Third Meeting - With a TjToday interview !

During our third meeting, the TJHSST newpaper, called TJToday, interviewed several members of the club for an article they are writing about The Little Sunshine Project. This article will be posted as soon as it comes out.

We are now well on our way with our second letter. I also contacted Ella, one of my students in Sichuan, and she has responded that she is very excited to correspond with all of us. She wrote me a letter with all the names of her classmates who would like to participate. I recieved that letter today so during our next meeting, we will be able to write individual letters to students.

We also decided that in the future, we will be holding an origami day, where we will be making origami for our pen pals in Sichuan, China. We decided that they would appreciate origami the most because that is one of their favorite pastimes in China. It is also shown from the tiny cranes, stars, hearts, and flowers they made for us so we decided to return the favor.

I’m really excited about how much progress we’ve made! Keep checking for more updates! 

~Alice

Second Meeting:)

Our second meeting was very fruitful. Attendance: 31 people

We discussed possible ways to fundraise in order to raise money to buy the envelopes, paper, and pay for shipping costs. Because FCPS does not allow us to fundraise in school, the program “Building Bridges,” the program I went with to China, has agreed to let us use their name to fundraise outside of school.

I will post a list of possible fundraising activities soon.

Most importantly, we wrote our first letter. It introduces us and states our enthusiasm in communicating with the children in China. I will be mailing this shortly as well.

More updates to come!

~Alice

First Meeting Successful!

Hey everyone,

So our first meeting covered some basics that I thought should be shared online. Overall it was a great success! Attendance Tally: 19 people

1) How did this all start: By now, everyone should know that this all originated from my trip to Sichuan. However, the important thing now is that we continue our relationship with these kids, that they know that we are their friends even though they are across the ocean a million miles away.

2) What do we do: We are going to establish pen pal relationships with these kids through written letters in order to provide emotional support as well as learn from each other about different cultures and languages.

3) Why we do this: The kids we are communicating with have food, they have a place to sleep (no matter how run down), and they have clothes (even if it’s just one outfit). But the thing they lack is love and emotional support. They have just endured a traumatic earthquake that may have killed their parents, their friends, or torn down their house. From America, we can’t build them a house,  but we can be their friend, and that is why we write them letters. Plus, they really like the idea of communicating with Americans and learning all about our culture.

4) Two way gain: we are not only giving them love and support but in turn, through communicating with us, they are giving us a different perspective of the world. We can learn from them! We can practice writing in a different language, and we are learning about their culture as well.

Here is a powerpoint that was shown during the first meeting.

That’s all for now!

~Alice