Students strive to raise $10,000

Caroline Otter, a freshman at Bloomington High School South, never imagined being at risk for disease by drinking the water out of her kitchen faucet.

After being issued a “faith challenge” at a Christ in Youth conference this summer, Otter, along with three other Bloomington high school students from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church, are raising $10,000 to build two wells in Zambia, Africa.

“It has really made me be thankful for what I have,” Otter said. “I don’t ever have to worry about drinking dirty water.”

Elizabeth Moore, assistant for student ministries at the church, said the conference emphasizes compassion described in the Christian gospels.

“All students had the opportunity to open a ‘kingdom card,’” Moore said. “Once you opened it, you were committed to doing whatever was on your card.”

Otter’s card challenged her to raise $10,000 in one year to help a nonprofit organization called Active:Water build wells in the Ndola region of Zambia.

Ndola is particularly vulnerable to water contamination due to a highly concentrated population living in slum-type communities, according to research by Active:Water.

“When I first opened it, I was really scared,” Otter said. “I didn’t know how I was going to do it. But then my friend said, ‘We can do this. I’m here with you; God’s with you. You can do it.’”

John Ray, a sophomore at Lighthouse Christian Academy, and David Sheldon, a sophomore at Bloomington High School North, also attended the conference and watched a documentary called “Zambia’s Song.”

“The video presents good information on what it’s like for people to acquire water in third-world countries and how hard that is,” Moore said.

The video inspired them to help the cause  Ray and Sheldon said.

For their first fundraiser, the students planned an evening at the church where close to 200 attendees played games based on the television game show “Minute to Win it” and watched a shortened version of “Zambia’s Song.”

That evening, the attendees contributed more than half of the students’ projected goal.
“Within an hour we raised over $6,000,” Otter said. “I couldn’t get over it.”

Since their first fundraiser, the students have also had a car wash for donations. So far, they have raised close to $9,000.

Although the students are close to their initial goal, they have decided to keep raising money beyond the $10,000 and are planning to have a Jujistu martial arts tournament, bake sale and auction to raise additional funds.

Before the next conference, the students will send the donations to Active:Water and might travel to Zambia to help build the wells.

The students say their efforts are worth it if it improves the life of just one person.

“If I can help give a village in Zambia a clean drinking-well and someone in that village goes and does something great, it would be awesome if that could happen,” Sheldon said.