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GATA Information / GATA News Now / GATA News (Archives) / GATA Movie |
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GATA Presents: GATA Welcomes Kenya To West Linn:
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GATA '07- '08 Fills the Forum |
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GATA'S Mission Statement:
The members of GATA strive to learn about the
problems the world finds difficult to address. Our purpose is to gain awareness of global
issues and to take action by creating positive change in the community and
our world around us. |
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2007-2008 Club
Officers: Advisor:
Mr. Betzelberger
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2008-2009 School
Year: We have done a fundraiser for Schools for Schools that brought in 500 dollars. The club organized a benefit concert at the Hawthorne Theater at the end of December. We are currently working on various public service projects and offering a 100 dollar scholarship for a West Linn student. |
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GATA News Now
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| PEACE
ON CANVAS $5 students • $10 adultsonly $2 extra for foodMay 10th • 5–8pm Sunset Fire Hall 2215 Long Street, West Linn, Oregon Families are Welcome! FEATURING THE ART OF MARLA AND MICHAEL BAGETTA |
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Come join West Linn High School’s GATA (Global Awareness Take Action) and Itafari Foundation for an art show to benefit the country of Rwanda. All proceeds will go towards building a high school in Rwanda. There will be food, music, and fun!
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PURCHASE OF ART NOT NECESSARY BUT ALL PROCEEDS GO TO A GREAT CAUSE! RWANDA: Growing a country, one brick at a time.
To purchase tickets go to: http://www.PDX TIX.net www.itafari.org |
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West Linn High School recently welcomed Madame Irene,
an English Literature Teacher at the Namwela Secondary school and four
Kenyan students for a cultural exchange that lasted just over five weeks
during December and January. The Kenyan delegation traveled from Chwele, a
remote village in Western Kenya, to West Linn on funds raised by GATA. Many West Linn students had the opportunity to interact with Kenya students Amunga, Edwin, Dasiy, and Irene in their classes and in the hallways. The Kenyans taught in Freshman World History classes as part of planned units on Africa and even sang several Kswahili songs at assemblies and GATA meetings. Later Namwela's Principal, Richard Keya, arrived and had a chance to compare administrative notes with Principal Kim Noah. The exchange made an enormous impact on many members of the West Linn community. The Sister School Program continues even as our new Kenyan friends flew home on January 12. Pen pal letters have been exchanged, projects are in the works, and future travel between the two schools are key features of the sister school project that will continue. GATA would like to say a special "Thank You" to West Linn host families for such amazing support.
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 Daisy, Irene, Madame Irene, Edwin, and Amunga (Geoffrey) receive welcome cards from WLHS students. 'The cultural exchange between West Linn and the Kenyan delegation will produce fantastic and unpredictable results. This is the kind of project that changes lives forever." - Mr. Frick, GATA Advisor. |
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 Fulfilling the "awareness" aspect of GATA's mission statement is a continual
process. GATA members attended
speeches given by former President Bill Clinton, and current Liberian
President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, during separate events at the World
Affairs Council Speaker Series. New Co-Presidents,
Chelsea Callis and Christina Burns also sat at a GATA
booth prior to the Sirleaf speech during a Global Action Fair. President
Clinton's speech stressed the importance of interdependence among
nations in a quickly modernizing world, and the challenges developing
nations face due to preventable diseases like HIV/AIDS
and malaria. President Sirleaf talked about Democracy in Africa.
Both speakers offered incredibly inspiring visions of
hopefulness in a world that needs leadership and activism
on issues like democracy, disease prevention, and social
justice. In related news, departing Senior GATA
members Stacey Fisher and Jeff Bandel, who both attended Clinton, also
participated in Sister School celebration night with the Harambee Centre at
the Horn Of Africa restaurant in Portland, Oregon.
Stacey's family recently donated an entire set of soccer uniforms to the
sister school. |
Jeff Bandel & Stacey Fisher (Both '07) hold donated volleyballs and the soccer uniform for WLHS' sister school in Chwele, Kenya. |
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GATA took a recent field trip to the Harambee Centre in North Portand, where they met Jackie Goldrick, President of the Harambee Centre. The Harambee Centre partners with established organizations like the World Affairs Council and other Portland area individuals and groups to make lasting connections and relationships with people in Africa. In Matale, Uganda this year, 23 Ugandan students arrived at St. Andrew's Secondary School on scholarships attained through fundraising achieved in Beaverton, Oregon. Looking to follow a sister-school model developed in tandem by the Harambee Centre and Southridge High School in Beaverton, WLHS GATA aims to build a partnership with a new community and school in Kenya. The plan includes three exciting components: 1) Integrating curriculum regarding Kenya into GATA's awareness projects, and later, into Freshman World History Classes. 2) Developing projects in tandem with the Harambee Centre that foster sustainable practices, growth, and learning for both a school in Kenya and students at WLHS. 3) Making, building, and fostering connections between the community of West Linn and a community in Kenya. |
Students Present the Harambee Centre with a Check for $500.00 |
GATA Designs New Logo Under GATA's new committee system, work is going on at incredible rates. Already, a new logo and T-shirt design has come out of the GATA Gear committee, chaired by Lucy Lawer. The new design was a true committee process, although new GATA member, Peter Elfers, had a lot to do with choosing a theme. "We went with a Superman theme for the front of the T-Shirt." The new back logo design is pictured above. |
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GATA
News (Archives) '04-'05
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West Linn/Wilsonville School District Television Program A television show featuring GATA will continue periodically on the Channel 28 broadcast schedule now. GATA has started a human rights/global issues awareness campaign that kicked off with the club officers' appearances on this program with Superintendent Roger Woehl. Return To GATA News (Archives)
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GATA Attends Sustainability Pioneer's Speech This exciting field trip heard William McDonough, the only individual ever to receive the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development, the nation’s highest environmental honor. William McDonough is an internationally renowned architect and designer. A proponent of what he calls the Next Industrial Revolution, McDonough advocates ecologically intelligent design and business strategies that create and sustain global prosperity. Time magazine recognized him as a “Hero for the Planet,” stating that “his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that- in demonstrable and practical ways- is changing the design of the world." Before the speech, students took a "fair trade" window-shopping tour of some unique stores in Portland, and then grabbed a bite to eat. Return To GATA News (Archives)
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GATA members are selling Divine Candy Bars for a $1.00 a bar. So far, response has been overwhelmingly positive. Reports from members is that the West Linn school and larger community love the taste of these gourmet bars, and the awareness campaign is so worthwhile. The following two excerpts contain information to help students be informed as to why selling Fair Trade Chocolate is a good fund-raiser for GATA. By selling Divine bars, GATA supports local farmers in Africa with chocolate that is produced without child and slave labor. Knight Ridder Newspapers and the BBC are both well-respected, mainstream media sources: Slave labor taints sweetness of world's chocolate By SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN and SUMANA CHATTERJEE - Knight Ridder Newspapers Date: 06/23/01 22:15 DALOA, Ivory Coast -- There may be a hidden ingredient in the chocolate cake you baked, the candy bars your children sold for their school fund-raiser or that fudge ripple ice cream cone you enjoyed Saturday afternoon. Slave labor. Forty-three percent of the world's cocoa beans, the raw material in chocolate, come from small, scattered farms in this poor west African country. And on some of the farms, the hot, hard work of clearing the fields and harvesting the fruit is done by boys who were sold or tricked into slavery. Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16. Some are as young as 9…Children in chocolate slavery By BBC's Humphrey Hawksley in Mali Thursday, 12 April, 2001, 06:32 GMT 07:32 UK MALI -- In all, at least 15,000 children are thought to be over in the neighboring Ivory Coast, producing cocoa which then goes towards making almost half of the world's chocolate. Many are imprisoned on farms and beaten if they try to escape. Some are under 11 years old. Save the Children Fund has set up a transit centre in the hope that one day these children will come home from the cocoa, coffee and other farms on which they are working. But so far they haven't. The place is empty, although one who managed to escape has a message worth listening to. "I might have got out," said Malick Doumbia, "but there are thousands of children still over there. If by your report, you can help free just one, you would be doing a good job." The work of this former slave ended up in shops around the world, as products that often do not specify exactly where they came from… Return To GATA News (Archives) |
GATA Awareness/Action Campaigns – January, 2005
Take Action NOW - Addresses Below
Issue One: Millennium Fund
AWARENESS: Bono was able to lead in a way that got many countries and wealthy individuals like Bill Gates to promise billions of dollars to bring these miracle drugs to Africa. President Bush agreed. He promised to send billions of dollars to Africa during his last State of the Union Address. Now Congress is slashing the promises of the President and sending much less money than needed to fight AIDS at a time when it is needed the most.
ACTION: Start a letter writing campaign and demand that your representatives and President honor the promise of the President given at the last State of the Union Address. Ask your Congressman and President to keep their promise to send money to Africa to fight AIDS, and to help stop the spread of disease and death across the continent. Return To GATA News (Archives)
Issue Two: Miracle Drug!
AWARENESS: Two drug companies JUST
announced that they have found a way to combine the three leading HIV/AIDS
blockers into ONE pill. This is GREAT news. Unfortunately, it will be too
expensive for Africans to have for many years to come unless the United States
changes its patent laws to give exceptions to Life Saving Drugs, specifically
for Africa.
ACTION: Start a letter writing campaign. Write a letter to George W. Bush, Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, and Oregon Republican Senator Gordon asking Congress to change rules restricted patents on life saving drugs for Africa.
Return To GATA News (Archives)
Issue Three: Debt Cancellation and Fair Trade
AWARENESS: Most African nations cannot afford to pay for miracle drugs because of money they owe in debt to the United States or World Bank. Also, many nations can no longer grow their own economies because they have been forced to sell many of their resources in ill attempts to get by and pay their debt.
ACTION: Start a petition to help fight the crises of AIDS and Poverty in Africa. Return To GATA News (Archives)
Issue Four: Tsunami Victims
AWARENESS: Giant tidal waves leaving millions homeless and in need of lifesaving help.
ACTION: 1. GATA will make a partial donation from Chocolate and “Be Aware” Bracelet sales to help victims. 2. Any spare change over the next two weeks will also be collected today and next week’s GATA meetings by Treasurer, Annie O’Kain for Spirit Week. Pennies will go into Mr. Frick’s classrooms. Larger change and bills will be snuck into senior classes (Shhhhh.)
To Write Your President, Senators, and Representative in Washington:
| SENATOR GORDON SMITH | SENATOR RON WYDEN | PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH | Representative Darlene Hooley |
| 404 RUSSELL | 516 HART | 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. | 21570 Willamette Drive |
| NW SENATE OFFICE BUILDING | SENATE OFFICE BUILDING | WASHINGTON, DC 20500 | West Linn, Oregon 97068 |
| WASHINGTON DC 20510 | WASHINGTON DC 20510 |
Return To GATA News (Archives)
Three GATA members, Chelsea Spitzer, Rachel Seigneur, and Annie O'Kain
(pictured here), attended the World Affairs Council's Global Skills
Competition and gave presentations to more than two hundred Oregon high
school students on how to start a global awareness club. These students
represented the West Linn community exceptionally well, and got other
students excited about opportunities in their own communities.
Fair
Trade Chocolate 