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Community Trek reaches Africa

Contributed by: Michael Finnefrock on 7/25/2006

An eclectic group of local citizens, many of whom live or work in Arvada, has made a 9,400-mile trek to Malawi, Africa. The purpose of this group, which includes members of the health care, education and faith communities, is to take this initial trip to fact find how our community can best respond to the AIDS crisis in Africa and more specifically in the peaceful country of Malawi, which is the fifth poorest (GNP) county in the world.

The focus of this group expands across four specific areas, health care, education, clean water and faith. Representing the health care community are emergency room physician Dr. Mark Flora and health care administrator Susan Finnefrock. Representing the education community are world language teacher Andrea Leslie, of Ralston Valley High School; special educator Chris Fuller, of Brooomfield Heights Middle School; Ralston Valley High School student Carly Nelson; former RVHS gradate and University of Georgia student Ben Gillespie; and former Pomona H.S. graduate and University of Colorado student Candace Ritscher. Representing Healing Waters Int'l. is Jeff Dean. Finally, representing the faith-based community are Trinity Presbyterian Youth Director Wendy Dean and youth workers Tom Fields and Pete Washburn.

During pre-trek information gathering, connections were made with others who have similarly made the trek to Malawi. The fruits of these connections gave focus to the group and through generous contributions of many corporate and individual donors, the group was able to take more than $10,000 worth of medical supplies, nearly 100 pairs of shoes for a local orphanage, more than $500 dollars worth of bicycle parts for the local orphanage, volleyball uniforms for a local school team and hundreds of dollars of school supplies.

It was clearly evident to all members of this team that as they spread the message of their mission, members of this community and surely members of every community in this most generous county are looking for tangible ways to respond to this incredible crisis occurring in Africa. Over and over again people of this community expressed a desire to help, but don't know how to or feel they can't make a difference. Well, this group will be bringing back many testimonials to the contrary.

A Web site has been created, www.communitytreks.org, which will provide anyone interested in finding out more about Malawi, Africa, this group's vision and mission, and ways how they can become involved in a real and tangible way.


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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments
Submitted By: Phylis Ritscher
posted on 7/28/2006 @ 9:53:05 AM
Rated Story
Thanks for helping spread this good news! We hope to have more and more people getting involved in Community Treks.
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Submitted By: Peggy Reese
posted on 7/28/2006 @ 8:51:34 AM
(Not Rated)
***** Great story about this group. They are doing amazing things in Africa. Suggest you run this in the print version. Thanks, P. Reese
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Submitted By: Michael Finnefrock
posted on 7/26/2006 @ 8:35:52 PM
Rated Story
awesome!
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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Michael Finnefrock

Arvada , CO

Michael Finnefrock has posted 2 stories and 1 comment since joining on 7/25/2006. Michael Finnefrock 's average story rating is 5.
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