July 20, 2010
CHAMPS New Hampshire is racing for the cause!
Twelve year old Michaela Streep is tying on her running shoes, stepping into her swimsuit, and boarding her bike this summer to participate in the Haunted City Junior Triathlon on August 7th. Michaela, who was a huge part of the successful CHAMPS NH campaigns for an MDD and young survivor, was inspired by her sister and dad, who are also triathletes. Always empathetic, Michaela says: "I am taking on this challenge for all those mine survivors who don't have the opportunity to swim, run, and ride and to encourage those who can--to do it!" Make a donation to CHAMPS NH to help support Michaela's campaign! Go Michaela!
July 15, 2010
CHAMPS Director Kimberly is on the road this summer, promoting CHAMPS to teachers attending Summer Advanced Placement seminars. We hope to have several more schools on board for the 2010-2011 school year and beyond! The latest story about Kimberly and CHAMPS finds her at Texas Christian University.
Read more about Kimberly's travels 
June 2010
Thanks to all the CHAMPS supporters in the Houston metro area and beyond who helped The Woodlands students re-raise the money stolen from their fundraising event. Now, with $25,000 raised, The Woodlands students have fully sponsored MDD Texas and will use the remaining money to provide rehab to a young mine survivor.
We are in awe of your incredible generosity and look forward to bringing you updates when MDD Texas begins service in Iraq.
Read more about this roller-coaster campaign here
April 30, 2010
CHAMPS needs your help!
The kids in CHAMPS TX at the Woodlands H.S. had all their money from their fundraising event stolen. Nearly $9000 was taken and the kids are devastated.
CHAMPS supporters need to step up to the plate and donate what you can to help the Woodland High School students reach their goal of getting a mine detection dog.
Radio stations and the TX surrounding communities are trying to re-raise the money on behalf of the kids - but we'd love any support!
Thanks!
Another partnership has formed! 
GO EAGLES!!
Today Utsi paid a visit to two of the Fifth Grade classes at the Wister Elementary School in Philadelphia, PA to introduce them to the CHAMPS Program. The students had a sneak preview at what the whole school will see in September at the official launch of their campaign for a MDD.
Invited by the Principal, Donna Smith, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Eagles Youth Partnership, Sarah Martinez-Helfman was also present for the presentations. It was decided that the students of Wister Elementary and the Philadelphia Eagles Football Team will work together to sponsor the very first CHAMPS MDD for the state of Pennsylvania. The Eagles are the first NFL team to work with CHAMPS and The Marshall Legacy Institute.
Keep checking back for new blogs about the Wister/Eagles campaign!
This is an article written by a Maryland Glenelg Country School 5th grade student named Taylor Feld
To Fly a Kite
“My kite caught an upward breeze and blew off. I stood and watched it with Omar, who laughed as it flew away to a world where children can play and families can eat and kites don’t have to hide under rugs.”
-- From The Secret Kite
Deborah Ellis’ moving story, The Secret Kite, narrated by a boy named Mustafa, takes place in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, a group of religious extremists, have prohibited many activities both Afghanis and Americans enjoy. These include flying kites, listening to music, and even most types of reading. In early May, the GCS Lower School initiated Kite Day, an occasion at which teachers flew traditional Afghan kites while all students in the Lower School, like Omar in The Secret Kite, stood, their faces lifted skyward, and watched these triangular paper wonders soar. “The kites were amazing to watch,” commented Yianni Karabatis, a GCS fourth grader. Unlike the children in the story, our students had nothing to hide or fear as the kites danced overhead.
In fact, the activity was in celebration of freedoms easily taken for granted, and in honor of all the children and adults in Afghanistan who can no longer enjoy kite flying, a national pastime that had been very popular in a more peaceful era. GCS teachers and students were remarkably fortunate to have the family of the Lower School’s own Ms. Linar Etemadi, a beloved fourth grade teacher, tell them all about the kites. “Kite fighting,” as students and teachers learned, involved flying two “dueling” kites equipped with extremely sharp, glass-coated strings. Whoever managed to cut their opponent’s kite string would win. Ashraf Etemadi, Ms. Etemadi’s father, and his two sons, Ahmad Shah and Mohammad Seraj, planned to demonstrate this, but alas, the weather did not cooperate. Though students did not get to fly kites, seeing the kites and hearing about the Afghani tradition made for a memorable afternoon, complete with learning that extended beyond textbooks and maps.
In addition to the colorful Kite Day, many other strong efforts within the Lower School this year served to connect GCS students with the people of Afghanistan. This work held special meaning for students during a troubled time, when our troops are deployed in the war-torn nation. In the spring, an inspiring connection emerged between some students attending a high school in Afghanistan and a group of GCS fourth and fifth graders. The students used Skype, a web-based program which works much like a phone, with the added feature of showing the faces of the conversants via computer screen. Under the leadership of Ms. Etemadi and Lower School computer science teacher Janice Newell, GCS was able to communicate with the all-boys’
Roshan High School in Afghanistan. This once-in-a-lifetime exchange gave GCS fourth and fifth graders a chance to step into the shoes of their peers on the other side of the world. Before the communications began, however, GCS students learned a bit of Persian, to better greet their new friends. Of course, Ms. Etemadi and her friend Akmal Ghafori, a Roshan High School teacher, had to do quite a bit of translating anyway! Later, when conversation slowed after an exchange about the weather, smiles between the groups spoke louder than words. Ms. Etemadi then asked the Afghan students what items they would like for GCS students to send them in a gift basket. In keeping with typical Afghan tradition, the boys humbly replied, “Your happiness is our gift.” She pleaded with them once more for an answer, and their earnest response was, “We are thirsty for peace.” “Those piercing words haunt me every day. It is an honor to be part of this amazing, once in a lifetime project. Together we are making history, building bridges across the world, and quenching the thirst of my beloved people,” she replied.
The students’ exploration of Afghani culture would not be complete without some fine dining! GCS boasts a long tradition of exploring cuisine from around the world to help students understand the multitude of the global cultures around them. The fourth grade’s International Bazaar, and the many special feasts and treats shared in French and Spanish classes are much-beloved examples. Ms. Etemadi and her family, particularly her mother, Marie Etemadi, built on this custom by serving a traditional Afghan Tea after Kite Day, complete with soothing green tea and mouth-watering cinnamon and pistachio “elephant ears” (crisp wafers shaped like the ears of an elephant) topped with powdered sugar. No matter what life experiences might separate us, no matter how many miles lie between us, powdered sugar is a language American and Afghani children can easily share!
But GCS students soon realized there were more difficult lessons to learn about Afghanistan, as well. In The Secret Kite, a boy named Ghulam has only one leg. He represents one of the estimated 400,000 Afghani civilians who have been killed or crippled by senseless land mine accidents. What can a group of school children do to help? In actuality, it only took one school child to start the wheels turning. GCS fifth grader Shelby Patrick was troubled by the dangerous presence of land mines throughout many parts of Afghanistan. Shelby acted on this thought and, with the help of her father, wrote a letter to the Head of the Lower School, Anne Wooleyhand, requesting a “tag day” fundraiser to support an organization called the CHildren Against Mines Program, or CHAMPS. The organization trains dogs, mainly German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois, to sniff out land mines which would be unnoticeable to human workers. The dogs can detect actual explosives, instead of just metal, and are a superior way of finding these hidden killers. Working with their handlers, demining dogs speed up the mine searching process tenfold; that means saving ten times more lives.
“I think the best thing about the [Afghan/GCS] program is that it has opened a door for students to learn about land mines and other such issues and how they affect children their age,” Mrs. Wooleyhand, later remarked.
In April of 2008, the children were visited by Utsi, an experienced retired demining dog, and her handler Mrs. Kimberly McCasland. Together, they demonstrated how the mine-detecting process works, and how the dog is kept reasonably safe. Students also learned about the mines themselves, and the fear and destruction they cause in many countries throughout the world. Thanks to Shelby, GCS was able to raise enough money to support a land mine detection dog. Dragon, as he was appropriately named, is now stationed in Afghanistan, saving lives every day. Knowing they had made a real difference in a real problem, the students celebrated by inviting Utsi back to school to visit during the Afghani Tea. As Shelby herself intoned, “It’s really great [that we were able to fund Dragon] because I know that he’s saving lives, and that’s really cool.”
Inspired as they learned, the students also raised over $500 toward the purchase of prosthetics, crutches, and other materials to help land mine victims in their everyday lives. In addition, the GCS community, lead again by Ms. Etemadi, put together several gift baskets to send to Afghanistan. Ms. Etemadi assures us that she intends to send many more baskets in the future, possibly containing toys and sports equipment as the effort continues. Also slated to continue throughout the years are Kite Day, the Afghan Tea, and communications with Roshan High School.
Kites are magical to children because they seem to fly without effort. In reality, they must be launched before the wind can take them up. Through the GCS/ Afghanistan exchange, students learned that launching an idea, an effort, or a solution is not that difficult. Once launched, the idea might take flight, carried on the winds of community and human connection, and soar higher than ever imagined. Even in the face of seemingly unsurpassable forces such as war and oppression, young people can still strive to understand and make a difference. They can reach out and talk to strangers in need, smile, and ask their names. In the 2008-09 school year GCS launched a kite for Afghanistan – and for America. With continued effort and commitment, we can watch that kite fly high, and proudly launch countless more.
***Taylor Feld is a rising sixth grader at GCS. She wants you to know that Afghanistan is just one of the more than 70 countries across the globe affected by land mines, and many more dogs are needed. To learn how you can help, please visit www.champskids.org.