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A special thank you to our students, parents, staff and the greater Chisago Lakes Area community for donating their time and money to our community service project: "H2O for Africa School to School" campaign. This event culminated with the "Water Waddle" fun run/ walk at Ki Chi Saga Park May 17. Four hundred eager runners and walkers participated that day bringing the final total of money raised to $14,166.

The Chisago Lakes Middle School's mission was to sponsor and provide funds to directly support a project with our partnering school, SEPC Incaia School in Mozambique, Africa. This school has 1,250 students and is 30 miles from the city of Xia Xia. Our goal was to raise $9,100 to construct a bore hole well with latrines, hand-washing stations, water storage tanks and health education for teachers and their students.

The additional money collected will be made available to another school in Sudan. Highview Middle School from Mounds View school district will be the other contributing school helping to build this well. Our project is in conjunction with the "Save the Children" foundation. The foundation will match funds collected to develop the well needed for our partnering school.

CLMS firmly believes in providing service learning opportunities for students. This particular learning opportunity allowed students to become knowledgeable and invested in the global community and become activists of change.

The sustainability of these and other service learning projects throughout the globe depend upon involvement of the next generation. The school's mission is to provide opportunities for students to make a difference.

Middle school students were provided with background information regarding developing countries where women and children, especially young girls, walk an average of three miles a day to gather water for their families. In many cases, roughly 60 percent of their day is spent walking to and from unclean water sources. Children spend many hours gathering and transporting water and do not have time to attend school; therefore they lack the education to move forward.

Some tough facts our students know:

• Every 15 seconds a child dies from lack of access to clean water

• Without access to a latrine, girls stop going to school once they reach puberty

• 4,500 children die each day due to unsafe water and a lack of basic education

Middle school staff are very proud of students and their accomplishments this year.

A special thank you to corporate and business contributions: Aveda, Bernick's, Brink's Market, Central River Coop, Dinnerbel Bay Restaurant, Drive In - Taylors Falls, Edward Jones Investments, Frankie's/ Chisago City Hardware, General Safety Equipment, Goldstar Printworks, Holiday StationStore, Lakes Area Police & Fire, Lindstrom Video, Olympic Trail Greenhouse, Pizza Man, Quick Stop, The RiverBank, Wild Mountain.

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