GIV Club members, donation recipients, and Kenyan supporters proudly display the giant checks donated by the GIV Club - Photo Credit: Michael Healey
Global Initiative Volunteers from Masconomet High School with Awardees: Sandra Thaxter of Small Solutions, Big Ideas; Joanna Hammond and Ted Van Nahl of Greater Newburyport/Bura Aliance and Mark Battley of Mtugi Group Kenya.
On Friday June 10, more than 50 contributors, family members, and friends attended the Masconomet Global Initiative Volunteers (GIV) Club Banquet at Angelica’s Restaurant in Middleton. For the GIV Club, a group at Masconomet High School dedicated to fundraising for international causes, this night was the peak of three years of hard work. Since 2008, the GIV Club’s mission has been to donate 100 of One Laptop Per Child’s XO laptops to students in Africa. The XO laptop is a small, rugged machine designed for children in remote and developing areas to connect them to the world and enhance their education. The banquet itself served as a forum for the donation of over $18,000 to three grassroots groups delivering the computers to Kenya, East Africa.
The program of events for the night highlighted the GIV Club’s profound accomplishments while informing the crowd about Kenya’s push toward educational, industrial, and economic development. The night began with GIV Club Founder and President, Brooke Marchewka, welcoming friends and family while recognizing special guests. Bishop Joshua Wambua and Pastor Christopher Kamau, both native Kenyans, said a few heartfelt words at the beginning of the evening. Pastor Kamau saluted the importance of international aid, citing his own past as an example. As a boy growing up in Kenya, Kamau would not have learned English or had the opportunity for success in America if it had not been for the Peace Corps volunteers stationed in his village.
Following dinner, Keynote Speaker Paul Waithaka, Founder and Publisher of The Kenya Monitor Newspaper, inspired the audience with his optimistic expectations for Kenya’s economic future. Characterizing Kenya as a country full of innovative, motivated people itching to break out of poverty, Waithaka identified access to good education and modern technology as key components to the countries future economic successes. Furthermore, Waithaka acknowledged the relevancy of GIV’s laptop donation and predicts the effects of the club’s contribution to radiate across the world like the “butterfly effect.”
Following Waithaka’s poignant reflections on a hopeful Kenyan future, the awarding of donations began. First, the GIV Club awarded $5,800 to the Greater Newburyport/Bura Alliance. Representatives Ted Van Nahl and Joanna Hammond described GNBA’s commitment to fostering a cultural bridge between the communities of Newburyport and Bura, Kenya and expressed their excitement over the GIV club’s contribution to their fledgling laptop program at the Bura Primary School. Next, Sandra Thaxter and Alan Pappert took the stage to accept the club’s $5,800 donation to their organization, Small Solutions Big Ideas. Thaxter and Pappert noted how Kenya’s commitment to technological development makes the country fertile ground for the XO laptop. The final donation went to Ntugi Group Kenya, a non-profit headed by Mark Battley. The Ntugi Group took home the largest contribution from GIV, a total of $6,800. Battley gave a passionate speech about his organization’s successes with the laptops at several schools in Northern Kenya, citing a specific story of a bright young man who was forced out of school by poverty, and who, with the help of the Ntugi Group, earned his college degree. Battley commended GIV’s work and encouraged the club members: “Anyone can be a leader, begin anywhere, love your mistakes.”
Those who were attended the banquet left with a sense of awareness of the problems and progress in Kenya, pride in the GIV Club’s contributions, and confidence in the recipients’ abilities to truly make a difference with the awarded funds. For the recipients, it was a night of networking not only with the audience, but more importantly, with each other. Each of them was excited to learn more about each other’s efforts in Kenya and they plan to form an OLPC grassroots coalition to maximize their impact in Kenya.
