From February 8-28, all students were asked to donate one dollar by placing it in designated boxes in their 5th period class as part of the One Dollar For Life campaign at Aragon. The 5th period class that raises the most amount of money will receive a pizza party from Aragon Leadership.
One of the event organizers, leadership student junior Danielle Cutts, heard about the event from a classmate who attended a leadership conference where the One Dollar For Life (ODFL) organization was mentioned.
Other local schools, such as Burlingame and Capuchino, have participated in past fundraisers; such fundraisers have generated money for the purchase of school desks, as well as the actual construction of new schools in other countries.
One Dollar For Life takes donations from American students and directs them to qualified non-government-organizations (NGOs) for projects around the world. Past projects include building schools in Africa, Central America, and Asia, providing earthquake relief to Haiti, and giving cows and bicycles to people in Africa for food and transportation.
For school building projects, the NGOs are encouraged to use local labor to reduce the cost of building and to help involve the community by developing local skill sets.
Since ODFL is a non-profit organization, which receives grants from private foundations to fund their staff and overhead costs, ODFL can forward all the money raised by students to people in developing countries who need it the most.
Another of the Aragon event coordinators, leadership sophomore Keaton Moe regards the fundraiser as “…probably the simplest charity [event] that we’ve held, but I hope it’s the most effective… [because] students know where their money is going.”
This particular fundraiser plans to help build a school in rural San Ramon, Nicaragua. The ODFL organization has partnered with NGOs to build many successful schools in this Central American country.
Surrounded by coffee-growing hills, the current school houses the local coffee harvest, leaks during the winter, and is overcrowded with 110 students from grades 1-8. The project is estimated to cost around $12,000. Volunteer community labor will reduce costs by approximately a quarter and will give the local residents pride in their accomplishments.
