Bayshore Broadcasting News last October told you about Chesley District High School student Kerri VanDerWielen winning a trip for her and six others at a “We Day” event in Toronto.
VanDerWielen chose to have the group go to Kenya to take part in the “Free the Children” adopt-a-village program, during this year’s March Break.
Recently at the Bluewater District School Board meeting, the students reported to trustees on that trip.
VanDerWielen says in their visual presentation that it was a trip of a lifetime that has altered the lives of the students who went.
The Grade 12 student says they helped build a community kitchen, visited other schools, went on a local water walk where natives have to walk miles for their water and lug it back to their village.
They also went on a photography safari and met many people and students.
VanDerWielen says she had a choice of five or six different locations to visit but chose Kenya because her school has raised 85 hundred dollars for a new school in that country.
Board trustees were thrilled with the presentation.
Southgate/Grey Highlands trustee Jim Dawson says this is exactly the type of educational trips students should be taking.
Dawson says they’re learning things they would never get out of a book.
He says this group has raised the bar for the types of trips trustees would like to see for students.
