201d she said. \u201cThey decided it was not OK that children were dying because of a lack of water, and were driven to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they learned of other students like themselves, the students became even more passionate about the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a general idea of what the global crisis looked like, but when we saw videos in class of what the lack of water actually looks like, I had a new appreciation for this issue,\u201d eighth grade student Tommy Kelly said. \u201cFor millions of children worldwide, the absolute lack of clean water is the norm.\u00a0 It is all they know.\u00a0 If that happened here in our country, there would be an outrage.\u00a0 When I realized that by joining this team to build just one well, we could literally change the lives of children in a village in Uganda,\u00a0 I felt compelled to help.\u00a0 I realized that by starting small, we could make a big impact and change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning what every day life can be like for children in less developed countries proved to be a real eye-opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs. Lear read A Long Walk to Water to us, and even though it was a fictional story, it was based on the experiences of children in Africa,\u201d said eighth grader Liz Stewart.\u00a0 \u201cI also couldn\u2019t believe the images I saw of children playing in dirty water, and retrieving their toys from open sewage. That was my call to action.\u00a0 I have in the past worked to raise money for Crohn\u2019s Disease, and I have a lot of success in that effort.\u00a0 So, I had confidence I could translate my fundraising experience from that to make a real impact on our Water project in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vivid accounts in the book, really made the global water crisis come alive for the students.<\/p>\n

The book \u201cA Long Walk to Water,\u201d really resonated with me,\u201d eighth grader Bailey Santaguida said. \u201cI was able to see how the main character, Salva, was able to change the lives of villagers by providing them with a simple well.\u00a0 \u00a0 This is not a complex issue- it is an easy fix.\u00a0 Just one well, which costs only a few thousand dollars, and does not require too much labor investment, can completely change the lives of hundreds of children.\u00a0 The absence of water essentially paralyzes a community and prevents them from developing.\u00a0 By building a well, we can change the lives of the children in Uganda.\u00a0 Kids will be able to attend school, and not spend hours fetching water.\u00a0 The community will now be able to provide clean water, which is critical for improved medical care and economic development.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by a book, students work to fund water projects in Uganda and Dominican Republic EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 With today\u2019s world of digital distractions, it can be hard to get an eighth grade student to pay much attention to anything beyond his or her handheld digital devices. But a group of Charles F. Patton Middle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[6858,6856,7428,6857,6855],"class_list":["post-24991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-dominican-republic","tag-fundriaser","tag-patton-middle-school","tag-uganda","tag-walk-for-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24991"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24994,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24991\/revisions\/24994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}