Kids in Kenya get a kick-start from South Hills Middle School

Students at South Hills Middle School showed they have a lot of heart and a lot of soul with a recent service project benefiting children in Kenya.

The students collected more than 510 pairs of shoes during Earth week (April 16 -24) that will be delivered to children in Kenya this summer.

Marina Mcneill, a ninth grader at South Hills Middle, initiated the service project at her school. Marina volunteers at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy where she heard about a humanitarian group called Youth Linc. This summer, Youth Linc will be sending a group of 44 students and adults to Kenya to serve and teach the people there.

Marina applied and was accepted to be a part of this group. She will spend 14 days in Kenya teaching lessons that will help the people help their families and doing humanitarian projects. The group will be re-building and adding onto schools and helping to provide clean water sources.

There are students from all over Utah in the group, but Marina is the only one from South Hills Middle School.

However, her entire family will also be going to Kenya. “My mom didn’t want me going alone to Kenya, so she applied. Then my dad didn’t like the idea of just my mom and me going, so he applied. My brother didn’t want to be left out, so he applied too. Now my whole family is going,” Marina said.

Marina approached her school about doing the shoe service project in conjunction with her trip to Kenya. She had the opportunity to organize and help run the project.

“The students have been amazing. They brought in garbage bags of shoes. It’s been great. We’ve had a competition between classes. One class has brought in 125 pairs of shoes so far,” she said.

In addition to the service project, Marina has been busy doing fundraisers to help pay for her trip this summer.