Stories
United States
O Ambassadors Leader Profile: Dennis Devorick
The infectious energy and creativity of O Ambassadors adviser and school principal, Dennis Devorick, spreads fast. Last year at Laurel Elementary School in New Castle, Pa., Dennis led a whirlwind of fundraising activities that students, parents and teachers will not soon forget.
“It was an amazing year,” said Dennis, who helped organize 27 different projects in 50 days that resulted in an incredible $20,256. “The whole community got involved, from parents and grandparents to local businesses.”
The club held its first meeting in March 2008. Since then, more than 200 students (grades 3–6) and teachers signed up to learn about East Africa. They set an initial goal of raising $8,500 to build a school in the region.
Dennis, a minister and a former missionary to Kenya, provided fresh insights into the region and helped dream up many of the clever activities and fundraising projects. He quickly had club members excited and ready to meet its goals.
A Learning Opportunity
Almost over night, the school became a veritable homage to East Africa. High school students painted African-themed murals on school walls, teachers transformed classrooms into vibrant country-themed spaces and school activities shined a light on African culture.
“This was a unique learning opportunity,” said Dennis. “It allowed us to meet and exceed various state academic standards.”
Inspired by Dennis and O Ambassador youth coordinator, Bonnie Kay, the students took part in a variety of initiatives—learning all about East Africa along the way.
Students participated in bike-a-thons, created and sold cookbooks, held a malaria-awareness fundraiser and raised money the old-fashioned way—with a lemonade stand.
Teachers and the business community pitched in, too. At McTeacher Night at the local McDonald’s, teachers manned the restaurant and set a three hour record for sales at that location. Twenty percent of the sales went to the charitable efforts of the school. Another business, Clark’s Studio, helped transform the traditional annual spring picture day with unique African-themed photographs. Proceeds from the event provided 30 percent of the funds raised towards the club’s goal.
On a sadder note, family and friends made a $9,000 donation in memory of Timothy James Davis, who had traveled extensively to Kenya on missionary work before dying of cancer at age 28. A school in Kenya will be memorialized in his name.
With this somber but important donation, the school suddenly found itself well over its target goal and was ready to recognize the hard work by all the students and teachers. As the school year came to an end, the school held a carnival and welcomed Bonnie to present her with a check for all the funds they had raised.
Bonnie was impressed: “Having the chance to be a part of an assembly that celebrated Laurel students’ incredible accomplishment of raising over $20,000 in 50 days for their peers overseas was an experience that I will never forget.”
A History of Giving
Laurel Elementary has a history of giving. The school collected more than $7,000 in change for victims of the tsunami in 2005 and $9,650 for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“Our motto is ‘Here, There, Everywhere,” said Dennis. “We want to make sure we focus on our community too, but it’s important that students learn about other cultures. Our community is old fashioned in a lot ways—there are a lot of very giving, caring people here.”
Before joining O Ambassadors, Dennis already had his school working on an ambitious project. In 2005, he contacted children’s writer Vuthy Kuon. With Vuthy’s (pronounced “Woody”) guidance and publishing experience, students at the school started a children’s book in the fall and finished it by the next spring. Entitled “A Gift of a Rainbow,” the book raised more than $30,000 for local charities, according to Dennis. Each grade collaborated on a piece for the book. They sent more than 2,000 copies of the book to schools affected by hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and sent additional books to children’s hospitals and every Ronald McDonald house in the United States.
“Never have I seen such vision and dedication, and genuine love among an organization as I have seen at Laurel,” said Vuthy Kuon, who also illustrated the book.
Dennis hopes to keep that vision and dedication going strong. This year, the school turns its focus to East Asia, another of the five regions that O Ambassadors clubs cover.
“Our goal is to build five schools in five years,” said Dennis, “one for each region in the program.”
- In just 5 minutes you can help by:
- IDEA 1: Turn fundraising events into teachable moments. Learning about a culture while raising money can be an exciting educational opportunity for students.
- IDEA 2: Get creative! The students at Laurel Elementary got involved because their teachers took the extra effort to engage them in interesting activities.
