We are less than a week away from our Virtual Gala! Like every year, there's still a lot to do and the nervous yet excited butterflies have returned to my stomach.
A lot has changed this year, but one thing about our Gala that hasn't is that we ask you to follow the lead of our local students. Normally, they would have already set the bar pretty high as they would be well on their way to collecting over 10,000 pounds of school supplies - they rely on you and the Gala to make sure the container arrives! This year, students at Fernwood Elementary School went above and beyond when they took their Annual Benefit Concert digital in support of students, families, and faculty at our Ugandan partner schools.
The Fernwood Community provided 1,000 educational packets and 5,000 meals to students in Uganda. Despite the struggles that the coronavirus was causing in their own lives, they reached out beyond their immediate community to make a difference. I was incredibly impressed by how they exhibited such compassion and empathy for Ugandan students, whose struggled with COVID-19 manifest in entirely different ways. Next week, we'll ask you to follow the example of Fernwood students in support of Ugandan students in need.
You might appreciate a little "behind the scenes" clip of two of our Fernwood Distribution sites in Uganda: