Deerfield HS announcing Invisible Children as the beneficiary of their School Chest.

Each December, the student body at Deerfield High School holds an annual three-week charity drive, which they’ve dubbed School Chest. They fundraise by holding the most creative events we’ve ever heard of – Deerfield Idol (yes, a singing competition), silent auctions, Mr. DHS (a “beauty pageant” for senior boys to show off hidden talents), a 5K run/walk – and donate the money raised to a different organization each year.

We were the grateful beneficiaries in 2011, and all the money went toward funding RTK Radio in Dungu, DRC, which broadcast defection messages to encourage LRA combatants to surrender and return home. In a study done by Conciliation Resources, an international peace-building NGO, 89% of the LRA returnees interviewed cited “Come Home” messaging as their primary reason for escaping.

Each tower project costs roughly $140,000 and the donation of Deerfield’s $97,142 funded the majority. We continue to be blown away by how much they were able to raise (the biggest fundraising school in IC history!), and by how gracious they were in donating it to our cause. A commemorative plaque with Deerfield High School’s name is being placed on the tower that they helped build.

“Although we’re not there to see it, you definitely feel a connection,” DHS student Zach Keeshin said about choosing Invisible Children as their charity. “The distance between us doesn’t matter, we’re all a part of this world.”

Jedidiah Jenkins, our Director of Idea Development, visited the high school and had this to say:

“Deerfield is a school with right priorities. The entire place organizes itself, its fun, its creativity around providing major contributions to charity. The students told me that School Chest was the best part of the year. That is so inspiring to me and all of us at Invisible Children. We are deep believers in the idea that helping improve the world should be fun and bring the community together. Deerfield showed me how it can be done. With leadership from Danny Dubin and an incredible School Chest team, they raised an incredible amount of money to help end a brutal conflict and save the lives of child soldiers. It is a deep honor for me to know that their name will forever live on a large radio project in Congo. That when this war ends, and the child soldiers come home, these Deerfield students will know that they did their part in bringing peace to their world. Its a beautiful thing.”

Learn more about our FM Radio program in Central African Republic and DR Congo in the video below.