Class sacrifices graduation trip to aid Uganda's 'invisible children'

TACOMA, Wash. - Visitation School's eighth-grade graduation trip to Victoria would have been a blast for the 13-member class. Whale watching, shopping and visits to the House of Wax, the Imax Theater and the provincial museum were among the activities scheduled for the three-day stay in British Columbia's picturesque capital.

And, of course, there was the ferry ride to and from Seattle. But a visit to the school in May by a group of students from Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma changed all that. The group was spreading the word about the tragic situation in Uganda, a nation plagued by civil war where young children are being abducted from their homes at night and forced to fight in the rebel army. Thousands of Ugandan children, known as "night commuters," attempt to escape such a fate by traveling into town each night to sleep in bus stations and other public places, according to Invisible Children Inc., a nonprofit group based in El Cajon, Calif. The Visitation students were deeply touched as they watched the organization's film, "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a gripping documentary that highlights the issue. The next day, while searching for ways to help, the students decided to sacrifice their trip and instead donate $3,193.47 to help Invisible Children Inc. provide medicine, food, blankets and other aid to the children. It was a tough decision to cancel a trip they had looked forward to all year and for which they had held several fundraisers, the students said later. But as one girl put it: Helping a "whole bunch of other children" in dire need far outweighed "making us happy" with a class trip. Their teacher, Esther Dille-McCoy, was understandably impressed. As she told parents in a letter home: "I am sure you feel a great deal of pride in the character and generosity of our eighth-graders in having such a strong social conscience and generosity rooted in self-sacrifice." Deacon Bill Eckert, a Bellarmine Prep teacher who is coordinating the Invisible Children's group at Bellarmine, was overwhelmed by the gesture. He said in an interview with The Catholic Northwest Progress, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Seattle, that the eighth-graders were "teaching the Gospel, proclaiming the good news. They're teaching us a lot more than we can possibly teach them." The students said the documentary film had a great influence on them. "It was just sad how all this was going on, and it was just so painful to watch," said Ariel Pedraza. "We were (thinking) that we could be able to help." In place of the three-day Victoria trip, the eighth-graders made a day trip to Seattle on June 5 to shop, ride the Duck Boat, visit Imax and the Seattle Center and eat at the Spaghetti Factory before heading home. They'll also be writing their congressional representatives about the need to do something to end the civil war in Uganda so that no more children will be lost. Eighth-grader Olivia Hale said the documentary helped her take stock of how good we have it here. "These children in Uganda have nothing," she said. "It's amazing that we're so fortunate in the United States to have all we do." And she hopes their class act will inspire others to action. "We wanted to donate the money, too, to say, 'Hey, if eighth-grade kids from a Catholic school can help Uganda, then maybe some other people will start getting involved and kind of push the government ... to stop the war,'" she said.

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