It is not uncommon for the Interact Club to participate in  community service projects, but for the first time ever their project for this school year will span nearly 2,000 miles across the world. This year, the club that typically helps the homeless community and partners with the outreach program, will begin a mission to build a school in Liberia for the Change Agent Network (CAN) .

The idea for this project formed between DHS’s new principal, Ms. Simmons and our Interact club sponsor, Mrs. Shauna Kile while they discussed possible projects for the year. The cost to build one school is $50,000 and Kile said the club would like to build up to three schools in the future.

“Ms. Simmons and I sat down and tried to find a project that we thought would impact our students in a way where they would feel motivated to help others,”  Kile said. “We came across the this project and felt it was a great opportunity not only for our students but others in the school as well.”

Organizers say the goal for the final  outcome of the mission is to not only give other students a chance at a learning experience, but to positively challenge students at our very own school. 

“We felt like given the fact that these are students with disadvantages and with low income families that love them yet struggle everyday to make ends meet, the connection between what this amazing building offers here in Duncanville and what we could possibly provide around the world, just seems to have motivated everybody to get involved,” Kile said.  “This seems to be a project everyone has gotten behind and supported.” 

Interact Club members are stepping up to the plate and accepting the challenge of building an elementary, middle and high school in Liberia.

“It’s going to be hard to raise such a big amount of money,”sophomore  committee chair of International missions Marvin Mendoza said.  “But I think over time we can do it and make this project happen.”

Mendoza admits this could take years to raise the amount of money it takes to build a Liberian school, but he said none of that time will be taken for granted. 

“When the project is completed this will be something that the older people in our club can look back at and see that they started the process. Generations coming up are going to want to jump aboard and get involved,” Kile said, “There will be skyping between the schools we build. We’re going to continue every year to invest in them in different ways to just grow and make it bigger.”

Several students have already shown interest in joining this plan for the greater good and becoming something bigger than themselves.

“When Mrs.Kile told us about the international project and showed us the video explaining why the founder started it, people in our club were touched immediately,” Mendoza said, “A lot of my friends also signed up to be a part of the committee.”

Already, building a school for the CAN mission seems like a great idea and experience. For Mrs. Kile, this project reaches somewhere deep within her heart.

“Growing up I always felt like I was gonna be a missionary somewhere. My life took a different turn, a wonderful turn, and I love my life and my five children,” Kile said with tears in her eyes.  “I look back over the years that I’ve spent at Duncanville and the kids that I’ve been with and feel like I’m actually on my own little mission field right here in Duncanville,”  

Kile admits as a teacher and sponsor it is important to her everyday that she able to give a little bit of herself to help and do for others.

“So when the opportunity to do this in Africa came up, I feel like my goal as a sophomore in high school, has come full circle,” Kile said.  “Now I really truly can be a living missionary from right here in Duncanville without having to take a whole bunch of shots and get a visa or anything else. So it is extremely, extremely important to me and I’m very excited about it.”

While other schools have begun the process of assisting with this project, Kile and the interact club are being pro-active about reaching out to former Duncanville Alumni and other organizations to promote their mission for the project.

“We plan to write letters to alumni, influential community members, as well as organizations to causes that donate for events like this,” Kile said.  “We’re gonna have our own little piece of Duncanville on the total opposite side of the world from us and it is just incredible.”