The Council Room

[DavidAyars]

You know how parents clip articles out of newspapers for you, set them aside, and then send or give them to you months later when they're cleaning up?

I just got a copy of an article from my dad from our old hometown paper dated August 2008 about Wyanoker John Grabowski, who grew up in the same town I did. John talks here about the value of the schools he went to. I imagine he'd have something to say about the role of Wyanoke in his life as well, but then, the hometown paper asked him about his hometown schools, not about camp, of course.

At least some of John's tent groups, from the DR rosters:
1970 J-6 Jim Elson
1971 J-5 Chris Parsons
1972 S-4 Pat Freeland
1973 S-4 Pat Freeland
1974 JA-2 Dan Mannis

By Will Bradford, Needham Times, August 6, 2008

When John Grabowski turns 50 this year, the occasion will be more momentous than a typical birthday. When that day comes, Grabowski, the country office director of Mozambique for the international charity organization Save the Children, will have spent 25 years of his life in the United States and the other 25 in Africa.

“The real drawback of this profession is that you do not have that much direct contact with family,” he said. “[My wife and I] definitely miss that close contact with parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, but we don’t look back on our 25 years with that much regret. The line of work I’m in is very gratifying.”

Save the Children, or Save for short, aims to improve the lives of children in underdeveloped countries through education and health care. Long before it was Grabowski’s job to preach the importance of early education to families and build preschools in a developing African nation, he sat in the classrooms of Needham’s public schools.

“Back when I was in Needham, I have vague memories of nursery school and kindergarten. I was at Broadmeadow School. Is that still there?” said Grabowski, a 1976 graduate of Needham High School. “That’s where I went to kindergarten. Certainly, I don’t think I can claim that that made all the difference in my life, the chance to go to preschool or kindergarten, but I think I can rightfully say it had an impact on who I was and who I became.”

Unlike some of the 27 other countries in which Save works, the Mozambican Ministry of Education has no preschool curriculum, making Save’s work all the more groundbreaking. The program is garnering so much publicity that the World Bank is conducting a study in collaboration with the organization’s preschool program to assess the impact of preschool and kindergarten as students progress through primary and elementary school.

“Sometimes these countries have shown reluctance to [accept] Western help, but this ministry is so excited. I’ve never seen them so excited about something new. Next week, the minister of education himself is coming out to see one of our preschools. And the children are like sponges. They’re exposed so little, the minute you introduce something new, they want to learn more and more. They truly are dying to get the chance.”

Although the organization has been around since 1919, the preschool program received a huge boost only last year. Fans of the reality show “American Idol” may remember a two-episode program in 2007, “Idol Gives Back.” The object of the benefit concert was to use the show’s popularity to raise recognition and money for underprivileged children worldwide, and Save was one of the charities chosen to receive proceeds from the show. The benefit had astounding success, bringing in more than $70 million total, with $13.5 million going to Save the Children and, according to Grabowski, $1.5 million going to Mozambique alone.

“The show was fantastic opportunity to expose a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have a clue,” he said. “I wish more programming in the states would take on a lead of showing their viewers perspective and understanding of what it’s like in a country like Mozambique and Angola.”

Largely through the donations of “Idol Gives Back,” Save has erected 96 preschools in 42 different communities in Mozambique.

“It’s fantastic that through ‘American Idol’ we’ve been able to build a significant number of these preschools where these kids wouldn’t be able to go to school otherwise,” Grabowski said.

Whether the genocide in Darfur, the recent earthquake in India or the seemingly constant conflict in the Middle East, Americans have sometimes been accused of ignoring international issues and not contributing enough in terms of international donation and support. But Grabowski doesn’t see it that way.

“What it comes down to, and this is true for human beings in general, is that when you have no perspective on a particular lifestyle, it’s really difficult to grasp, no matter how good the person is at describing the challenges faced,” he said. “As a result, with an exception of our immediate family who have come and visited us and seen firsthand, without having that experience, it is difficult to understand how difficult life can be in a developing country. It’s almost as were living on two different planets.”

In his 25 years in Africa, he’s spent only the last 10 in Mozambique. Previously, through work in the Peace Corps, he lived in Egypt and the Cape Verde Islands.

Over the years, Grabowski has developed a reputation as a tremendous worker with an ambition to improve others’ lives.

“John is the right combination of commitment, concern, personality and experience,” said Rick Stoner, former Africa area director and Grabowski’s former boss. “We brought him back to Mozambique to pull together the Saves of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway [into one unit]. It is quite an achievement.”

The Grabowskis manage to cross the Atlantic to get to their house in Chapel Hill, N.C., once or twice a year to see family. As much as he loves life in Africa, Grabowski has no complaints about the time he spends in America.

“We enjoy the lifestyle during the time were back in the states,” he said. “We take advantage of all the conveniences Americans have at their fingertips, because the 11 other months of the year, we don’t have those conveniences.”

http://www.wickedlocal.com/needham/news/x1153215100/From-Needhams-Broadmeadow-School-to-Mozambique
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Camper: J-8 1965 (Kevin Ryan), J-8 1966 (Mike Freeland), S-6 1967 (Russ Hatch), S-3 1968 (Jeremy Cripps), and JA-2 1969 (Dan Mannis).
JC: J-2 1970 (Bill Bettison) and J-3 1971 (Gene Comella). Councilor 1972, J-5 1973, and JA-1 1974 & 1975

[CharleyLax]

John was in my tent for several years as a camper and I remember him well. I am so pleased to have learned about his whereabouts.


Charley Lax
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Charley Lax
Cabin Town Midget, Junior and Senior @ Camp Wyanoke 1969-1973
Brothers Andy (lives in San Francisco)and Gerry Lax (lives in Pennington, NJ) also were campers