It may be over 12,000 kilometres to Thailand, but the plight of schoolchildren there has touched the hearts of some Nakusp students.
Grade 5/6 students at Nakusp Elementary have been holding fundraisers to collect money for poor school kids in Thai villages.
Last week, they pitched a table outside Overwaitea to sell glass pendants they had made themselves.
“Our goal is to raise $500, and I think we’ll pass that today,” said Anita Vibe, the student’s teacher.
The idea started when the mother of one of the students, glass artist Joleen Minchin, met a glass art teacher in Thailand, Alexx Cheng.
Cheng, a world-renowned artist in the medium, has a charity in northern Thailand, where temperatures can drop below freezing, yet homes have no insulation. Cheng’s charity encourages people to knit warm clothes for rural children.
“My daughter thought the student’s knitting skills would not be that great, so she came up with this project instead,” says Minchin.
The students made the pendants, using glass and metal fragments they fused in Minchin’s kiln.
The students will donate the money to Cheng’s cause, but will get the chance to connect even closer to the charity- Cheng is coming to Nakusp in April for a beadwork class.
And they’re not finished raising money. Overwaitea has offered to donate hamburgers, buns and propane for a barbeque run by the students. Money raised will be split between Cheng’s charity and the BC Children’s Hospital.
