President Obama Signs the LRA Disarmament and N. Uganda Recovery Act

History has been made! At 5pm, this past Monday, President Obama signed the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act into law! This is a huge step toward the restoration and healing of Central Africa. He now has 180 days to implement a multi-lateral plan that will include the arrest and trial of Joseph Kony, the evil leader of the LRA.

President Obama noted the overwhelming movement of "young people" who have made phone calls, written letters, created blogs, websites, organizations, etc. Your voices have been heard... you have given a voice to the voiceless... you have made them visible! And I am so proud of all of you... never forget what you have been a part of!

Thank you, Bradley County!

A million words cannot express the gratitude that the students feel about the support from the community at the art show! The art show was a phenomenal success! The students' art looked amazing, and the program was incredible too! The students from both schools did an awesome job. We are so proud of you!

As of right now, $2,086.00 was raised for Invisible Children Schools for Schools!

That is huge! Thank you for your support! We hope to have pictures and video up asap!

A special thank you to our sponsors...

Santek
Wright Brothers Construction
Boys and Girls Clubs of America
New Venture Realty
Trees and Trends

A HUGE Thank You!

Thank you so much to manager, Jennifer Carlton at Trees and Trends... they blessed us with all of the decorations and easels (on loan) for the art show! Thank you soooo much!

Today is the day! It's going to be wonderful! :)

A Special "Thank You!"

The students at Lake Forest and Ocoee Middle would like to send a shout out to local artist, Jesse Wood! He and Beth Miller (photographer) came and spent precious time with the students. Jesse did an incredible job encouraging the students with their artwork. He also shared some beautiful stories about life, and most of all, the students had a whole lot of fun! Thanks again, Mr. Wood.

p.s. Beth took awesome photos!

Making our own I.C. T-Shirts!

Today the students brought in their own T-shirts to spray paint a really cool Invisible Children logo on them! The Countdown... 2 more days til' the Art Show! Click on this image to see a couple more photos...

"We want Obama!"

This past Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the historic "LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009." This is huge! The students at Lake Forest and Ocoee Middle Schools are actively participating in history in the making! Every voice counts... and these students sent over 200 personal, hand written letters to Congress, pleading for their passing of this bill. The next step is President Obama's approval...signing the bill into law.

So, what did the students do next? Well, they called the White House! Every class period called the White House comment line on speaker phone to leave a persuasively thoughtful message for President Obama, in hopes that he would hear it and be encouraged to support the bill. We want Obama!

A Voice for the Voiceless...

It is a beautiful thing to take what you have learned about social studies... the power of democracy... and directly apply it to something that you are extremely passionate about.
That is precisely what has been going on with the students at Lake Forest and Ocoee Middle Schools. They have recently utilized their right to petition the government in order to speak for their brothers and sisters in Uganda (click on this image to view a slideshow of pics). The U.S. House of Representatives is getting ready to vote on the historic LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. The students wrote and mailed heartfelt, persuasive letters to Representative Zach Wamp in order to encourage him to make an influential floor statement this next week on behalf of the bill that could potentially end Africa's longest running war.

This generation has decided to take a stand. They will be a voice for the voiceless...
will you?

Wonderful News!

"Making Them Visible," has some wonderful news for the art exhibition! Our friend, Diko, from Southern Sudan, will be our featured speaker! Diko attended a school in Northern Uganda that was attacked by the LRA. She is going to come and share her story with us about the experiences that she had in this war torn region. There is so much power in a person's journey... I can't wait for Diko to share hers with us... I am sure that it will impact our own.

Invisible Children Screening at Lake Forest Middle School

The Mid-Atlantic Crew on Invisible Children's Legacy Tour presented a screening of the "Go" documentary at Lake Forest Middle School on April 9. They also held a screening at Ocoee Middle this past week. Click on this image to view a slideshow of pictures from the event at Lake Forest.

Move for Uganda

Students from Lake Forest Middle attended the Move for Uganda 5K and village experience in Chattanooga on April 11. This event greatly impacted the lives of the students involved. These pictures are from Move for Uganda. Click on this image to link to a slideshow.

For More Information...

For more information about the art show contact:
bcretton@bradleyschools.org or ccretton@bradleyschools.org

For more information about Invisible Children check out www.invisiblechildren.com

If you would like to know more about the war in Uganda, and how you can help, go to www.resolveuganda.org

Making Them Visible...

Throughout this school year, certain 8th grade Social Studies students at Lake Forest and Ocoee Middle Schools have been striving to understand the past, in order to make meaning of the present, and change the future. They believe that the purpose of studying history is to build moral energy to make the world a better place.
Recently, the Invisible Children Legacy Tour came to both schools and presented a screening of a moving documentary that opened the students’ eyes to an unseen world. This world is filled with darkness… Africa’s longest running war of 24 years, a war raging in Northern Uganda that has now spread into three other countries, with over 30,000 children abducted to be child soldiers forced to fight and kill. These children are invisible because there are no records kept of their existence. The world does not know their names. However, through artistic expression, the youth of Bradley County have been inspired to make them visible…