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Why Its Hip to Buy Hemp
Pubdate: Tue, 13 Dec 2005
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 The Kingston Whig-Standard
Contact: http://www.kingstonwhigstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/224
Author: Brett Popplewell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?330 (Hemp - Outside U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
CHRISTMAS ANGELS: WHY ITS HIP TO BUY HEMP
One in an occasional series on some of the unsung heroes in our
community who are helping the less fortunate this Christmas season.
A group of local teens is weaving hope into the lives of orphans in
Africa.
Neil Roberts, Calvin Rubens, David Staples and Roger LeMesurier are
Grade 9 students at Loyalist and Kingston collegiate and vocational
institutes. Together, they've founded Hemp Helps, an organization that
sells hemp bracelets in support of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa.
We thought the idea of kids helping kids was a good one, said Roberts,
14.
The organization started as a school project for Roberts and Rubens in
their integrated English and geography classes. The assignment was to
design the prototype for a business and set up an advertising campaign
for their product.
Unlike most of their fellow students, Roberts and Rubens didn't focus
on consumerism, choosing instead to support a charitable cause. The
project was completed for their class in September, with the boys
marketing and selling 25 bracelets to their fellow students.
But they didn't stop there.
It seemed like a good idea to keep it going because of the cause, said
Roberts.
They have since started selling their Hemp Helps bracelets to the
community in support of the Red Cross campaign to stop the AIDS
epidemic in Africa.
Martha Gray teaches the class from which the project was initiated.
Shes thrilled by what her students have done.
Its really nice to see that they can take an assignment and take it
onto the next level, said Gray.
Lots of kids will do what they need to do to get through, she said.
But these guys have taken a project and really taken it to heart and
integrated it into their own civic responsibility with a global reach.
The boys have produced more than 1,000 bracelets and have raised 718
for the Red Cross from sales.
Each bracelet is handcrafted by one of the boys, using 40 cents worth
of hemp, and includes beads branded with an H-H symbol for Hemp Helps.
Bracelets take about five minutes to produce and are sold for 2 with
all profits going to the Red Cross.
The boys have set up displays to sell their bracelets at The Jungle,
The Hemporium, Old and Green, and Cornerstone.
Bill Stevenson owns The Jungle, a hemp shop on Princess Street. He
says hell sell the bracelets for as long as the boys are making them.
The Red Cross estimates four million children have been orphaned by
AIDS in Africa and expects that figure to double by 2010.
Because of the AIDS epidemic, its virtually a generation that's being
lost, said Michelle Miatello, community service co-ordinator for the
Canadian Red Cross in Kingston.
Its the parents generation that's being obliterated. The children are
being left orphaned and have to support their grandparents. The social
issue is huge, she said.
The Red Cross has many youth volunteers but Miatello remains impressed
by the Hemp Helps campaign.
Were so impressed with their initiative and their dedication, not to
mention the amount of work they're putting into helping people halfway
around the world, she said.
The boys hope to raise 1,000 from sales of their bracelets by
Christmas.
In an international campaign, the Red Cross promises to give at least
85 per cent of all raised funds directly to those in need.
So if Hemp Helps can reach the 1,000 mark, 850 will reach the children
orphaned by AIDS in Africa in the new year.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake