Seven members of the Journey of Hope Tanzania 2020 team described their plans for next year's annual journey to Kilema, Tanzania, which their principal organized with fellow principal Steve Truelove in 2004 as an annual project.
This year, the CCI team will be accompanied by students from East Northumberland Secondary School and Port Hope High School on a mission of education and support for HIV-AIDS orphans, bringing along 40 laptop computers and lesson plans for English, math and physical education classes. Along with the $20,000 goal for which they are fundraising, they have a number of supporters in elementary schools filling up shoeboxes full of supplies we take for granted, such as pens, pencils, erasers and basic learning materials like dictionaries.
One challenge for the young people they will work with is that education is not free in that community – and more often than not, parents cannot afford it. Even the lucky ones who go to school usually attend poorly funded one-room or outdoor schoolhouses with no electricity and few school supplies.
Fundraising includes their Nov. 21 30 Hour Fast, for which participants must raise $30 in pledges and then put in 30 hours without food, culminating in a big overnight celebration in the gym that includes such fun activities as karaoke and yoga.
The Environmental Club was represented by three members who described such past projects as electronic waste-collection events and a video on greening up your Christmas.
Current projects include special waste-diversion bins in the cafeteria that were built and decorated by the students. They expect to provide hallway bins and are working on a big makeover of their courtyard that will include a medicine wheel and biodiverse plant species.
Cheer Her On strives, as its three representatives said, to promote equality among all the sexes within the community and internationally, with a strong focus on addressing the oppression of women.
This year's theme is the impact of education, especially the positive outcomes it has on women and girls around the world – as recognized by no less an authority than the United Nations.
They are also helping with the fundraising for the Journey of Hope project and working with Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre.
Their meetings are open to anyone of any experience, no matter what gender.
The CCI Interact Club fielded two members to discuss their goal of making positive change through meaningful service projects, like their Halloween For Hunger Food Drive that brought in more than 5,400 lb. of food for the local food bank.
Their projects tend to have a local focus in the first semester, shifting to an international focus in the second.
GSA stands for Gender Sexuality Alliance. Its three representatives said the organization was formed for LGBT students and their allies to talk about what's going on in the world and what they can do.
Within the school, they have made inclusivity signs on display in every classroom, fundraised for such causes as The Trevor Project and worked on a clothing exchange.
The Indigeous Club is active within the school, holding classes on its own for students at every grade level. But special occasions like Treaty Recognition Week was a bigger splash, observed with daily announcements and a visit from Alderville First Nation Chief Dave Mowat. And though November is Indigenous Peoples Awareness Month, its three representatives said, they talk about it every single day.
Maher Grir took a moment to share his experiences growing up in Syria, attending a big school, playing soccer, when his father died and he had to drop everything to help support his family.
The challenges didn't stop when his family came to Canada, but the hard work did pay off. He worked two jobs to save for college, and eventually became a police officer.
“You will be successful if you work hard,” he told the students.
“Do your best in school – everything is possible.”
A vibrant performance by the CCI Dance Team raised the energy level for an enthusiastic greeting for Sam Demma.
A 20-year-old student of environmental science who is interrupting his university career to spread his message to young people, Demma began his podcast at the age of 17 after an inspiring lesson from his high-school English teacher.
But before that, his first love was soccer, and the passion really took hold at age 13 when he had the opportunity to travel to Italy for a six-month training-and-touring program that allowed him to work with professionals from around the world.
“The smartest thing you can do in high school is find people doing what you want to do and ask them questions,” he said.
Demma came back 10 lb. heavier from the pizza, pasta and gelato, clutching a notebook full of the plans he would adhere to in order to be one of those professional athletes one day. He even created a soccer fund to support this goal, and could be found every waking moment in one of four places: class, library, the weight room or the soccer field.
“The beautiful thing about sacrifice is, when you give up something in pursuit of your dream or a goal, it typically starts to pay off for your future,” he said.
“As you continue, the rewards get bigger and bigger.”
In his case, that meant being courted by the University of Michigan for a soccer scholarship. They paid to have him visit their campus and their community, and things seemed to be moving to a favourable conclusion – with the proviso that the scouts from the university wanted to watch him play one more game. Fortunately, he had a soccer-showcase tournament in Florida scheduled.
Before he could get on the plane, however, he was playing a friendly match with his team when he suffered an injury that tore the meniscus in his left knee.
His mother set to work finding him the soonest possible MRI and the best possible doctor. But the surgery interfered with his competing in Florida.
The feeling of defeat was unshakable, as he watched every player on his team get Division 1 scholarships.
“In reality, every single one of us have our challenges, trials and tribulations we have dealt with in the past or are still dealing with today,” Demma said.
“It's not the size of the challenges but, instead, how we choose to react and respond to them. You cannot control the size of the challenges you are facing, but you can control your response.”
Demma had the surgery, returned to soccer, and even got the university of his choice to agree to consider him again the following year. Like history repeating itself, he suffered another soccer injury and required a second surgery.
He fought back from his second surgery, but woke up one morning with a torn meniscus in the other knee. He remembers quite clearly hearing the diagnosis from the doctor and saying he would not have a third operation.
However, he had devoted his life so completely to his dream that he felt worthless without soccer. It was like losing his identity.
“One of the biggest mistakes I made as a high school student, which is only a few years ago, is I attached myself so deeply to my deeds and accomplishments,” Demma told the students.
“Achievements do not equal self-worth. As a person, you are worth so much more than the activities you excel at.
“All it takes is one person, one talk, one conference, one event to totally change the way you perceive the next five years of your life.”
For Demma, that one event was a simple English class. It was April 2017, and his teacher was discussing historic figures who had changed the world. As he wrote the names on the board of such individuals as Malcolm X, Gloria Steinem and Malala, he asked his students to ponder the one thing they all had in common – the one thing that could be boiled down into three simple words.
No one guessed, so he gave them the answer – small consistent actions – and he challenged them all to reflect that quality in their own lives.
Demma was skeptical. But two weeks later, walking to school, he accidentally kicked a discarded coffee cup. He realized he passed tons of litter on his way to school each day, and decided – for a change – to pick this piece up.
Then he began making his walk to school a chance to pick up the litter he found on his way.
Then he was seen by a friend driving by, who asked him what he was doing. The friend just shook his head and kept driving – but he also found himself calling Demma a few days later because he couldn't stop thinking about what he had seen.
School was letting out by then, so Demma and his friend gathered a few more friends around a bonfire to discuss continuing this kind of action. They ended up with a group they called PickWaste, meeting for pick-ups weekly on Saturday mornings. Since July 1, 2017, he said, they have held more than 100 community pick-ups, clearing some 1,300 bags of litter from Pickering streets, not to mention more than 27,000 cigarette butts.
“You can make your mark on the world with how you use your gifts and talents to make a difference in the lives of other people,” he said.
“The biggest lie you have ever been told or heard is that you are insignificant. I am here to tell you that's absolutely false. Those figures in history are not different than you and I – they are just human beings. But it takes small, consistent actions on problems that helped change the world.
“The small consistent actions you take, intentionally or unintentionally, make a massive impact. And if you start being very intentional about them, you can make a huge difference in your school, community and personal life.”
Following the morning's CCI 4 Change program for the school's students, the program was repeated in the afternoon for students brought in from CCI feeder schools.
