By MICHAEL GOOT
Daily Gazette Reporter

SCHENECTADY — A group of Union College students is reaching out to help students in Africa.

Juniors Michael Clarke and Patrick Petty are trying to raise $20,000 to build a music room, art center, school store and drinking water system for the Faith Hour Redemption Academy in Accra, Ghana.

Clarke became involved in the effort after he traveled to Ghana the summer after his freshman year with his mother, who was with a group from her church. He enjoyed helping out the school.

“I built an amazing bond with the students,” he said. “It was awesome.”

After he returned, he wanted to continue the work. With help from his friend Petty, whom he met through running track, they collected more than 3,000 books to stock the school library they planned to build.

Petty said his mother, who is a teacher, collected books from her elementary school.

Clarke and Petty returned to Ghana last summer, built the library and catalogued the books. The teachers and students were very excited about the effort.

“Kids were reading books they never had a chance to,” Clarke said.

A total of 10 students are going to go back to Ghana this summer to continue the work. People can donate to the effort by visiting the college's website at www.union. edu and click on the “give a gift” button to contribute to the “Building Up Ghana” fund. Gifts are tax deductible.

The students have raised about $1,500 so far. Among the events they are holding is a hot dog eating contest over alumni weekend. They are also writing letters to outside organizations and alumni.

“We figured reaching out to the greater community could really help our efforts,” Clarke said.

Clarke said they are also looking to branch out to help some other schools in Ghana.

Ultimately, Clark said he and Petty would like to create an interfaith high school in Ghana, since many schools there are built by a church or some religious organization. Interfaith relations is the subject of his major, which he created as a blend of politics and religion.

Petty said his experience in Ghana was “life-changing and eyeopening.”

The house he stayed in had electricity, but it was unreliable and could have gone out at any time.

“The school we worked at doesn't have any running water — no carpet. It's like a plain cement fl oor. It's a really basic building,” he said.

Some of the students had never seen a library before, while “some schools in the area had libraries but it was nothing like what we built.”

He was surprised by the amount of westernization; Accra is a fairly urbanized city.

“You think of Africa, you think of that stereotype of plains with mud huts and animals running around,” he said.

Other than the streets being a little dirtier and a smell from a lack of sanitation systems, Petty said the buildings do not seem any different than any other city in the world.

He recalled the feeling when the group landed last summer and the teachers and students met them at the airport. Although Clarke was the only one they knew at the time, he said “they treated us like rock stars before we did anything.

“They said 'thank you so much.' It's such a great feeling knowing that we were appreciated,” he said.

Petty, who is a biology major, said he is a big believer in helping people and giving back to the world.

“There's a lot of people that helped me in life and made a lot of things possible for me. I see this as carrying on their tradition.”