Sale raises $3,900 for Cambodia and Burmese refugee children

Photo by Marcia Downham GIANT GENEROSITY. Lisa McCoy, project co-ordinator for the Muskoka School Project (front) gathers with volunteers during the Giant Garage Sale July 11 to raise money for flip-flops and uniforms for the 500 children attending the newly built Muskoka School in Cambodia.

July 22, 2009 - by Allyson Snelling

Lisa McCoy’s fourth annual Muskoka School Kids giant garage sale made giant strides to outfit students with flip-flops and school uniforms.

Thanks to the generosity of those who donated items, made financial contributions and volunteered their time to help out at the July 11 and 12 sale, McCoy met her goal to purchase 500 flip-flops and school uniforms for children attending the Muskoka School, recently opened in the rural Siem Reap province of Cambodia.

“These clothes may be the only good set of new clothes that these children have ever had,” she said. “In Cambodia, lots of the kids had tattered clothes and some had no shoes, especially the young ones. If they don’t have flip-flops, they can get hookworm, (which) can make them very sick.”

A further $205 was raised in bracelet sales. The project sponsors female Cambodian students who want to attend English school in Cambodia through the sale of bracelets they make themselves, said McCoy. A donation of $7 toward a bracelet provides a month of school for a Cambodian girl, she explained.

Also, $400 from the garage sale proceeds will be put toward computer training courses and educational supplies for Burmese refugee students on the Thai-Burma border.

McCoy plans to return to Cambodia mid-October. Once there, she will guide and co-ordinate a group of 20 Rotarians and friends from southern Ontario who are constructing the initial buildings for a vocational college project called the Bakong Technical College in another impoverished area of Siem Reap District.

They will build a dining hall/community centre building and a bike bank, a workshop where bicycles can be stored, repaired and distributed.

“Bicycles are important for travel,” McCoy explained, and added some rural students have no way to get to school. “Two or three kids can ride on one bicycle, and the family can also use it to sell produce at markets. A bicycle makes a big difference in a whole family’s life.”

Through the generosity of a private donor, who contributed $1,000 at the giant garage sale, McCoy has boosted the number of bicycles for Cambodians to 50.

Several developing countries have bike bank programs and McCoy hopes to construct a three-room bike bank workshop. It is hoped the children and rural people will learn how to maintain and repair the bicycles.

Approximately $5,000 is needed for the project. McCoy hopes to raise the money this fall through a variety show-style fundraiser, The Muskoka Talent Showcase. Any donations toward the bike bank are tax deductible in Canada.

The Muskoka Talent Showcase will feature musical groups and talent from across Muskoka, on stage at the Gravenhurst Opera House.

McCoy said the show will be a venue to also raise awareness for local musicians.

McCoy also plans to spend the winter in rural villages of Burma teaching English and assisting Burmese refugees on the Thai-Burma border.