On October 8, 2011, Dasha Batalova and her 16-year-old host sister Catie made a lot of sandwiches. They weren’t hungry. But they knew that many people in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minnesota do go hungry, especially during the 363 days of the year when there aren’t special food programs for the homeless. On Christmas and Thanksgiving, many organizations host hot meal programs for the less fortunate, but what do the homeless do on the other 363 days of the year? Dasha learned that they are provided with sandwiches prepared by volunteers working through an organization called “363,” and she wanted to be one of those volunteers.

Dasha is a FLEX student in World Link’s southern Minnesota cluster, living with her host family in Excelsior, Minnesota. When her host family’s church listed projects which needed volunteers in October, Dasha and Catie chose to participate with “363” in making sandwiches. They joined 30 volunteers who gathered in the church’s basement. Together they made more than 2200 sandwiches. Dasha commented on the number of sandwiches they were able to make in only two hours: “It was nice teamwork. Maybe that’s why we did so many sandwiches for such a short period of time.” Project 363 feeds about 2,000 people a day, all with donated food and volunteer labor, so Dasha and her fellow volunteers contributed a full day’s worth of sandwiches.

Dasha is from Ukraine and she says that there are no programs like this in her country to feed the poor or homeless, or very few. She “wishes community service programs were in Ukraine like in the USA.” One of her goals while in the USA is to do as much community service as possible. She also wants to develop “a rich and supportive community of people who know each other and lend each other a hand when needed” back in Ukraine when she returns as an alumnus of the FLEX program.

The exchange students of World Link’s Bakersfield and Tulare, California clusters turned a recent cancer fundraising event into a celebration of life and creativity, learning fundraising and service project skills that they can take home and put to good use in their own countries. They also raised more than $5500 for cancer research. In the process, these enthusiastic students gave a lot of Americans a crash course on their home cultures with a unique “Culture Basket” raffle and booth display.
On Saturday, October 8, the thirty World Link students arrived at the Tulare Union High School to begin their long day of participation. The students could participate from 7:30an to 9pm, with the top 6 fundraisers allowed to stay for the overnight portion of the event as well. Many of the students had already put in hours of work, selling raffle tickets for the group’s Culture Basket and getting sponsors for the Relay. The top fundraiser for the group was Murad Alizade, from Azerbaijan, who raised $666 from her Relay sponsors. Many students raised more than $200 each.
The American Cancer Society has Relays all over the country, family-friend events with different aspects such as running or walking laps to raise funds, lighting of luminaries to honor friends and family lost to cancer, and a fight-back ceremony for those currently battling the disease. Participants walk or run laps to raise money, based on pledges. Begun in 1985 and developing ever since, involvement in Relay for Life gave the World Link students many ideas for producing their own lasting programs that would be both fun and do meaningful work in the community around a significant issue such as cancer awareness and research. Halyna Bozhok of Russia remarked that “[the Relay] is a great American experience!”

Many of the students dressed in costume for the “Halloween lap” in the evening. Students who had lost family members to cancer created luminaries to add to the displays along the edge of the stadium’s track. In addition to staffing the World Link booth, students also assisted with children’s dance and fitness events throughout the day. The top volunteer of the day turned in an impressive $348 raised through the Relay, another $40 for raffle sales on the Culture Basket, and 24 hours of volunteer work associated with the event, both prior fundraising and participation.

The Culture Basket was a unique facet that the exchange students could bring to this typical American fundraiser. Relay attendees visiting the World Link booth could purchase a raffle ticket for a basket stuffed with items from around the world. They could also select a flower from the booth’s display, each flower labeled with the name of a country represented by one of World Link’s students. The appropriate student would then share some details about their culture with their booth visitors. Anastasiya Stojhavska of Macedonia sold $95 of the $500 raised from the basket raffle. World Link’s Central Valley cluster truly made Tulare’s Relay for Life a “unique WORLD experience” for everyone there, a reminder that all communities are affected by common concerns and can work toward solutions together.