Current Events

It has been a busy month at FORGE! In honor of World Refugee Day, I am delighted to share a powerful story about American youth bonding together to have a profound effect on lives of thousands of refugee children on the other side of the world.

It all started with Leslie Evans. Leslie is a teacher a Knapp Elementary, an inner-city school in Denver where 75% of the student body is eligible for federally-funded lunches. At the start of last school year, Leslie was looking for a way that her 95% Hispanic students could learn about the world while contributing to a greater cause.

To involve and empower the students, Leslie had them scour the internet for the perfect organization and project that they could help. The students soon came across FORGE's website, and ended up selecting the Kala Peace Library as the inspiration for their efforts. Soon, Knapp Elementary and the Denver Scores afterschool program had banded together to launch a school-wide effort to bring educational opportunity to their peers across the glove.

After learning about Africa and refugees in the classroom, the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders started collecting spare change to donate to FORGE. This project quickly expanded into a competition through the entire school. The winning class (the preschool EC class) raised over $100 and won an extra recess for their efforts. Two days a week, half of Leslie's students would count the pennies collected, and the other half would make notes and cards to send to Kala Peace Library. Students also sold concessions at their home soccer games to raise additional funds for FORGE. In all, they raised over $1000 in the course of the school year.

As Leslie described, the 650 students at this inner-city school felt empowered at their ability to contribute to the lives of others. We at FORGE are truly touched, yet again, at the potential of inspired individuals to effect change on a global level.

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