Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt
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Canadian School Presentation
One of the goals of One! is to spread awareness in Canadian children about the plight of children in other parts of the world. We are very lucky people, and need to appreciate it...from a young age! Tara and Colleen Woltjen made a presentation about One! and its children to a very warm and enthusiastic audience at Wes Hosford Elementary School in Sherwood Park in February. Not only were the children a wonderfully captivated audience, but they worked hard at getting a very large amount of school supplies for their Indian counterparts!!!
THANK YOU STUDENTS OF WES HOSFORD!
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BOTH PROJECTS ACCEPTED!!!
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Crossing our fingers must have worked...both of the projects that we submitted to AYA (Alliance for Youth Achievement, American support organization), have been accepted and will be financed!
The first project, sewing room project will be started immediately by applying for a second classroom to run the program out of. We are hopeful that the application will not take nearly as long as the first one did!
Unfortunately, we have run into some roadblocks with our second project...a lot more red tape. The second project as proposed was to buy a rikshaw and train the boys how to drive. With all the trouble to get licenses and the proper registration, and since our children still have a few years before they reach 18 years old, we have asked to change projects.
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Our query to change projects has been accepted and we are excitedly writing our proposal for a third classroom in which to teach the boys woodworking. The room would be a shop/art room for the boys to learn a trade and for all students to show their creativity!!
We are crossing our fingers for this second proposal, but are thanking AYA profusely for the opportunities that they have already given us.
Thank you for your support and for believing in One! and our children. We are working hard and trying to make a difference One! step at a time.
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Catching the Thief...
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Pallavi didn’t know that she was going to have a second job to One! while Mom (Marilyn Spilchen) and I were having fun down in the south of India...Detective!
One morning, she arrived to the school to find our locked door, not so locked and wide open. She looked around to find most things in tact. She went down to talk to the principal to find out that the principal herself had seen some suspicious school children around. Upon seeing their principal, they ran.
The very next morning, Pallavi arrived at the school to the same surprise, but with a much different result. Quite a few things were stolen: our big tupperware of pencils, pens, stickers, sharpeners; as well as some of the children’s favourite toys...our big blue police car and some balls.
Pallavi met with the principal and they continued to go from classroom to classroom to question the children and give them a lecture.
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Nothing came of it immediately, but then the principal saw a child with a very fancy pencil. Upon looking closer she knew it was one of ours.
She questioned the boy and he confessed to the crime, turning in his accomplices. After house visits, some of our stuff was recovered.
Moral of the story, because of the generosity of all of our supporters (financial as well as material) our kids are considered the lucky ones!!
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