Once again the students at Uplands Park Elementary School are raising money to help Orphans in Zimbabwe, and this year they are doing it big time.

You may remember the column I wrote after their 2006 Christmas Concert, when Mrs. de Jung's Grade three/four class sang two African songs. That led them to think they should do something to help children in Zimbabwe by partnering with a local Rotary Project - They raised enough money to send eleven orphans to school for a year.

This year the entire school presented a spring concert at the Port Theatre, and it didn't take long for the students and teachers to decide that they wanted to help Zimbabwe orphans once again.

The concert was billed as "A History of Rock and Roll". Most of the 300 or so students in the school were on risers singing in a Rock and Roll choir led by their teacher, Kirsten Verhoeven. Smaller groups of students appeared out front playing DJs and characters such as Elvis, John Lennon, Kiss, James Brown and Paul McCartney to introduce the songs.

There were nothing but smiles in the audience that consisted of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and neighbours - They had a full house.

I met a few of the students after their final rehearsal last Friday. To say they were excited about both performing and helping the orphans would definitely be an understatement.

Sarah Goudreau was in Mrs. de Jung's class last year, the class that raised enough money to send eleven orphans to school for a year. So she was really excited to be helping out again.

"It feels terrific to be helping kids in Africa and to know they will be going to school just like us," she enthused. "It feels really good."

Capea Pereira was excited because, as she says, "This will get kids to school so they can have a better lifestyle, and then the next generation will be better and better and better, and then maybe there will be no more poverty, and the whole world will be better."

Tyler St. Clair, Carra Pereira and Kinsley St. Clair all expressed similar excitement both about the performance to come that evening at the Port Theatre, and their ability to help orphans in Zimbabwe. They assured me that all of the students in the school felt the same way.

As I said earlier, there wasn't anything but smiles in the audience the entire evening but, having met many of the orphans these kids will be helping, those smiles will pale when compared with the joy this donation will bring to these orphans and their schools.

I have heard that when the books are balanced, the donation will be "significant". I'll let you know in the next week or so just how much money these kids have raised.