Students at Sycamore Creek Elementary have worked this year to provide shoes for children in a refugee settlement camp in Uganda.
Earlier this year, educators at the school learned about a refugee camp in Uganda where thousands of children are orphans. Many of these children live with an adult relative or guardian in tiny mud huts where they struggle to survive. Many of the children needed shoes.
In November 2009, the Sycamore Creek Elementary community began working on a wonderful project “Crocs Collecting Crocs” with some really amazing people at Think Humanity of Boulder, Colorado. By partnering with Think Humanity, the school found it could make a positive difference for the refugee children in Africa by providing shoes.
The school collected donations through a staff variety show and Crocs Collection Drive. Students, teachers, staff and PTA families donated 160 pairs of children’s shoes and collected $1151.00 in donations to buy new Crocs shoes and pay for shipping to Africa. The 160 pairs of shoes were shipped to the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement camp in Uganda Hoima District. (You can quickly find the area by plugging “Kyangwali: Uganda (Hoima District)” into Google maps)
The Crocs company at the Streets at Southpoint Mall helped the school community to purchase 182 pairs of new Crocs shoes at a big discount and the Crocs company shipped these free of charge to Think Humanity’s headquarters. That purchase brought the final total of shoes collected by Sycamore Creek Elementary to 342 pairs.
Volunteers from Think Humanity have delivered some of the Crocs shoes to the refugee children. They also delivered the inspiring letters and beautiful cards created by students at Sycamore Creek Elementary School.
Sycamore Creek Elementary has as its mascot the crocodile. The school sent their plush toy mascot’s brother Kirby the Crocodile along for the ride with Think Humanity to Uganda. Information from the trip will be posted on Kirby’s blog along with reports on other trips he’s made.
The school community offered their thanks to Beth Heckel of Think Humanity and to Cheryl Heath of the Crocs Company for their dedication to helping children in need.
Thanks to Assistant Principal Keith Richardson for sharing this story with GotNews.