Elementary students send shoes to Cambodia
by Tracy Dudley
Back in March, kindergartner Samantha (Sami) Choe shared a story with Ms. Leigh Lasik’s DCS Montessori class about her father’s recent trip to Cambodia. Dr. William Choe is a cardiologist who is part of a group called Jeramiah’s Hope, a medical missionary organization based here in Denver (www.cmmcjh.com). Upon returning home, Choe told his daughter about the extreme poverty in Cambodia, whereby many of the children there did not even own a single pair of shoes.
“The children are in the library of a two-story school. The school was built with funds from Meas Saran. He is the chief of nursing at the Phnom Penh Heart Center. He survived the killing fields, but lost his family. This is his home village, and his life is now dedicated to teaching the children of the village,” said Choe.
After Lasik’s class heard the touching story, they discussed how each student in the class currently owns many pairs of shoes. Sami’s classmates were so taken by the situation, they collectively decided to donate some of their own shoes to the children in Cambodia.
“We had very little time to accomplish this task, as another associate would be leaving for Cambodia in one week and could deliver the shoes. It was an all hands effort, said Lasik. “Families brought in many pairs of shoes, and we were able to give boxes of shoes with letters from our kindergarteners to Sami’s mother in March.”
Lasik’s students were thrilled when they received numerous thank you letters back from Cambodia that included photos of the children wearing their new shoes. Next year, DCS Montessori hopes to expand the “Shoes for Cambodia” project into a school-wide effort. In fact, the students in Cambodia have expressed an interest in receiving books, instead of shoes, in order to enhance their efforts in learning the English language.
