"One Book One School" spurs students to action
A "One Book One School" reading project has blossomed into a service learning project that Barker Middle School hopes will help provide clean drinking water for hundreds of people in Sudan.
Barker Middle School's fundraiser -- a "Penny War" for clean water -- began this week and will end Friday, April 19. All proceeds will go to Water for South Sudan, Inc., a non-profit organization that drills wells to provide clean drinking water in Sudan. The Barker Student Council, which is spearheading the project, hopes to raise $5,000 towards a well -- which costs $15,000 to dig and install.
Barker students and staff recently finished the book A Long Walk To Water by Linda Sue Park. This Hoosier book is based on a true story and focuses on the war in Sudan in the mid 1980s and the ongoing challenge of supplying clean water in African countries. Salva and Nya tell two parallel stories in the book. One story is about Salva, a "Lost Boy" who walks to Kenya with 15,000 other refugees to escape Sudan's civil war; the other story, set in present day, chronicles an African girl's daily struggle to provide water for her family.
In the end, Salva Dut grows up, comes to the United States, and dedicates his life to the organization Water for South Sudan, Inc. He now drills wells in Africa to bring clean water to communities.
Books for Barker's schoolwide "One Book One School" reading project were provided through a Michigan City Education Foundation grant for teachers, a project of the Unity Foundation. The effort also included tie-ins to other areas of the curriculum: As students and staff read chapters of A Long Walk to Water, teachers and staff used daily video announcements to explain how wells are engineered, the health implications of drinking unsafe water, the science of water testing, and the history of the strife in Sudan.
Donations for the project will be accepted through Friday at the school. For more information, contact Jill Grabowski, Barker Student Council Advisor, at (219) 873-2000, ext. 7350.
Photo: (L-R) - Barker Student Council members Cody Roach, Myon McGee, Dalin McCully, and Megan Gushrowski