The students of the S/V Concordia are all fortunate enough to come on this amazing experience. To show our gratitude the grade eleven students in Lunenburg spent many hours fundraising and organizing activities to give back to the community. C.A.R.E stands for Class Afloat Ripple Effect. The point of this programme is to raise awareness of the poverty in different parts of the world and through little ways give back to the world community. With sponsors Zero Gravity and Telin Systems LTD we were able to raise close to $ 2000. This money was divided between various ports to help out the community.

The first C.A.R.E project was in Swakopmund, Namibia. The grade eleven students bought piles of toys ranging from balls to bikes to a primary school in one of the townships. The kids ranging from three to six years were radiating happiness along with curiosity as we pulled up to their school. They acknowledged these bags of toys but what they were most interested in, was the love and compassion that the grade eleven students were about to offer.

As soon as we stepped out of the van, children instantly grabbed on to every limb of our body. They were so excited to have people to play with and most importantly they were striving for the attention that we were about to give them. We taught and played many games with these elementary students; the favourite game was “duck, duck goose” the smiles and joy that these kids had from the game and the company of the grade eleven students was priceless. Even though these kids have so little, they still were one of the happiest groups of children that I have ever been with. They proved to us the simplicity of life. Just from the couple of hours spent with these children the grade eleven students gained just as much from the kids as they gained from us. The first C.A.R.E project was very successful and the students of S/V Concordia are looking forward to the next project in Brazil!