High school students in Mukilteo start nonprofit to benefit Ghana

Published 7:27 pm Wednesday, April 13, 2016

MUKILTEO — Organizing a major fundraiser in six weeks would be a challenge for any group.

For the 16 members of Kamiak High School’s Hugs for Ghana, there was one other factor.

As a student-led group, it was all on them to pull it off. The group has no faculty advisor.

“It’s a lot of responsibility,” said Kristin Tandoc, a sophomore member of the group. “If we make a mistake, there’s no one there to fix it. It takes the training wheels off.”

Among their tasks for the March 18 event were organizing food, music, dancers, a raffle and live and select auctions. “We had to take on a lot of responsibility,” said senior Tyler Bang, the group’s co-president.

The result was an event held at Mukilteo’s Rosehill Community Center that raised $6,000.

The money will be used to buy needed supplies for children in Ghana. Since its founding in 2007, the group has donated more then 6,000 items, including school supplies, backpacks, scissors, glue sticks with donations coming from schools throughout the district, including Odyssey, Columbia, Endeavor and Olivia Park elementary schools.

The nonprofit was launched by Rachel Bervell, a Kamiak student, to help children in the nation where her parents were born. She traveled to Ghana and saw the struggles faced by children there, Tandoc said. Once she returned home, she launched a stuffed animal drive to give children joy.

“Kids in Ghana didn’t have things like that,” Tandoc said. “Children hug teddy bears,” she said. “That’s why it’s called Hugs for Ghana.”

Brothers Joel and Michael Bervell stepped up to continue the tradition after their sister graduated, expanding its mission to provide a variety of needed supplies, from school supplies to sporting equipment. With Michael Bervell’s graduation from Kamiak last year, the group faced another transition — the first time one of the children of the Bervell family wasn’t involved with the group.

Michael Yi, a senior, the group’s other co-president, has been active with the group since he was a freshman. What drove his interest was the ability to promote education outside his own community. “When I was in middle school, I heard about events around the world,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to visualize that when you live here in Mukilteo.”

The group met on Mondays after school. Tandoc’s schedule in the week leading up to the fundraiser is one example of how hard the students had to work to juggle the event’s responsibilities with school activities.

“It was really challenging for a lot of us,” Tandoc said. “I’m also in band and track.” She had track practise daily, a track meet two days before the event and a band concert one day before. “It’s good for time-managing skills,” she said.

Mukilteo Mayor Jennifer Gregerson said she finds the ability for students to take on the responsibility of organizing its events “amazing and inspiring.”

“They just have great maturity,” she said. “It’s really wonderful for a group of Mukilteo students to be thinking internationally and have an impact on areas throughout the world.”

Bang said being a member of the group taught him some lessons he hopes will guide him in his years in college. “I guess a lot of people think that they can’t do something really big, but it gave me that confidence,” he said. “I could see what we could do as a small group just because we tried.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com