Kaneland kids help Mississippi counterparts

Mississippi high schoolers Kasha Williams and Chelsy Jones were a little overwhelmed Tuesday by the greeting they received at Kaneland Harter Middle School in Sugar Grove.

Sixth-graders lined a hallway, cheering on the 10th-graders from Rosedale, Mississippi, as the girls made their way to the cafeteria stage.

"This is amazing," Jones said, looking out at hundreds of students.

The 15-year-olds were there to accept 3,380 books, a half-dozen handmade Adirondack chairs, wooden garden benches and $1,000 for the Rosedale Freedom Project.

"I just want to say thank you for everything, for the books and for the donation for the total program," Williams said.

It was amazing, Rosedale Director Jeremiah Smith said, because "you only know them (Williams and Jones) through video."

Since November, sixth-graders at Harter have been working to help students over 550 miles away.

The Rosedale Freedom Project began in 2013. It aims to develop youths as leaders in a six-year program. It offers a summer session of academics, camping and travel, nutrition and exercise programs, and arts instruction for students in sixth through 12th grades.

The town is small, at 1,872 residents, and isolated; the nearest large town - Cleveland, Missippi, population 12,334 - is 20 miles away. More than a quarter of the residents are unemployed, and the median household income is $16,000, according to the organization. Its public school has no arts or music instructors. Many of the students have never been outside their home county, let alone the state.

Kaneland John Stewart Elementary School reading teacher Linda Zulkowski learned about the effort when visiting her son and daughter-in-law in Rosedale last year. She mentioned it to a Harter teacher. The sixth grade took the project on in November, with a student committee devoting their lunch hours to soliciting donations, publicizing the cause and making a video about the Kaneland district.

Students Tuesday watched a video produced by Williams and Jones about the history of education for black residents of Rosedale, including the era of racial segregation.

In the video, educators and former students spoke about the unequal education, even after integration. "'Integration' was a word. It was not in the hearts and minds of people,'" one elderly woman said. White students started attending a private academy instead.

There's been no new construction in the Rosedale district since the late 1950s, and in 2016 the school's gymnasium burned down.

A student spoke of being afraid to climb the decrepit stairs each day at the high school, fearful they would collapse under her. There have been rat and skunk infestations. The town's sparse library has been damaged by a leaking roof.

The books were an especially important donation, Smith said. Having fun books to read will encourage Rosedale students to read on their own. That, in turn, improves their reading skills. Good reading skills are key to the rest of their education, including being ready for college, he said.

"We're (Rosedale) so much more than our athletic ability. We are talented, we're smart," he said.

The primary focus of the trip, Smith said, was to give Williams and Jones experiences they don't get at home. On Monday, they visited the Museum of Science and Industry and the University of Illinois at Chicago, spoke at the Bronzeville Community Center, and attended a play.

Kaneland student Ryan Algrim of Elburn, who was on the organizing committee, hopes his next family vacation will be to Rosedale, in the Mississippi Delta.

"Just to get the real view of it," he said.