Warwick Valley Class of 2009 hosts Darfur culture night this Friday

WARWICK — This Friday evening, Jan. 11, the Warwick Valley High School junior class will be holding a “Darfur Culture Night,” from 6:30 - 8 p.m. in the Warwick Valley High School atrium. The idea for this event was the brainchild of Sarah Rawson, president of the Warwick Valley High School junior class. Rawson spent most of last year’s summer vacation with a volunteer group in Africa. And with the help of other junior class officers and their adviser, Janine Fogler, she arranged this event to educate people in a different way about the tragedies going on in Darfur. “This is a consciousness raising and educational evening, incorporating a fun-filled atmosphere to promote aid and the stopping of genocide in the Darfur region,” said Rawson. She explained that tonight’s event will feature food and drink with an African influence along with African dance from the Jubilee Dance Company (including an African drummer), student pianist Joshua Tannis, guest speakers and a moving slide-show. Last summer Rawson traveled with Global Routes to Kenya, a high school student volunteer group. “I spent five weeks in Kenya, spending the majority of my time outside the Kakamega area in a remote, poverty-stricken village called Shichinji,” she reported. “In Shichinji, I lived with a host family. They taught me things that I could have never imagined and opened my mind to a whole new world. Things that I have never even thought about before now cross my mind every day.” While she was living in this small village, Rawson and 17 other high school students from the United States built a one-room schoolhouse. “We used brick, cement, shovels and our bare hands,” she said. Rawson said that she returned from her stay in Africa with a new perspective on life. She will never forget one significant moment shortly before she bid farewell to her host family. “I gave my 23 year-old host-sister, Gentrix, a pair of flip flops,” she recalled. “As I handed them over to her, her entire face illuminated and began to glow with happiness. Her smile could have made the whole world light up. And right then I realized first-hand how much we take for granted. Something that didn’t mean very much to me gave her hope in this world. This one pair of seven-dollar flip-flops is now the finest thing she owns and she wears them with a huge amount of pride. That one moment changed my entire perspective on life and the way we’re meant to live it.” For more information on “Darfur Culture Night,” call 987-3050 and ask for a junior class representative.