BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

It was a lot of work, but it was fun

By David Cremins, age 12 | September 1, 2008

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Memorial Middle School seventh-grader David Cremins took action for kids in Northern Uganda by forming a school group and creating a Web site for donations.

I had never heard of the Invisible Children Project or the civil war in Northern Uganda before. That all changed last year when a mom at Memorial Middle School brought the Invisible Children DVD for the sixth-graders to watch. This DVD informed us about the crisis in Northern Uganda. It told us about the war that has plagued the region for over two decades, how thousands of families have been uprooted from their homes, and how the areas they were sent to live in are unimaginably cramped, run-down, and disease stricken. Most kids can’t even go to school there.

A lot of our grade brushed this DVD off as a way to get out of some class, but several kids got excited about this movie and wanted to know how they could help the families of Uganda. I don’t know how many kids actually went home and looked at the Invisible children Web site, but I know I did.

That Web site taught me a lot about how I could help with the cause. It even instructed me on how to get an organization up and running at our school to help. I soon had teacher approval, principal approval, and a rather large group of friends to help. The group became so big I had to limit membership.

Things took off from there. We had meetings three times a week, I set up a Web site, and soon enough we had told the entire school and all my family and friends about our Uganda appeal. To date, the group has raised $2,580! All this money went directly to the Invisible Children foundation and helped make the lives of the people in Northern Uganda better.

I am still amazed I started a great project like this. People have told me a lot that they were grateful that the group and I would work so hard towards this cause. My reply, “It wasn’t really hard at all. It was fun.”

Editor’s Note: If you want to help the cause, go to www.geocities.com/themmslifesavers/Home.html!

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