Arlington Middle School community helps raise money for school in Kenya.
Former child soldier and motivational speaker Michel Chikwanine attended Arlington Middle School's 40th anniversary celebrations at the school on June 14 to receive a cheque from students who raised nearly $15,000 for the construction a school in rural Kenya. The campaign was a way for the school, which closes for good in June, to leave a lasting legacy.
Staff Photo/RAHUL GUPTA
The students of a York school scheduled to close by the end of the month have helped forge a lasting legacy thanks to their fundraising efforts.
For much of the school year, the students of Arlington Middle School, near Vaughan Road, have worked to raise money for Free the Children's Brick by Brick campaign, to help pay for the construction of a school in Kenya.
After seven months of fundraising, the students checked in with a tally of $9,504.09 through the sale of chocolates and popcorn, baked goods and the proceeds from a silent auction.
Combined with a $5,000 grant from Free the Children, the students raised a final total of 14,504.09 for the construction fund.
The average cost of building a new school would be $8,500 according to the charity.
At the school's 40th anniversary reunion last week, the school presented a ceremonial cheque to representatives of Free the Children.
"This money means kids will have a chance to get a real education," said Michel Chikwanine from the charity. "That's what Arlington is doing, and I think it's an amazing legacy."
A staff advisor who helped co-ordinate the students' various enterprises said the entire student body of 202 took part in the fundraising, each individual responsible for contributing between 10 and 50 dollars to the campaign.
"They were either selling or contributing out of their own pockets," said David Sonenberg, the co-ordinator of Arlington's International Baccalaureate (IB) program which helps students develop a sense of global responsibility.
"It came down to a lot of hard work on the part of students in coming up with ways to encourage the community to get involved and make a difference."
He said the project arose out of the students' desire to create a permanent legacy for Arlington.
"They said, why don't we look for an opportunity to build a new school to replace Arlington symbolically as it closes?"
Chikwanine (pronounced Chik-Wah-Nee-Nay), a motivational speaker and former child soldier, told the audience a new school would provide hope for a developing community located in a rural and marginalized area of Kenya.
"Education is the only way to get out of the cycle of poverty," he said.
He spoke at length of his tragic recruitment into a rebel army in the Democratic Republic of Congo when he was just five years old.
"They initiated me by slashing my wrist and rubbing a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder into the wound to make me crazy," said Chikwanine, who was granted refugee status along with his family in 2004. "Then, they blindfolded me and dropped an AK-47 into my hands, put my finger on the trigger and yelled at me to shoot. Shoot!
"I pulled the trigger and they removed the blindfold," he continued. "And I saw my friend Kevin lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. I had shot and killed my best friend."
Chikwanine, who managed to escape the rebels after two weeks, said soldiers often target schools and teachers because they knew people lose hope when they have no means to get an education. "They knew by taking way the education from the community, they were removing the parts of the community that could stand up for itself."
By fundraising for the school in Kenya, he said the Arlington students were contributing to tradition of helping children.
Despite the imminent closure of the school, Arlington's principal said the mood around the school was anything but bittersweet.
"There's so much to celebrate what with fundraising, the anniversary and the fact our feeder schools are going to become K-8 schools," said Susanne Fata.
She said all year, alumni from the school stopped by to take a one last look at their former stomping grounds.
"There hasn't been a week that's gone by this year where someone hasn't trickled into the building just so they can see the old halls or class pics," said Fata, who presented the four principals of Arlington's feeder schools with framed paintings made by the students.
The anniversary celebration also featured appearances and remarks from former staff of the school, which opened in 1971.
Manon Gardner, a former principal at the school, said she had recently ran into an Arlington grad, which brought back fond memories.
"I felt older, but it was a good kind of older," said Gardner, now the chief academic officer for the Toronto District School Board.
"This is has been a wonderful place, never forget it," she told the audience of parents, alum and students gathered at the school for the anniversary celebrations on June 14.
Former teacher Paul Jones flew back from Miami, where he was doing play-by-play for the NBA Finals, in time for the celebration.
"I thought I was going to be at game seven between the Heat and the Mavericks," said Jones, who calls Toronto Raptors for the FAN radio station.
Jones, who taught at the school for 10 years, said the building held a lot of special memories for he and his wife, whom he met at Arlington.
"I'm really sad to see it go, it's a great building,"
For more information about Free the Children's Brick by Brick campaign and other initiatives, go to www.freethechildren.com