The Partnership of African and Lansing Schools (PALS) is organizing a "Raise-the-Roof" fundraiser for Friday June 17 at Myers Park from 5 to 9 PM. The event will include a strong musical lineup including the Lansing choruses, and by special invitation Ithaca's multicultural chorus Voices and the well-known local band Thousands of One.

Mbaka Oromo Primary School

Also, games and activities have been organized, including a bounce house, dunking booth, baseball radar gun, Lansing varsity women vs. men soccer game, and shots on the star soccer goalie. Chicken BBQ dinners and African crafts will be for sale, and a beautiful quilt will be raffled off. Admission includes a PALS button ($3 adults, $2 children, $10 family), and all proceeds will go towards the reconstruction of the roof at the partner school in Kenya. Bring lawn chairs and blankets. Rain location will be the Lansing Middle School.

LHS Spanish teacher, Nancy Gardner, made this quilt to be raffled.

PALS is a partnerships between the Lansing school district and two schools in Africa in which financial aid is coupled with personal, cultural, and educational connections. PALS works with the charitable organization Reach the Children and has identified Mbaka Oromo Primary School and Kuoyo Secondary School in western Kenya as the first partner schools. Forty percent of the students at Mbaka Oromo are orphans.

Both schools have inadequate numbers of classrooms and teachers, and insufficient supplies and furniture. Contact: Cindy van Es ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , 533-8891) or Caroline Rasmussen ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , 257-4155).