Young Explorers Find Their Way Through

Positive Fundraising Experience

MONROE — In November the members of Young Explorers 4-H Club decided they wanted to learn about running a business. They wanted to earn money and donate it to something positive. In March they came up with two ideas for raising money — a bake sale and a play.

On May 13 at The Harmony Grange in Monroe, the goals the Young Explorers had set months earlier became reality.

The 4-H club, with members from Newtown, Bethel, Monroe, and other towns, are primarily home-schooled children ages 7–10. The club’s focus for the year is the development of leadership skills.

They put on a play they made up themselves entitled, The Children and the Time Machine. It is about three children going back in time. There were two writers, Owen Sandercox and Caroline McArdle. The whole play was about 20 minutes long, and Owen says, “Writing it was pretty hard.” According to Caroline, “It was a little bit hard at first, but fun.”

All the children in the club were either actors, stagehands, or both. There were three leads in the play: Willem Sandercox, Grace Sandercox, and Tristan Speed.

“It was fun,” said Grace, who admitted she was a little scared herself, but didn’t think anyone in the audience could tell.

After the play, the kids set up food stands and sold sandwiches, coffee cake, brownies, and other treats they made themselves. The money from the play and bake sale will go to Terre Haute — a land preserve in Bethel/Danbury — and Habitat for Humanity Hurricane Katrina Relief. In all, the Young Explorers group made $124.50.

“The event was entirely created by the children — the content, the execution, everything,” said Patricia McArdle, who with Amanda Hale is a co-leader of the club.