SCHOOLS

Walking for water at Woodland Middle School

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With gallons of water in hand, Woodland Middle School students walked around the building’s grounds last week to raise funds and food for two charities designed to help the thirsty and hungry: Island Harvest and Water for South Sudan.

The “walk for water” was held at the East Meadow school on Nov. 2. District officials said a book some students read in their English classes inspired the fundraiser.

Seventh graders were required to read New York Times bestseller, “A Long Walk to Water” by Linda Sue Park this fall. The book was based on a true story about Salva Dut, a young man who helped his peers find safety during the Civil War in South Sudan.

When he was just an 11-year-old, Dut fled to Ethiopia on-foot after being separated from his family; he struggled to find food and water. As a teenager, he led 1,500 “lost boys” hundreds of miles through the South Sudan desert to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

Dut relocated to the United States in 1996, where he founded Water for South Sudan, Inc. in 2003. The nonprofit organization delivers “direct, transformative and sustainable quality-of-life service to the people of South Sudan by efficiently providing access to clean, safe water and improving hygiene practices in areas of great need,” according to the group’s mission statement.

After reading Park’s novel, Woodland English Department teachers were inspired to help people in need of water and food. Faculty members designed the walk so that students could try to understand Dut’s hardship and want help others.

For the fundraiser, each student donated $1 to carry a gallon of water during the walk. More than 350 jugs of water were then donated to Island Harvest, a hunger relief organization with the mission “to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island,” according to the charity’s website. In addition, participants raised more than $800 for Water for South Sudan.

Woodland Middle School sixth graders were also involved in the initiative. They collected non perishable foods after learning about world hunger, district officials said, donating the items to Island Harvest.