Heritage High honored at MLK breakfast

Story and photo by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Jan. 21, 2010, Villager)

For building a secondary school in a war-torn village of Africa, Heritage High School was honored with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award at the City of Littleton's 12th Annual MLK breakfast, Jan. 18.

Students at the school started raising money for community service projects in 2005. The first group of students raised $300 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation during a week or activities in April. The next year, students donated nearly $10,000 to send a girl with Leukemia to Disneyland. In 2007, students generated $14,000 for a variety of services in an African village – bikes and a concrete floor for a bakery, microloans for entrepreneurs, medical supplies for amputees, scholarships to school, food, clothes and sports equipment.

The last two years during Make a Difference (MAD) Week, students poured in nearly $45,000 to help build a secondary school in Kabala, Sierra Leone.

“Dr. King inspired all of us to try to go out and make a difference,” said Heritage Principal Ken Moritz. “This is a story of 1,600 Littleton teenagers, how they collectively over three years of committed work and effort built a school in a village where there was no school. Education is probably the most powerful tool we can give anyone in any society in any part of the world.”

Heritage Kabala was completed in August 2009 and opened in November. This April, Heritage students are raising money to build a similar school in India for the Dalit, members of the “untouchables” caste. For information or to donate, contact Tony Winger, twinger@lps.k12.co.us or 303-347-7600.

A history of Heritage in Sierra Leone and its MAD Week and a blog from Sierra Leone is also on Heritage's Web site.