PALS Raises the Roof

: By Dan Veaner; Around Town; | Jun 19, 2005 |

PALS Event Raises Over $4000 For School

Partnership of African and Lansing Schools (PALS) held its "Raise the Roof" event at the Lansing Middle School Friday (6/17). Proceeds from the event will go toward replacing the Mbaka Oromo Primary School roof, one of the two partner schools to benefit from the Lansing/African alliance.

When the evening was done, the event raised $3,980. "And," added Organizer Cindy Van Es, " if you add in the $560 that the Middle School 5th/6th grade US Club donated from the Read-A-Thon, we have $4540 to send to our partner schools." The money will be used to put a roof onto the existing school room as well as to add a new classroom.

The event included games, a raffle, performances, speeches, chicken barbecue and African products including hand bags, shawls and jewelry were for sale. Everyone who bought a ticket received a bracelet with the word "compassion" on it.

Nancy Gardiner made and donated a PALS quilt that was raffled to benefit the school. Kim Nicholson won the quilt.

The bounce house, donated by Dr. John Comisi, was one of the most popular spots for kids.

The Lambert/Rogers family donated the dunking booth, with teachers and school staff volunteering to be dunked (Mr. Peters is shown being dunked).

Betting was hot on the Girls vs. Boys Grudge Soccer match, with School Board President Dan Brown (center-right in bright yellow) refereeing. It was a tie.

Former Kenyan Ambassador Bob Jalang'o, who recently moved to Ithaca, spoke about conditions in Kenya and the challenges facing the schools there. He said that the minimum teacher to student class size is one teacher to sixty students, approximately three times the size of Lansing classes. He said that only 52% of students progress to ninth grade.

Listen to Speech Read Speech

(Note: The speech excerp is in MP3 form. Clicking on the link should play it, or right clicking and chosing "Save Target As" should allow you to download the sound file.)

Performances included the 5th and 6th Grade Chorus directed by Cindy Howell and accompanied on piano by 5th grader Luke Cutler, Alumni and soon-to-be alumni or "Live From the Men's Room," the High School men's a cappella group, the Voices Chorus, and Ithaca band, Thousands of One.

Many individuals and groups in the community contributed to the event with time, money, food and items. 100% of the money raised goes to the African schools. The Mbaka Oromo Primary School has 440 students in grades 1-8. The Kuoyo Secondary School, the second PALS partner has 220 students in grades 9-12.

PALS organizers include Harold and Cindy van Es, Chris and Clara Barrett, Steve Kyle, Caroline and Bob Rasmussen, Karen and Terry Tucker, Diane Strohman. Jennifer Anderson has been attending PALS meetings since the project was conceived last October. High School English teacher Tucker Winter became the advisor for the HS PALS Club this spring, and was also integral in planning for the fund raiser.