Kelli Kitzul and her eldest daughter Tionna, 15, will be returning to Kenya in the summer of 2015 and this time they'll be taking Tionna's sister Marley, 8, with them.
Also accompanying the Kitzuls will be Nancy Bourbonnais, a teacher at Sacred Heart/Sacré Coeur School.
"Kenya is a place where we felt we could help make a difference," said Kelli, who was preparing hotdogs for a fundraising barbecue beside the Southern Plains Co-op grocery outlet on Fourth Street late Saturday morning.
The winds were high, but so were the spirits of the three family members as they outlined the various methods they will be using to raise the required $25,000 for the Free the Children project. That does not include their flight expenses. That is something they'll be handling on their own.
"We are having steak nights, will work at some Bruin hockey games and comedy nights. We're also selling 50/50 tickets and selling raffle tickets on a furniture package and family portrait session," said Kelli.
The Kitzuls raised $12,000 last year for the working adventure for the two of them in Kenya. They spent two weeks helping to build an all girls school in Oshawa. Next year they hope to return to the same area to either help finish building the school or contribute to its program. They perform all kinds of tasks from preparing food to fetching water and working in a local medical centre. "We learn about Kenya when we're not busy building," she said.
Kelli said the family's raffle idea is the big item on their fundraising program this year and now that they know the kind of effort it takes to raise the money, they don't feel intimidated, even if they are a little nervous about reaching their goal.
Tionna said having the opportunity to be engaged in the Me to We and Free the Children programs, lead by the Kilburger brothers, Craig and Mark, is pretty neat. Mark's wife was in Nairobi last year when the Me to We event was staged and included Canadian songstress Nelly Furtado who made a major financial contribution to get a second girls school built.
"We do so much in those two weeks," said Tionna.
Marley is pretty excited about the spirit of the program, too.
"Last year we learned that fundraising was a go, go, go situation pretty well all the time," said Kelli. But once they got to Africa, toured the schools, discovered that the English language is pretty popular in Kenya and other African nations, they felt more and more at ease.
The schools either built or being built, provide a strong educational background for girls and young women who attend until they reach the ages of 16 or 18. The learning experience equips them for advanced educational opportunities or the workforce.
Free the Children also embarks on building and donating to libraries and medical centres, so the Kitzuls had an upfront look at where their dollars go. Teachers in the schools are provided with guaranteed positions and incomes as a result of the infrastructures that have been established by the program.
The fundraising, they said, will probably feel pretty endless at times as the months go by, but by the time they get ready to return to Kenya next July, they have no doubts that they'll feel the effort has been worth it.
