Making time for Thailand: ARHS students work to make world a better place

By JENNIFER KROK Bulletin Contributing Writer

Published on April 11, 2008

Amherst Regional High School junior Elizabeth Woolf, 17, is your average kid who does her homework, hangs out with her friends and helps save elephants and rainforests.

For the past two years, Elizabeth and her father, Burton Woolf, 59, have taken part in the annual Power of One Thailand Program, which is a cross-cultural educational experience for teenagers. The program is sponsored by Blue Star of Hope, a nonprofit organization based in Crestone, Colo.

Elizabeth, her father and brother Max traveled to Thailand this past January where they spent two weeks caring for elephants, teaching Thai students, learning the culture and taking part in beach clean-up and rainforest conservation projects.

Burton said that the goals of the program are to bring together teens from the United States and Thailand, along with an equal number of American and Thai adult mentors, and engage them all in an intense travel, service and curricular program. The purpose is to foster global citizenship among young people so that they can fulfill their dreams of working as individuals and in collaboration with others to create a better world, with the primary themes being peace and conservation, he said. This year the program also sponsored a Chinese student who attended the trip.

Elizabeth, Burton and the rest of the Power of One participants spent the first eight days of the trip at the Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand. During their stay they got to walk with the elephants as they got their exercise, bathe them, feed them and meet their mahouts, which are they elephant's caretakers. Along with interacting with the elephants they took part in daily chores around the park.

"This year we made mud bricks, planted and watered trees, cleaned and mucked stalls of animals and built a fire break in the jungle to prevent the spread of fire to the park," Elizabeth said.

Each year there is a special service project that Power of One participants take part in at the Elephant Nature Park. "This year's special project was making mud bricks for a new visitor center that is planned," Burton said. "We tromped in pits mixing dried elephant dung, ground corn husks and dirt, then fashioning the mixture into bricks that are baked dry in the sun."

After their stay at the elephant nature park, the group traveled south to the village of Ban Krud where they spent two days leading an English camp at the Chaikasem Wittaya School.

"It's a full day of activities helping these kids become confident with their English," Elizabeth said.

While teaching in the Thai village, Elizabeth found time to explore and see the sights. She said that the scenery in Thailand is beautiful and she recalled one instance when they were walking and came across a waterfall.

"All the American students immediately jumped into the waterfall with their clothes on," she said. "All of the Thai students looked at us like we were crazy."

The remaining days of the trip were spent visiting the nearby monastery of Ajahn Denduang Nakaton, a Thai Buddhist monk who was instrumental in creating the program, Burton said.

"While there, Ajahn Den teaches us about meditation and we complete a cleanup project along the ocean-side beach on the monastery grounds," Burton said.

During their two-week mission in Thailand all of the student participants are required participate in group learning about their vision for a better world.

Elizabeth said that learning happens the whole time. Whenever there was a free moment the students got into a circle and pull out their notebooks.

"Going on the trip opened my mind to world traveling and cultural differences. I feel like I can see so much and see other cultures," Elizabeth said. "It made me understand and feel more worldly."