A season for giving

Smith Samah might not be a Leavenworth resident, but he resides in the hearts of many locals. Samah, from Liberia, has been the beneficiary of fundraising dollars through The Hope Project to pay for his college education.

Cascade School District (CSD) staff and students have been connected to The Hope Project and students like Samah for several years. 

It began back in 2003, when a few American families, who had adopted Liberian children orphaned by the war, founded The Hope Project. First, they funded basic needs, like food and medicine, for a community in Liberia. When it became clear that educational opportunities were a top priority, The Hope Project pivoted toward that aim. Their program expanded, including a three-story school, Hope International, opened in 2008, today houses 1200 K-12 students and employs over sixty staff. 

Jackie Frazier was one of those adoptive parents. She adopted three Liberian brothers, who all went through the CSD schools. In addition, Frazier taught fourth grade here, until she decided to devote herself full-time to The Hope Project as its Executive Director.

The next step was to help graduates pursue further studies, whether vocational school or university. Hope International’s visionary principal, Joseph Cummings, saw how gifted Samah was, and pooled resources to pay the $800 needed for his first university semester. The Hope Project got on board, looking for sponsors through social media and word of mouth.

In 2017 Cascade High School teacher, Malia Renner-Singer, invited Frazier to come into her AVID class and explain Samah’s needs. In response, the class jumped at the opportunity to help.

“In the spring of 2017, the AVID class ran a fundraiser called “Frisbee for Hope.’ The following spring, that same AVID class chose to do another fundraiser, ‘Dodge Ball for Hope,’” explained Renner-Singer. The AVID class raised enough to cover two and half semesters of college for Samah.

Just recently, The Hope Project informed local supporters that Samah graduated (after COVID-19 related postponements) from university after having served as student body president and with a degree in mechanical engineering.

“Smith was lifted by other young people, and he rose so high,” said Frazier in The Hope Project newsletter. “For his final year project, he designed and fabricated a sugarcane bud chipping machine. Smith will be a leader for Liberia in the decades to come.”

Renner-Singer added, on behalf of her now graduated AVID class, “We got to be a part of this dream!”

More exciting news is that The Hope Project is starting to sponsor more and more post-secondary opportunities. Samah was the second graduate, and there are eleven more attending college now, and almost fifty others attending vocational schools.

Former Cascade High School art students helped with other Liberian college students. Skylar Martinez designed one t-shirt and Grace Rodriguez created a later design, and the t-shirt sales went directly to covering the costs of two nursing students, one of whom graduated in 2019.

Good work continues at Hope International, a community hub. In response to COVID-19, over 5000 masks were made at the school, and it serves as a distribution site for food and other basic needs. 

Maybe few residents of Leavenworth have visited Liberia, but many share ties, through The Hope Project, to the country, the school and students, like Smith Samah, who are eager for the best education.

The Hope Project relies on private donations for 80 percent of its operating budget. If you’d like to learn more about The Hope Project, and to support their efforts, go to: www.hopeproject.org.