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Printed From Acorn-Online.com Weston Forum
by Kimberly Donnelly It used to be that taking the bus was considered kind of uncool for high school students — and taking a school bus to the prom? Are you crazy? But for Weston High School juniors Shana McCann, Elizabeth Luminoso, and scores of others, the bus is hot — limos are not. Shana, 16, has taken over the reins of the charitable organization her older sister Britney founded four years ago, the Starfish Children’s Fund. It’s signature fund-raiser, Limos for Lives, asks prom-goers to forgo a ride to the prom in a limousine, and instead pay $60 to take a school bus. “It’s a 20-minute ride that can save lives,” Shana said. The money raised from Limos for Lives goes to support the DF Blind School in Calcutta, India. In the four years since the idea of Limos for Lives was first hatched by Britney McCann and her friends Ali Shapiro and Katie Funk, the fund that grew from it has raised nearly $200,000. The money has helped add an extra story — space for about 100 additional students — on the school for blind children, and it has gone toward the purchase of five adjacent plots of land (about two acres total). Plans are in the works to build a new facility on the land to expand the school’s capacity to about 300 students. “In India, blindness is considered a curse,” Shana explained. The blind are shunned and children are often abandoned. “The kids in the school, though, they are all smiling and happy. Outside the school on the streets of Calcutta, it’s a very different story,” she said. Shana visited India and the DF Blind School in 2005, and, she said, it changed her life. “You can’t see these kids and not be moved to want to help them,” Shana said, adding that it’s the same for nearly everyone who learns about the school and the work the Starfish Children’s Fund is doing to help it grow and prosper. Her sister Britney, now a student at Miami University in Ohio, started Limos for Lives as a community service project during the 2004-05 school year. Out of that “seed idea,” her father, Tom McCann, said, and Britney’s passion for the Indian children she met, grew the Starfish Children’s Fund. She is the founder and its president. Aside from the “signature” event of Limos for Lives, Indian clothing sales, fashion shows, craft fairs, and two dance-a-thons have raised money for the fund. Britney’s passion for the ever-growing project is contagious. The fund has brought nearly 100 people — from Weston, Hartford, and as far away as Texas — to visit the school in India. They all come back energized and ready to help, Mr. McCann said. Administrators at Britney’s school have taken up the cause as well. They are starting a social responsibility course, and are using Starfish as “the main cause they’re getting behind,” Mr. McCann said. “The momentum that’s been created is incredible. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to give back. That’s all there is to it,” Mr. McCann said. The enthusiasm and desire to look beyond the borders of Weston and offer help seems to run in the family. Shana said she “always thought it was a great cause,” but she is especially excited this year. “Now that I’m a junior, I can help with the prom and with Limos for Lives.” In the years since Britney introduced it, Limos for Lives has continued in Weston under the leadership of Ali Shapiro in 2006 and Amy Marks and Amalia Anderson in 2007. Participation has grown. There are about 80 kids signed up so far this year. The goal is to get everyone going to the prom to opt to take a bus instead of limousines. The money that would be spent on a limo can instead go the the fund. There are reasons other than philanthropic ones to take the bus, Shana and her father said. For the past three years, the Limos for Lives buses have ended up bringing home about twice as many students as they carried to the prom. Police and the Department of Transportation conduct spot checks of the limousines at area proms, Mr. McCann said, and in the last several years, many were found not to be in compliance, or to have crossed state lines illegally. “There are many laws kids and their parents are unaware of when they rent a limousine,” Mr. McCann explained. As a result, police would not allow students to ride home in the limos many of them had rented. The Limos for Lives organizers came to the rescue and, as a courtesy, brought their stranded classmates home on the buses — forcing those who bought tickets to have to give up a planned breakfast stop on the way home. This year, however, Limos for Lives has decided there will be no “free rides.” They are encouraging all students to plan to “bus it” from the beginning, and they are requiring any unexpected riders to purchase tickets. Besides being a safe way to get to and from the prom, taking the bus can be a lot of fun, Shana said. “You can have all your friends on a bus. You can only fit eight in a limo,” she said. As in past years, Laidlaw of Weston is making its buses available for the event. “Laidlaw has been great,” Mr. McCann said. “Without them, we couldn’t have done as much as we have.” The buses will pick up students at a few designated houses — “just like a limo,” Shana said — and take them to the Amber Room in Danbury on prom night. A breakfast stop on the way home is again being planned. The Starfish Children’s Fund has plans, too. “The goal is really to never stop setting new goals,” Shana said. The first one was to build the third story on the original school for the blind; next came purchasing land. The next goal, she said, is to build a new facility — including a Braille library — to allow more blind children to get off the street, and become, in the words of the school motto, educated, rehabilitated, and integrated. For more information on the Starfish Children’s Fund and Limos for Lives, visit www.starfishchildensfund.org, e-mail limosforlives@gmail.com, or call Shana McCann at 226-4512. © Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
