BATTLE MOUNTAIN - A local teen is hoping the community will pull together to help her raise $10,000 by Nov. 22 to help the CICFO (Cambodian and International Children Friends Organization) orphanage in Cambodia.
Aislinn Rochester, a 17-year-old high school senior, has so far raised $1,000. She sent around 200 letters to local businesses and the mines asking for support and she has also contacted the local sororities. She is hoping individuals will pitch in as well.
The fundraising effort is called the Jars of Hope project, and in addition to sending out letters, Rochester also placed numerous donation jars at businesses around town.
One hundred percent of the donations will be going to the orphanage to help buy desks and chairs for classrooms, purified water, blankets, bikes, fans, a van and a camper shell.
"I really want to make a difference in these kids' lives even though they have never met me," said Rochester. "I want them to know that I care and to make a small impact in their lives."
Rochester will be holding a Bingo night as well. Rochester is organizing the event along with her mother, Annette Rochester. It will be held Oct. 11 at the Battle Mountain Civic Center from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. It will have a Halloween theme and those who dress up will get a free door prize ticket.
If Rochester reaches her goal and raises the most funds in her sorority, she will get to travel to Cambodia to present the check to the children of the orphanage.
The trip will be funded by Barbara Barrington Jones, the director of the Be the Best You camp who runs the Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation (www.barbarabjones.com/the-hbj-foundation/).
It all started when Rochester attended her third year of a week-long summer camp in Thanksgiving Point, Utah, called Be the Best You.
It is a service-oriented camp. This year around 230 girls, ages 12 to 18, attended the camp and all of them pledged to the camp sorority called Be There Girls. Rochester attended the camp at the end of July.
Each year, the sorority takes up a cause and this year the group is trying to help the Cambodian orphanage, which was started in May 2006 and currently has 32 children, boys and girls, but is accepting more each day.
"I feel like the project is important because as the Be There Girls raise money for the Cambodian children they are being strengthened and then when they turn the money over, it will continue to strengthen others," said Shayni Emerson, the executive administrative assistant for Jones, who is in charge of the Jars of Hope project. "I hope it will be able to change those kids' (the children at the orphanage) lives forever."
Each girl at the camp was sent home with the name and photo of a child at the orphanage for motivation and inspiration. Rochester's child's name is Chuun and she is 9 years old. She wants to be a cosmetologist, said Rochester.
According to the letter Rochester sent to businesses, Jones selected the orphanage after hearing a story about two women who lived for four years in a concentration camp during the Pol Pot regime, a dark time in that country's history notoriously referred to as the "killing fields."
According to Emerson, the two women are Botevy and Vanneth (no last names given). They both run the orphanage. Vanneth's daughter, Neth Yorn, visited the Be the Best You camp.
During Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, which started in 1975 and ended in 1979, the forced labor camps resulted in the deaths of 21 to 25 percent of the Cambodian population, according to several websites.
The two women had grown up together and then gone their separate ways, said Rochester. They met up again in a concentration camp and after they left, went their separate ways again only to meet up years later and form the orphanage that takes in kids from the streets of Phnom Penh.
During Rochester's first year at the camp, the Be There Girls raised money to build three pre-schools in South Africa. During her second year, nearly 1,000 coloring books, focusing on cherishing the earth and helping others, were collected for children in need.
"You see this strength of leaders in these very small girls," said Emerson about the girls raising funds for these projects.
Emerson said that however much money is raised for each project, the Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation matches the funds. For the African pre-schools, the girls raised $14,000 and the foundation doubled it to $28,000. She said she is hoping for the girls to raise at least $14,000 this year for the orphanage.
Those who would like a donation jar to set out at their business or anyone looking for more information can call Rochester at (775) 340-1092. Donations can be mailed to 260 Pleasant Hill Dr., Battle Mountain, NV, 89820.
Checks must be made out to Aislinn Rochester. She has a special account set up at Wells Fargo just for this fundraising mission. Rochester's e-mail is aislinns_radd_222@hotmail.com.
CICFO, a nonprofit organization, can be found at www.cicfo.org.
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