As students entered Winton Woods Elementary School on November 19, they were greeted by visitors in African garb playing music on authentic African instruments. The visitors were Kara, Cindy and Keena Stricker and their family friend Cyrinus Sengka. The group was visiting the school to say thank you to the students and staff for raising $800 for Kara Stricker to travel to Cameroon, Africa in December. Stricker, who is a student at the University of Cincinnati, will travel to Cameroon with UC’s service organization Serve Beyond Cincinnati (SBC) to build a gravity-fed water system from a river into the small village of Momyu. Sengka, a native of Cameroon, is joining the group on the trip. His father, Joseph, engineered the water system.

“Our school raised the money over the course of three weeks,” said Principal Steve Denny. “Some classes competed against each other to see which homeroom could raise more money.  One substitute teacher originally from the African nation of Eritrea donated a day's salary to the effort.  Many students, families and staff members gave generous donations.  Our school's goal was $500—we passed that up by almost $300.”