Nearly a year after Pete and I started our journey to help 100 women with 2 million steps, a group of Canadian students have taken us more than 30% past our goal. And they did it with coffee.

“When our teacher first told our class about obstetric fistula and what the women have to go through just to survive I was both horrified and amazed,” said Allison Kendall, “This made me want to raise as many funds as we could for these women.”

With donated space from Springbank Park for All Seasons and coffee from Van Houtte, 15 students from Springbank Community High School put on an entertaining musical coffeehouse event that raised more than $8.400!

Students were introduced to the health issue after a chance meeting their teacher, Jill Milner had with me and Pete in Villamayor de Monjardin. Back in July, we had dinner with Jill and her friends who were volunteering at an albergue in the pretty hillside town. The rand evening of conversation and discussion would stay in our minds as one of our favorites. Jill and I stayed in touch and she told me she wanted to do something to help women with fistula. When she told her students about the condition, the group of changemakers decided to make something happen.

The idea behind the event was to bring together family and friends to celebrate how Africa has touched their lives. Students shared travel stories from their recent trip to Botswana with Habitat for Humanity. Musical guests Abby Bohna and the Youth Singers performed and Samantha Knight and Reghan Walsh gave a presentation about obstetric fistula.

While admission to the event was free, guests were invited to donate what they could. The students also held a raffle of items generously donated by local companies. All of the funds raised that evening were matched by an anonymous donor from the community of Springbank.

Besides changing the lives of women in Africa, the students also saw their worlds expand. Cole Mercuur said, “The entire event really opened my eyes to the conditions of life in developing nations around the world.”

The event opened my eyes to the power of a motivated group of young people. In one night, these students raised more money than any other OperationOF event. It just shows you what can happen when a small group of inspired people focus their energy on something.

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