CAS Long Term: CBOB- S

In May of 2010, the UNICEF Club at my high school recommended a workshop at UF that dealt with Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia and Uganda. The organization that ran the presentation and activities was Children Beyond Our Borders, a non-profit that started in Gainesville a few years ago. The experience was great for me, especially since I have a huge interest in working with non-profits, using language skills to interact with people abroad, and global education. Later, in August, I found out that a few seniors decided to start a chapter of CBOB at our school, and of course I decided to become involved. I became 'project manager' and decided to use this as my long-term project for CAS when I was offered the position of president-in-training for the 2011-2012 school year.
The point of this club is to educate, or spread the word, about kids in primarily Colombia that have little or limited access to education because of their situation of being displaced by the Civil War-like conflicts going on there. Also, fundraising is a big activity- obviously if we want to have a scholarship fund, buy supplies, and build schools, we'll need money! We raise money mostly through bake sales, potlucks and getting sponsors. Up to now, I've made brownies three times (total of 3 hours), and had fun experimenting with arepas, a typical Colombian food, for a potluck (2 hours). Our meetings, held about every third Tuesday (unfortunately pretty inconsistently because of the senior schedule conflicts) at school are mostly updates on what we're raising money for, and we've had six at B-lunch (total of 3 hours). Since I'm an officer, I've also been to three meetings at the regional CBOB office (total of 5 hours). I've also learned that I can't depend on fellow officers to get things done, however. I feel as though this has been my busiest year, but the seniors seem especially distracted. A month ago, I made a list of things I want to get done before this school year is over, and the other officers were amazed that I actually took time to do it. That was disappointing- the fact that they weren't willing to work towards this important project- but also helped me look forward to next year when I will be the one initiating activities instead of waiting for others to get things done. More to come on the progress of our CBOB chapter!

Here is the list of what we are currently working on:
-T-Shirt fundraiser designs
-New Horizons E-tutoring kids in Medellin, Colombia
-Getting sponsors for raffles and awareness campaigns
-Save the World Day in cooperation with Eastside's other service clubs (hopefully April 15-17)
-I Am CBOB Scholarship Fund (it costs about $250 for one year of college tuition in Colombia, and we want to raise enough for at least enough for two by the end of this year.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TngUpxOgCqY link to Jose's story, one of the young men  we're raising money for