A video of daily life from the weavers

Living in Patacancha from World Leadership School on Vimeo.

The donations are rolling in. Keep them coming!

Student Fundraising Efforts

Here are just a few of the things (in addition to selling chocolate) that our students are doing to help raise money for the weaving center:

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Charlie Nesler

My name is Charlie Nesler and I am a senior at Lake Forest Academy. In order to help raise money for our project in Peru, I will be going downtown with my father in order to talk to his associates at work about making contributions to support our cause. Like all of the other students, I will also be selling chocolate in order to raise money. To do this, I plan on going door to door in my neighborhood.

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Graham Harwood

Right now I am working on increasing awareness for our project off campus. We have already had a fundraiser on campus and we want to reach out to the community so more people know about our project particularly in Lake Forest. The town in which our school resides remains oblivious to our project for the most part. Therefore I have been contacting community organizations like the Gorton Community Center and First Presbyterian Church who have a history of charity work and projects. If we increased awareness with these organizations hopefully we can raise more money for our project and possible upgrading to the best possible options for our work in Patacancha. These include a modern toilet system that would both increase tourism and allow for the people to not have their sewage enter their drinking water source.

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Bianca Bryant and Elizabeth Duckworth

For our trip to Peru, our class needed to think outside the box and attempt to come up with innovative ways to raise money for our trip and the support of the Patachanca community. Along with Ducky, I came up with the idea of skipping a meal at Hutch and having a local buisness provide lunch and the money saved would go towards our project. Not only does this help the community become aware of the sacrifice and our cause, but the money is symbolic of going without the food as well. While we have yet to see if this idea is feasible, the local buisness aspect is something that remains a valuable resource. Companies like Chipotle and Potbelly's advertise as being willing to give donations to local causes that they deem appropriate. I am continuing to look into this option and am excited about the possibilities that working with these companies will bring.

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Dan Sambor

In order to raise funds for our project, I am selling vegetable seedlings. I always start plants indoors in the spring before setting them out in my garden and the village of Patacancha is also focused and dependent on agriculture. Therefore, I decided that selling some of my extra plants would serve as a fitting fundraiser for our trip. As of now, I have 144 seedlings planted, with whatever that isn’t sold being planted in my garden. Some of the different plants include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, watermelon and much more. I transplant the small seedlings into larger three-inch pots, as opposed to buying already large plants from chain stores. Many people rely on these stores for their plants and I hope to provide them with a different source, while also spreading the knowledge of our trip.

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Nataly Alvarado and Emily Kulas

Nataly (Coyote) and Emily (Pani) have recently been brainstorming the idea of holding relay races for charity. After hearing more details about the project in Patacancha, Peru, on Friday, they are hoping to raise $200 for the project. Nataly and Emily will also begin selling chocolate this upcoming week, along with the rest of the class.

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Lindsay Hanig

For my personal project I have written a letter to my family and friends asking for contributions to "Project Patacancha". In my letter I explained what we are doing in Patacancha and why it is such a worthy cause. I wrote about how in this class we learn about service learning and how we will be spending the last two weeks of our school year in May offering our help to these incredible women. As for right now I have sent the letters and am waiting for responses!

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Holly West

To collect funds, I am looking within my own church community. In writing emails and letters, I hope that we will receive donations to help aid our project. I am also thinking about presenting our project to the church community within our adult forum time. My fathers company has also been very generous with their matching gift program.

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Natasha Pabrai

To raise money for the village of Patacancha in Peru I am going to give a presentation at my mom's work. She works for a German bank called Deutsche Borse in the Sears Tower. I am going to talk to the company and see if they will donate any funds to our cause as well.

Also remember that you can make a donation of any amount by clicking the "Donate" button on the right! Thanks!

Facebook Group

Student Angelina Kennedy has created a Facebook group for LFA Project Patacancha. Become a fan today!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Forest-Academy-Project-Patacancha/115278618486317?ref=ts

6 weeks to go

With only six weeks to go, students are in their final push to raise money for the Patacancha weaving center. Some of the student fundraising stories will be shared here in this blog, but remember, you can always help out by pressing the donate button. Check back often for updates. Thanks.