Newspaper Article:
Students hope to fund college for 3 Dominicans
By JANET PARMER
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sara Cantrell and Mary McQuoid say they are privileged to attend college and want to offer the same opportunity to three young people in the Dominican Republic.As their senior project at Casa Grande High in Petaluma, McQuoid and Cantrell are raising money to finance four-year college educations for the Dominicans. They hope to raise $26,000 t o cover complete university schooling for the three.The teenagers are creating a scholarship program, Building Minds, in conjunction with Casa teach er Lynne Moquete's program, Building Homes, Building Hope.Moquete, a former Peace Corps worker in the Dominican Republic, began taking students to a rural area of the country to learn about global poverty 11 years ago. The teens live with families and participate in community service projects, such as home construction and working at local schools.McQuoid hasn't traveled to the Dominican Republic, but two siblings and her father went on trips. Cantrell has been twice with Moquete.The teens sponsored a fund-raising dinner March 23 and showed a DVD describing the work of Building Homes, Building Hope and the launch of Building Minds. The pair will send letters to 400 people who participated in the Dominican trips with Moquete asking for their participation.They would like donors to each pledge $20 a month for a year, and they figure if they enlist 100 people, they will reach their fund-raising goal.During previous trips, the Petaluma-based organization had contact with the initial three candidates for scholarships. They expressed interest in attending university in the capital city of Santo Domingo but would not be able to afford tuition or housing costs."We picked people with passion for school and who are dedicated," Cantrell said."This is the beginning, and we'll keep it going," McQuoid said. "We want to do as much as possible, and my goal is to get them all scholarships."To learn more about Building Minds or donate, log onto www.homesandhope.org
“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.â€
–Walt Disney
These are some of the people who want to make a difference!: