On a trip to Ometepe, Ordway teacher Boo Schneider met with Walmar, whose scholarship is funded by her third-graders' calendar project.
Students in Boo Schneider’s third-grade class at Ordway Elementary School surpassed their goal and raised $9,945 for projects on Ometepe with their 2013 “Kids Can Make a Difference” calendar.
The theme this year is “Children on Ometepe.” For example, did you know that “Whenever kids on Ometepe have a chance they climb trees to get mangos, coconuts and other fruit”?
Among the projects that the students decided to fund:
- $2,000 for college scholarships for Walmar and Olga (two previously funded students). (The pcture shows Boo with Walmar during her visit to Ometepe).
- $3,000 for construction of a library at Moyogalpa Primary School.
- $1,000 for the Sí a la Vida program, which helps former street kids get a fresh start.
- $1,000 for milk, vitamin and a hygiene program for preschoolers.
- $900 for Extra Edad, an accelerated school program for older students who missed early school years.
- $600 for a year’s pay for an ambulance driver who works weekends
Besides researching, drawing, and selling the calendar, the third-graders also wrote heart-felt follow-up notes to some of the people on Ometepe involved with the various projects. For example, students Julia and Gabe, who drew the calendar page for December, also created a card addressed to the weekend ambulance driver. “We are so glad that now you are able to have fun helping people that need you on the weekends! We hope you will enjoy this calendar,” they wrote. For the cover of the card, they created a drawing showing two people on Ometepe with the island’s two volcanoes in the background.
Another student, Audrey, wrote a card thanking Maria Estela Alvarez, who coordinates the Sister Islands’ scholarship program on Ometepe, for all the help she has given students over the years. They drew maps of the two islands connected with a big heart—a great symbol of what the Sister Islands Association is all about.