Birthday party becomes fundraiser for school in Kenya
Published 1:30 am Friday, January 13, 2017
MARYSVILLE — A former Marysville Pilchuck High student decided that just because he was no longer at the school didn’t mean he should stop contributing to the community.
In 2015, Keith Lasher aged out of the school’s Life Skills Program, which serves special needs students like himself. He’s now in the off-campus transitional program, which focuses on developing skills that will allow him to be more self-sufficient outside of a school environment.
Lasher was born to drug-addicted biological parents and was diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, Asperger’s syndrome and with a cognitive disability that has him reading at a third-grade level, said his adoptive mother, Leslie Lasher.
Yet he also is rather high-functioning, a good conversationalist and extremely adept with computer technology, she said.
The school’s Life Skills students, meanwhile, have been raising money for the past three years to build a school in Kenya. The “Million Penny Project” has a goal of $10,000 to go toward the school’s construction.
Lasher decided he wanted to throw a party for his 20th birthday, which was Jan. 3. But he wanted to benefit the fundraiser, said Jim Strickland, Lasher’s Life Skills teacher at Marysville Pilchuck.
“He was inspired to take the focus off of himself and put it on the community,” Strickland said.
“I just felt like I owed it to him to finish the project,” Keith Lasher said.
Lasher’s birthday party at the school Saturday drew about 70 students. Bands played and Lasher and other current and former students asked everyone attending to support the Million Penny Project and help them get to their goal of $10,000.
The project has brought more than $6,800 over the past three years, Strickland said. About $550 was raised at Saturday night’s party.
The vehicle for the charity is an international nonprofit called the We Charity that works to improve education, provide clean water, food security, and teach financial literacy and vocational skills in several countries where child labor and exploitation have been problems.
It was established in 1995 by two Canadian teenage brothers, Craig and Marc Kielburger, who went on to establish a business called Me to We Social Enterprises to provide We Charity with a continuous source of funding.
“It’s really awesome because kids started that and it’s turned into something big now,” Lasher said.
“I really want to be able to do something like that, just change the world, and help the ones around me,” he said.
The students at Marysville Pilchuck have taken part in annual “We Day” celebrations that originated in Toronto and came to Seattle starting in 2013. The events are for student groups that “earn” their attendance by pursing service projects in their communities and around the world.
Strickland said Lasher had been involved in MPHS’s We Day projects, but wanted to do something different this year.
“We have always been involved in service projects as part of our program in school,” Strickland said.
Lasher, he said, turned his birthday into a “miniature We Day.”
“He’s a guy who’s full of passion for doing things that matter,” Strickland said.
“It’s very exciting to see young people take initiative to do things like this,” he said.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
