Brent Zimmerman - Dedication of The Sheri Klein School in Kenya

My name is Brent Zimmerman. I traveled to East Africa as part of the Koins for Kenya expedition in July of this year. It was a life-changing experience for me. I would like to tell you about my trip to hopefully give you an idea how special it was.

My story begins in August of 2009 when my sister passed away in childbirth. The event was traumatic to the entire family, of course, but especially to my mother. She found it particularly difficult to recover from the grief of that event. She felt that building a school in memory of my sister would help her and the rest of the family to heal. In December of 2011, she contacted Koins for Kenya and made plans to fund the building of two classrooms in the village of Miyani. My parents were the primary donors, with additional donations coming from our extended family. The groundbreaking for the school was in May of 2012.

The original plan was for my parents to attend the dedication ceremony, but they were unable to make the trip. So, my brother and I were chosen to travel to Kenya and represent the family. The two weeks we spent in Kenya were amazing. We met so many people and they all treated us so well that we started to feel like celebrities. The highlight of the trip came on the day before we departed. That was when we attended the dedication ceremony of the two new classrooms in Miyani. This is my journal entry for that day:

July 20, 2012

Today was the dedication ceremony for the Sheri Klein School. It was easily the most amazing moment of my life. Picture the joy of getting married or of seeing your child born and then add over 1,000 cheering fans. I'll try to write a description, but it won't begin to do it justice.

We took a van to the ceremony, which was in the village of Miyani. When we were a few hundred yards from the village we saw the students waiting for us. They saw us coming and all ran out to greet us. There were over 1,000 of them singing and dancing. Russ and I got out and walked through the sea of children all in uniform. They swarmed around us clapping, shaking our hands, and giving us high-fives. They sang songs in the traditional call-and-response style. From our location in the center of the crowd, the volume was almost deafening.

 We walked with them the rest of the way to the village where we were met by the ladies of the village singing and dancing another song. They escorted us to the entrance of the school yard where the girl scouts marched us to the new classrooms. The building had been painted blue and white and looked very sturdy compared to the older dirt-floored buildings surrounding it. There was a brief ribbon-cutting, followed by photos in one of the classrooms. They then took us into the center of the schoolyard where there was a program featuring more singing, brief speeches and poetry. They then had the village elder dress us in traditional clothes, give us village names and make us honorary members of the clan. They then had Russ and me speak with the help of an interpreter. Russ was in charge of thanking all the appropriate people, including donors, construction workers, the Koins Foundation, etc. I was in charge of telling a bit about Sheri and the reason the school was dedicated to her memory.



 Nearly all the members of our Koins expedition commented to us on how nice the ceremony was. I feel truly blessed that I was able to attend the dedication and represent the family. I have set a goal for myself to raise enough money to build additional classrooms for the school and for my parents to attend the dedication. The trip was something that I will never forget. I'm grateful to the Koins for Kenya organization for helping our family build the school in memory or my sister. I'm a firm believer in their mission and I plan to work with them in the future.