September 4 , 2005
By AMANDA SCHOENBERG
Students from eight local high schools are kicking off a massive campaign to rid Afghanistan of landmines with an assembly marking the anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, hosted by Monte Vista Christian School.
Students will honor those who lost their lives Sept. 11 at 2 p.m., with music by the Monte Vista choir, the Aptos High jazz band and a prayer from the Monte Vista student body chaplain.
Speakers will include nonprofit Roots of Peace founder Heidi Kuhn and her teen daughter Kyleigh, who started Making Change Work — Collecting Pennies for Peace, and Peggy Pope, foreign affairs officer in the Department of State’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement and a representative from the Pajaro Valley Fire Protection District.
A rally will follow with food, entertainment from local bands and a de-mining demonstration. Students from Aptos, Pacific Collegiate, Watsonville, Monte Vista Christian, Harbor, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Soquel high schools will join the event. The event launches a countywide campaign set to raise funds until Dec. 3 for Making Change Work, which converts change into de-mining efforts at schools, parks and playgrounds in Afghanistan.
Roots of Peace was started in 1997 by San Rafael resident Heidi Kuhn to convert landmine zones into working farmland. In 2003, Kuhn’s daughter launched Making Change Work with KGO-TV anchor Cheryl Jennings to get teens involved in de-mining.
Marin County teens then raised about $70,000 to make Afghanistan safer for kids. In Afghanistan, there are about 724 million square meters with landmine contamination. About 200 people die from mine explosions each month, about half of them kids under 18 years old, according to the Roots of Peace Web site.
Aptos High has already begun its campaign, senior Amy Bailey said. At a welcome assembly last week, organizers described plans and hit the crowd with statistics, including how many kids would have died from landmines during the assembly (three). Campaign buckets were already full by the end of the assembly, Bailey said. Students plan to follow the Sept. 11 kickoff with car washes and visits to local businesses, Bailey said.
Pat Moore, who works with students across Santa Cruz County as a counselor at Educational & Career Consultants in Soquel, saw Jennings speak about Roots of Peace and resolved to bring the project to county. "I thought if the kids in Marin County could do it, the Santa Cruz kids could do it," she said. She invited Roots of Peace representative Lynn Davison to show landmines and de-mining equipment to local students and parents, many of whom soon joined the campaign. The project appealed to students because funds go directly to de-mining at schools and playgrounds, Moore said."I had heard the typical part, how (landmines) work, but I didn’t know how many were actually out there, how many deaths were because of them," Bailey said. "I knew that with the help of friends, we could do a lot for the program."
Monte Vista Christian senior Lindsay Taylor, co-president of Interact, the school’s community service club, decided to join the campaign to help teens think outside the box to help other young people, she said. "A lot of times in high school kids are self-centered," she said. "I think it’s awesome that there’s an organization out there teaching kids that there’s a bigger world out there."
Monte Vista parent Sharon Ince commended the school for stepping up to host the Sept. 11 kickoff. "Not only is this a great humanitarian project, but it will give the students the opportunity to build leadership skills," she said. For more information, see www.rootsofpeace.org.
