The Heritage School of Kabala

I blogged previously about some of the great stuff that Heritage High School, our sister high school – and rival – is doing. For the last three years Heritage has held MAD Week (Make A Difference), and raised money to help children in Sierra Leone. (Arapahoe, my high school, does similar things with both the Make A Wish foundation and Toys for Tots.)

Well, this week something even more special is happening – they are opening a school in Sierra Leone, the Heritage School of Kabala. They’ve raised almost $60,000 in the last three years and a delegation from Heritage High School is presently in Sierra Leone to celebrate the grand opening of the school and to strengthen the connection between these two schools.

You can read more about MAD week, read about the trip itself, check out some of the blog posts, or join in the live blog from Sierra Leone and Littleton, Colorado this Thursday, November 12th, from 8:00 to 10:00 am MST (UTC/GMT -7). (The live blog is dependent on the connectivity in Sierra Leone, as electricity – much less Internet connectivity – is not always reliable.)

Way to go Heritage Eagles, you make all of us proud.

It Takes a Whole Village (or High School)

Like in most school districts in the U.S., the high schools in my district have a pretty intense rivalry. But I just had to share this great story - and video - from our "rival" Heritage High School.

Via Dan Maas's (my CIO) blog:

During MAD Week, the school hosted a visit from Ishmael Beah who wrote a book (A long way gone) about his personal experiences as a child soldier. When Ishmael came to Heritage, he was greeted with a heroes welcome. Part of the welcome was to present a video about the effort that the students had put forth.

"MAD" stands for Make A Difference, and boy did they. They raised over $14,000 to help children in Sierra Leone, and one of their students delivered the aid in person. Here's the powerful video they made.

Way to go Heritage!