REMY: Rising To The Occasion

Remy Smidt, Xavier College Prep’s Senior (glasses), heads up the student-run foundation to raise funds and awareness for the child soldiers called Invisible Children in Uganda.

Zona: Why are you having a bake sale?

Remy: The bake sale is for Invisible Children.  Three young filmmakers from UCSD started it.  They took a trip to Africa and discovered a war that isn’t very well known.  It’s fueled by children soldiers.  Children are abducted in the night, indoctrinated and forced to fight.  The war is in northern Uganda.  Partly due to the visibility the Invisible Children cause has generated, northern Uganda has seen relative peace for awhile now.  The war has unfortunately spread to other African nations.

Zona: What does Invisible Children actually do?

Remy: They actually go in and educate the children and the women in the country.  They open rehabilitation centers for the children who have fought in the war.  They set up radio towers to help improve communication within the towns and villages.  It’s a great organization and it si inspiring to young people.

Zona: How did you find out about Invisible Children?

Remy: I found out about it last year online.  Even though the organization is pretty big in California, it isn’t really well known, especially in the Phoenix Area.  I am really trying to get Arizona schools involved with this.

Zona: Is this the first event that you have done for Invisible Children or have you done other things?

Remy: We have done a few other things.  When Invisible Children actually came to our school it was great.  Everyone got to see it and a lot of the girls donated and bouth t-shirts.  This is just our small series of fundraisers that will lead up to our big event, in March.  That event is going to be for parents and tickets are going to be sold for $25.00.  There will be dinner and a concert.

Zona: Will you be having a presentation that night?

Remy: Definitely.  Invisible Children have these people called “Roadies” who are people that ravel around and talk to others about the organization.  They might come or we may just talk since we are all educated on the program.

Zona: Tell us about the bill.

Remy: It is the LRA disarment bill.  The LRA is the Lord’s Resistance Army which is terrorizing the countries of Central Africa.  It is lead by Joseph Kony.

Zona: How much did you raise from the bake sale?

Remy: More than $200 from the bake sale and over $900 from other fund raisers.

Zona: What are you going to do for college?

Remy: I am looking at liberal arts schools.  I am going to major in Peace and Justice or something that is related so I can do more things like this.  If I don’t get into the school that I want I may take a year off and volunteer with this organization.

Zona: Any big ZONA “shout outs” that you would like to give?

Remy: I would like to give a shout out to all of my fiends because without them this would not be possible.  I never thought that they would be this supportive because it’s really hard to do anything like this alone.  Also our parents for their support.