Group joins global effort to help children Group joins global effort to help children (March 24, 2004)

By Jonas Raab
Special to the Almanac

At Woodside Priory School in Portola Valley, a chapter of Kids Can Free the Children -- a worldwide organization of children working to free other children from abuse -- is preparing for a large fundraising event this month.

The chapter, known as Woodside Priory Youth in Action, will host a "Spring Cleaning" event from March 29 to April 2 in conjunction with AuctionDrop, a local business that sells items on eBay.

The group is looking for donations, such as antiques, collectibles, computers, clothing, shoes, coins, furniture, sports equipment, toys, housewares and linens. Items can be dropped off at the Menlo Park AuctionDrop store at 1283 El Camino Real.

The money raised will go to Free the Children efforts to build one-room schools at a cost of $3,000 to $5,000 in rural areas of the world, says Daniel Wenger, a junior at the Woodside Priory and president and founder of the Priory chapter.

The global group was started in 1995 by a 12-year-old Toronto boy who was horrified to read in a newspaper that a Pakistani boy was killed for protesting conditions that forced children to work 12 hours a day, six days a week.

The group has built 375 schools in 23 countries, and sent $6 million worth of medical supplies to health clinics in developing countries, says Daniel.

The Priory chapter has raised $1,200 this school year and plans to raise an additional $1,800 by June, enough to build one of the small schools, he says. "When we visit a developing nation in the summer of 2005, the members of the Priory chapter will have an opportunity to speak to children whose lives have been benefited," says Daniel.

Direct donations to the group are invited. For more information, go to www.freethechildren.com. Daniel asks that donations made online be credited to the Woodside Priory chapter.

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