By Kara Patman
Staff Writer
Building a school is a long and arduous process. Under the name of The Building Class, or TBC, Mira Costa juniors Matt Stern and Emily Everhard are taking the initiative to start their own non-profit charity which will eventually build a school in Kenya.
Founder Stern and co-founder Everhard are making an extensive effort to raise $8500 to build a school in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya. The major themes behind TBC are to unite a graduating class through the fundraising of a school and to be able to give back through educating those who do not currently have access to a stable learning environment.
“I started the charity to give back to education because like the famous Nelson Mandela once said,” Education is one of the most powerful weapons you can use to change the world,” Stern said. “I hope that The Building Class may one day achieve that status and make a change for the better.”
All juniors are invited to participate in the creation of this non-profit. A few students will volunteer to take larger roles as an ambassador for the campaign. The ambassador’s job is to take responsibility to run his or her own sub-division of the fundraiser. Each ambassador is recommended to raise $500 through any means of fundraising that they choose. Other participants will pledge to help out ambassadors with their fundraising campaign, while the rest of the participants will be responsible to work to help their chosen ambassador.
“Growing up in such a humble and fortunate beginning in Manhattan Beach, I’ve always wanted to do something to give back,” Everhard said. “Spreading education was a small step that I knew I could do to help others, and I couldn’t do it without the help of Matt.”
TBC has partnered with “Free the Children,” one of the largest ‘children helping children’ organizations in the world. “Free the Children” has constructed over 750 schools worldwide and will physically build the Kenyan school with the money TBC raises.
“This summer I plan to travel to the region in Kenya to interact with the leaders of “Free the Children” and help construct a school that is identical to the one that we will fund,” Stern said. “While in Kenya I will be posting video and picture blogs daily so all donators can see the effect that they will have with their donations. None of the donations will be going towards my trip as they are all going towards the school.”
In addition to all of the ambassadors’ fundraisers and private donations, they will be hosting benefit shows throughout the year. They are planning on launching their campaign for TBC by the end of March.
“Ideally this school will be both funded and built by the time our class graduates,” Stern said. “All ambassadors and donators will be on our website, http://thebuildingclass.com/, and we also are hoping that their names will be on the actual school that is built in Kenya too.
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