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If you thought teenagers were only about drugs and drop-outs, gangs and graffiti, it’s time to think again. 

Last spring students at West and Centennial High Schools in Bakersfield joined students at three high schools in the Bay Area to raise money to build a school in Kenya.  Each of the U.S. schools ran a fundraiser called “One Dollar For Life” or ODFL for short. 

The idea is simple but powerful. 

Every student is asked to give just one dollar.  There’s no pressure, just an invitation:  are you willing to do something to make a better world?  If you are, then your dollar is combined with those of other students around the country and used to build small-scale infrastructure projects in developing countries—schools, hospitals, irrigation systems, etc. 

The students at the five California high schools raised a total of $9,000 from their one  dollar donations.  And what happened with the money? 

They built the school in Kenya and it now houses 45 students who used to go to class in a horse barn.  Readers can view a short slide show of the school’s construction at http://odfl.org/pages/redir...

Terry Kropp is a Bakersfield mother who sent three sons through the Bakersfield school system.  She is the person who introduced ODFL to West and Centennial. 

“It’s so easy for kids to be cynical and isolated,” says Kropp.  “I wanted to find a way for them to get connected to their world and to understand that they could actually do something to improve it.” 

Kropp found out about ODFL through her husband, Chuck Kropp, who has taught math in Bakersfield high schools for 30 years.  He knew a teacher at Los Altos High School in the Bay Area who had started ODFL earlier last year.  He asked if they could try it at West High.  The answer was yes.  

So Chuck Kropp worked with his school’s Interact club to sponsor the ODFL fundraiser.  It was the first such drive in southern California, which made it somewhat daunting. 

West’s Interact Club adviser, Jodie Hare , enlisted the help of Bakersfield West Rotary Club.  Rotary sponsors Interact clubs at high schools throughout the country. 

According to Brad Henderson, West’s Rotary Interact liaison, “Rotary encourages students to contribute to the world of International Understanding.  In fact, ‘Interact’ stands for ‘Inter(national) Act(ion).”  ODFL seemed like a good way to get students involved in a project that would add something positive to the world.” 

The drive was a new thing for the school but went very well, said Hare.  “Our kids really took to the idea,” she said.   

“The funny thing is,” she continued, “we thought we were just helping others.  But the beneficiaries turned out to be not just those Kenyan students who got a new school.  Our own students found out they could actually make a difference in the world,” she said.   

The drive at Centennial High School was led by social studies teacher and Interact club adviser, Sheila McLeod.  The Centennial Interact Club raises thousands of dollars every year for local needs but the international angle proved new to them.  

According to McLeod, “What intrigued our students was the idea of making an investment in other students’ future.”  Centennial raised $2,000 within a matter of days, all from one dollar donations of its 2,000 students. 

McLeod said the fundraiser was simple to implement and that the results became visible almost immediately.  “Within just a few weeks of our drive’s completion, we learned of the school that was begun and that would be operating within months.”

The One Dollar For Life organization worked with a Non-Governmental Organization in Kenya, SEANet, which undertook the actual task of building the school. 

SEANet had a track record with similar such projects in the past which made it a good partner, said Terry Kropp.  The school building itself was designed by a Kenyan architect with a degree from the London School of Design. 

According to Robert Freeman, a teacher at Los Altos High School and the founder of ODFL, “The secret of ODFL is that it’s not really about the dollar.  It’s about whether a teenager wants to choose to create a better world.  Once they do that, they become bigger people and anything becomes possible.”  

ODFL hopes to conduct 50 fundraisers in the U.S. this year and build another 5 schools in the developing world, according to Kropp, who holds a high vision for the future.  

“If every high school student in America gives just one dollar, we can build over 1,000 schools a year in the developing world,” she says.  “And in the process, we’re going to create a whole new generation of American teenagers.” 

No room for drugs or graffiti there.  That may be the hidden gem in it all. 

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