These teens aren’t starved for attention, just starved.
At least they were for 30 hours when they volunteered to participate in the 30 Hour Famine, an annual event for students at Smithers Secondary School.
It’s a fundraiser as much as it is an exercise in empathy, explained teacher organizer Perry Wrath.
“It’s organized nationally by World Vision so they provide all the logistical support,” he said. “The group at the high school here is Youth for a Better World organizing this one.”
He continued, “The purpose is the raise awareness and money for programs for third world countries. Infrastructure relating to food and nutrition and sanition and this year they’ve also included trafficking.”
Students are pledged money for time they spent holding off on food.
Last year the group raised a couple of thousand dollars.
The core group of Youth for a Better World is 10 students, and those signed up for the famine was 35 to 40 students.
On Monday Wrath said the group this year raised $1,800 over the course of Thursday and Friday.
