One of our favorite things about publishing Macaroni Kid is the chance to connect with other moms in our community. Often times these connections inspire us and remind us of the ability of one person to make a difference. It is with this in mind that we launch a new article series called Awesome Mama. Our hope is to introduce you to some amazing moms living right in our communities who not only are doing unique and wonderful things but also deserve to have some attention brought to their mission.
We live in a great big world. How often do you stop and think about that? Do you talk to your own kids about the fact that there are children living all over the world, and a lot of them are living in conditions much different than our everyday lives? Would your children be able to imagine helping those people who live on the other side of the planet? Generation Joy is a locally created non-profit doing just that by connecting students and community members with rural schools in South Africa. The organization not only sends school supplies and other needed items but also broadens the world views of students living right here.
Local mom Linda Guard is a Generation Joy board member and has experienced its impact both here in our community and in Africa. She also has an important message about kids and volunteering.
Our mission statement is: Generation Joy Foundation is dedicated to engaging local students and community members in providing educational resources, funding and basic needs for children in South Africa, regardless of age, gender, religion, ethnicity or income.
What inspired/encouraged you to get involved with Generation Joy?
Generation Joy was started by Curtis Betzler; an 8th grade science teacher at Beaver Lake Middle School. While on vacation in Ghana one summer, he was stuck by the tremendous poverty in the rural schools he saw. When he returned to school that fall, he ran a service project to collect school supplies to send to Ghana, but soon realized that the cost of shipping would make it impossible to run this project on a yearly basis. The principal at BLMS at that time, Josh Almy, has a family friend who is involved with a small rural community in South Africa. He was already supporting an orphanage there and offered to pay for our shipping if we would provide items for the needy kids in that community. That was the beginning of our relationship with the people in the towns of Himeville and Underberg in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Curtis and fellow staff members at BLMS traveled to South Africa each summer for three years. The project blossomed at BLMS, and other schools asked to be involved. It became clear that we needed to start a non-profit to support our work.
What part do your own children play in your current mission?
I was a board member of the PTSA at BLMS during these years, and became involved by helping out with the school supply drive. It grew to the point that a service club was formed, and there was an all school assembly each year to kick off the donation drive. We collected hundreds of boxes of school supplies, stuffed animals, books, shoes and sports equipment, and dozens of bicycles. I was invited to join the board of directors when Generation Joy was formed. My daughter Harper and I, along with two other parents with their middle-schoolers, traveled to South Africa in 2008, and I was hooked!
We spent three weeks distributing school supplies to more than 30 rural Zulu schools, and visited with the kids at the orphanage. Our host and guide, Pierre Horn, is a native South African who is the director of an NGO called Family Literacy Project, www.familyliteracyproject.co.za which is doing amazing work in that corner of the world. The schools we visit usually have no electricity or heat, no indoor plumbing, no cafeterias, libraries, gyms or science labs. Some kids wear their pencils around their necks so they won’t lose them. I know it sounds like a cliché, but they literally walk for miles, to and from school.
In July when we visit, it’s winter there and very cold. What amazes me the most is how happy the kids are, and how eager they are to be in school, even when they share a desk with three other students and have to wear mittens while they’re doing their lessons. They have such joyful spirits, though they have so little. It was the experience of a lifetime for my daughter, and it was really good for her to see how other children live in another part of the world. It’s an experience I wish all children could have.
What lessons/values are you learning through this process? What lessons/values do you hope your kids are learning?
The reason I chose to be involved in Generation Joy is that I truly believe that kids want to help. The kids in our community are privileged, compared to the kids we work with in South Africa; they just need to be reminded of that sometimes because their hearts are already in the right place! I always tell a little story to the kids here that I talk to. When I was young, probably about 12 years old, I had a great desire to “save the world”. I would announce to my parents and teachers that I was going to join the Peace Corps someday and make a difference in peoples’ lives. My parents and teachers and other well-meaning adults would always look at me and smile and tell me I could do anything I wanted to when I grew up. Nobody ever told me that I could make a difference while I was still a kid!
My goal is for children to be encouraged in their dreams of making a difference. They don’t have to wait until they’re “grown up”. Kids will rise to the expectations we have of them, and will blossom into humanitarians, for whom volunteering is a way of life, if we just give them a little help. Students involved with Gen Joy have learned about the impact they can make in a community on the other side of the world. We’ve received letters and e-mails from young adults who were part of the early years of Generation Joy at BLMS, who went on to start service projects in high school and college, because of their experience. We believe we are helping in some small way to create a generation of humanitarians.
My goal is for children to be encouraged in their dreams of making a difference. They don’t have to wait until they’re “grown up”. Kids will rise to the expectations we have of them, and will blossom into humanitarians, for whom volunteering is a way of life, if we just give them a little help. Students involved with Gen Joy have learned about the impact they can make in a community on the other side of the world. We’ve received letters and e-mails from young adults who were part of the early years of Generation Joy at BLMS, who went on to start service projects in high school and college, because of their experience. We believe we are helping in some small way to create a generation of humanitarians.
What can we do to support you and Generation Joy?
We are always thrilled when schools and groups (scouts, clubs, soccer team, etc.) want to help us out by holding events to collect items to be sent to kids in South Africa. We work with a pre-school in Sammamish that just held a very successful drive for books and educational toys. We can always use as many pens, pencils and composition books as we can get, but we also like to encourage children to donate something of their own, that their parents don’t have to go out and buy. The Zulu children in the rural schools we go to are SO EXCITED to get stuffed animals (gently used is fine) and another organization we work with is successfully setting up community libraries so books are so important.
We’re always happy to work with any group that wants to help. You can visit our website at www.genjoy.org and I can be contacted directly at ldguard@comcast.net
If you would like the chance to support Generation Joy and get your own kids involved, Macaroni Kid and KidzBounce have joined forces to offer a community event called Bounce for a Cause. During the event bring needed donations (listed below) and your kids will bounce for free.
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- DEBBIE BERTO is on a mission and working with the non-profit - Friends of Lake Sammamish State Park - to advocate for park improvements and to bring new events and people to the park.
- SHYANNE OLSEN is on a mission not only to put books in the hands of kids and their parents but also to make a difference in the everyday lives of people living in her community.
- SUSAN HUSA is on a mission to create a group where mothers are welcomed, informed and inspired in their community.
- RACHEL MARK is on a mission to start the Wildcat Swimming Club to share her love of swimming with others in our area.
- DIANE GOCKEL is on a mission to share her love for animals and tell their stories to kids and their parents.
- WENDY STONE is on a mission to "live life to the fullest" which led her - and two other friends - to launch a local winery called Pearl and Stone Wine Co.
- HEATHER MATTHEWS is on a mission to make a difference in her community by raising money and awareness for the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank.
- KAYSEE HYATT is on a mission to build community awareness for pediatric stroke and hope for impacted children and families.
- JULIE PARKER is on a mission to complete a marathon in every state by the time she turns 50 years old. 50 by 50.
- JAMIE MENOLD is on a mission to raise awareness of and funds for pediatric cancer research.
- KRISTEN BRANTNER is on a mission to make a difference in the future of rare disease and created a local non-profit called RAREevents.
- CHRISTIE MALCHOW is on a mission to make sure the city hears the voices of young families and is running for Sammamish City Council.
