The Micmac Give Back

It all started the 1st of April 08, when volunteer Phyllis Abramson talked to two classes about the importance of giving back to their community. She told them about African kids who had to walk miles for clean water. She told them about girls who couldn’t go to school because it was their responsibility to carry water each day.

Then Abramson told them about the work she was doing with the Atlanta Rotary Club. The Agency has built 100 wells in Kenya and is now busy raising money to build 600 more in Africa.

Could we do that, asked one of the students? Could we buy a well? One of the teachers (McMahon) looked at the other (McMahan). They had been trying to impress on the students that even the smallest effort can have a lasting effect. Now the chance had presented itself. Yes, the teachers said. But it didn’t have to be in Africa, It could be anywhere in the world. Several times over the years McMahan had spearheaded efforts to raise money for disaster victims, each time raising about $1,000.

Abramson told the class depending on the kind of well they wanted to build, it would cost as little as $4,000 to as much as$10,000. The teachers thought that was a lot but gave the classes their full support. The students presented their plans to the faculty. They called their program the MicMac Give Back. Their slogan was; We are shooting for the stars, and following our hearts. They wanted to build a well in Nicaragua, through a woman’s organization called Women Thrive.

They began as any 8 and 9 year olds would. They opened a lemonade stand, baked and sold cookies, made and sold ceramics and other things at what they called the MicMac Market. They had a read-a-thon at school collecting money from friends and family for the type and number of books they read. They cleaned out their piggy-banks. By May Ist they had $5,000 by Last Monday they had more than $7.000. Could they read enough to push then over the $10.000 finish line? Yes they could. At the end of the school day on Friday, the MicMac Give Back raised a total of $12.554 more than enough to build a well or two.

Just think if a group of third graders can do such an extraordinary thing and it is an extraordinary thing to the people who will have clean water in their village. What could we ordinary people who don’t have a lot of money do if we all got together and made the effort? I think it would be mind boggling. I think we could do more than all the governments in the world.