More New Schools

Every year ISB has a Spring Fair. It is a HUGE event put on by the PTA to raise funds for various projects at school and to provide assistance for different charity organizations.


After last year's terrible earthquake in the Sichuan region, ISB decided to partner with the Zhejiang Xinhua Compassion Education Foundation to raise funds to rebuild Zhong Xin Elementary, a school for 1300 children. Who'd've thought? Mark moved from building a school in Africa to building a school in China! Although this time his role will not be supervising the construction site; he and his communications team have been planning and coordinating the fundraising, marketing, and promotion for the project.

Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers and the generosity of the school community, the Spring Fair was a success! The elementary school alone raised almost $5,000 from children donating their pocket money. Some $11,000 was raised on raffle tickets--where approximately $130,000 in prizes was up for grabs (we won an iPod shuffle, the very first thing I've ever won in my life, thank you very much!) and the silent auction (with online bidding) was another huge money maker--$18,000!

The Spring Fair featured a 5K run, bands, food, vendors selling crafts, jewelry, and art. Each elementary class ran a games booth and children could be tickets to play. There were high school rock bands and jazz bands. Thousands of people attended and had a great time on a sunny day with blue skies.


One of the biggest contributions came through Mark's meetings with Caterpillar and their generosity. In these kinds of economic times, it's often giving that is the first to go. Thanks to Caterpillar's $100,000 gift, ISB will meet its goal and 1,300 children will have a new elementary school!

Intel China has also worked with Mark's team so that the school will have fully functioning e-classrooms and teacher training to support the students and the technology!

Living in the 'burbs of Beijing, it's easy to forget what life is like in small villages, rural areas, and pockets of large cities. This is a country of astonishing wealth, and abject poverty. The Sichuan earthquake is like so many other natural disasters--all-consuming when it happens, but then it fades from the world's memory as other tragedies take their place on the world stage. I am looking forward to visiting this new school someday and seeing the work that is being done. It was great to be a part of a project like this again!