Endeavor students raise money to rebuild Haiti school
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Students in Kathaleen McFarland’s leadership class at Endeavor Middle School prepares to paint a poster of a Haitian flag for Thursday’s Spaghetti for Haiti fundraiser.
MOSES LAKE — When Taylor Mack first saw the images of devastation in Haiti following hurricane Matthew last year, they made her sad.
“It makes me feel bad, that these people who are no different from us go through so much,” Mack, a seventh-grader at Endeavor Middle School said.
But Mack doesn’t just sit with that sadness. As a student in Kathaleen McFarland’s leadership class, she’s able to help, to raise money for Haitians in need in and around the devastated town of Jérémie, including rebuilding a school.
On Thursday, the students at Endeavor Middle School will host a Spaghetti for Haiti fundraiser and silent art auction from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets at the door will cost $3 for all those 10 and older, and $2 for anyone younger than 10, with all the proceeds going to support a school rebuilding project in Haiti.
“Why spaghetti? Well, when I visited, they made spaghetti for breakfast, and ate it with ketchup and onions,” McFarland says.
Last year, McFarland said her leadership class raised roughly $1,600, and she hopes to raise $2,000 this year.
“I went with my church right after the earthquake, and we’ve gone every year since,” McFarland said. “Sometimes it’s just building crews, sometimes we send combination teams, and I go with the teachers.”
McFarland said she will teach art to the Haitian children at the school her church, Moses Lake Presbyterian, helps and sponsors.
“I have to bring all the materials. So, I bring powdered paint, and we mix it with river water,” McFarland said.
This year, McFarland said she will go to Haiti to help paint a mural on the wall of the slowly rising school — a school previously destroyed by last year’s hurricane and before that by an earthquake in 2010.
Even though nine out of every 10 students at Endeavor Middle School are on free or reduced lunches, they are deeply conscious of how much they have in comparison to the young people of Haiti. And they want to both help and share.
“It’s important to me, trying to help this school,” said eighth-grader Abraham Morales. “We complain about what we don’t have, but these kids don’t have much. I’m grateful we get to raise money, and help this school.”