Students to share time and effort with the less fortunate

NEW GLASGOW - Some students spend March Break in sunny locales, working on their tans. A dozen North Nova students will spend March Break working for the underprivileged.
Those students, along with teachers Andrew Francis and Fred MacKenzie, will be in Guatemala from March 8 to 15. With the help of Cross-Cultural Solutions and E.S. Educational Tours, they'll be staying in Quetzalenango - the second largest city in Guatemala, known as Xela by the locals.
But they'll spend most of their time in neighbouring villages, volunteering for community work in some of the most impoverished areas of the country.
The students don't know exactly what kind of volunteer projects they'll be working on, but they could end up helping with construction projects at an orphanage, for instance.
"I'm so privileged to have been born in Canada, but I know there are many people out there who are not as fortunate," says Kyle Power, a senior. "I'm looking forward to giving back to them."
Lauren MacIntosh, who is in Grade 12, agrees. "It's going to be a life-changing experience," MacIntosh says. "This is a chance of a lifetime; it's a chance to really make a difference in a person's life."
The city of Xela - pronounced "Shay-la" - is located high up in the Sierra Madres, and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. But make no mistake, this isn't going to be a sight-seeing tour, says teacher Andrew Francis. "The primary objective is the actual work and the cultural experience, not the sight-seeing," he says.
For the past month, students have been fundraising for the trip to purchase things to take to Guatemala with them.
"In Guatemala, if you don't have shoes, you don't go to school," Francis says.
And so students have raised money to buy hundreds of pairs of children's shoes that they will donate once they arrive in Guatemala.