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Let There Be Light!
We are so very excited to announce that solar panels have been installed and there is now power to the Daryl D Wittich Science and Learning Center! Thanks to Tim Blackwell and his great team at One World Sustainable, the students will now be able to use the classrooms during the darker hours and there is power for the soon-to-be-purchased computers in the Computer Center. The solar system is able to power the entire Science Center and has a battery backup system that allows power to be stored for those rainy days. Thank you to all our donors who helped make this a reality! …
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2015 Wine Tasting Fundraiser
We hosted our first Wine Tasting Dinner Fundraiser on September 12, 2015. The event took place in Plymouth, MI at the Courthouse Grille Restaurant. The wines were donated by Thurston Wolfe Wines. Everyone who attended enjoyed a great meal, tasted delicious wines, and had a very enjoyable and fun evening. Our event sold out and we had 80 attend the Wine Tasting Dinner. A portion of the ticket cost was a donation to our charity – “Friends Of John Paul School”. We also sold wine after the dinner and portion of those proceeds were donated to our charity. In addition, we also sold…
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2015 School Visit
This year’s trip to the John Paul Secondary School was attended by Paul & Nancy Berrigan, Eoin, Liz, Sam and Nate Comerford. This was a special trip for all of us because the Comerford family has been an integral part of the fundraising projects that take place throughout the year, and this was the first time we were taking American high school students to meet their counterparts in Uganda. Sam and his dad, Eoin, ran a 10K in the April to raise money to purchase solar powered Luci Lights to take to the school. The school and surrounding areas do not currently have electricity lines and therefore no source of consistent lighting at night. The…
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2015 School Visit
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JPSS in the news 2012
Local Brothers chip in to help JPSS: When Nate and Sam Comerford saw that kids in Africa attended “school” under a tree − the only shade to be found in the hot, barren landscape − they were inspired to do something to help. The Farmington Hills brothers, ages 10 and 11, heard about Paul and Nancy Berrigan of Farmington Hills, fellow parishioners at St. Fabian Catholic Church in Farmington Hills, who built a school in a remote area of Uganda called Chelekura. The John Paul School is slowly becoming a real campus since being built in 2007. The school for ninth grade through junior college has a main building, a…
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Little Dresses Expands to Kansas City
For several months now, many volunteers have been meeting at the Hillcrest Thrift Shop to sew dresses for the girls of John Paul School under the banner of “Little Dresses for Africa”. As of this date, they have made a grand total of 122 dresses as well as several “Little Britches for Boys”! This has been made possible by a small group of very dedicated people Mary Desko Murphy, Michele and Jack Murphy, Lou Warner and Cindy Hoffecker. Hillcrest Thrift Shop manager, Lou Warner, has been most generous in allowing volunteers to use his facility and sewing machines to make the dresses and even more generous in donating fabric. Starting…
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Solar Panels for JPSS
TIM BLACKWELL & ONEWORLD SUSTAINABLE The three solar panels, along with a computer, were donated and installed by Tim Blackwell and his company, OneWorld Sustainable, with the help of his partner in Kenya, Henry Watitwa and his company, Bright Home Solar Energy, who donated the installation. This was at Tim and Henry’s personal and John Paul School is extremely grateful for their very generous donation and we look forward to doing business with them in the near future. Thank You, Tim and Henry!!
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Update from Uganda – Kathleen Berrigan 2011
Here are some thoughts regarding my time spent at the school this past June… The memory of children running to greet us with large smiles and laughter as we traveled to the school is one that visits me often. As does the memory of getting to know the students. I recall their initial shyness which soon turned to laughter and shared stories, including discussions about what the students hoped to …be when they had completed their education… nurses, teachers, pilots, doctors, etc. In hearing their stories, I was taken by the resiliency that these young men and women have already shown in their lives. One would assume that there is…
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Update from Uganda – Deepa Mathew 2011
Visiting John Paul School in Uganda was an experience that I may never be able to put into words. The feeling of standing amongst all of those children who are embracing the opportunity to learn in the midst of such poverty was eye-opening. I can now understand and appreciate the ongoing dedication of Mr. and Mrs. B to provide these students and this community with the seeds of education. I’m looking forward to my next visit there.
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Women Lifting Women
During my recent trip to Africa a priest explained that undergarments are very expensive there and owning them is out of reach for most poverty stricken African women. In fact, the African women that do own them are considered to be more independent and assertive, they have a degree of prestige and men are less likely to assault these women. After returning from a visit to John Paul School in Chelekura, Uganda several of my women friends and I were discussing what they could do on a local level to help the students in Chelekura and African women in general, thus “Women Lifting Women” was born. Taylor and Lori Garner,…
