SOUL TOUCH

Happy Holidays!

2009-07-11T13:01:00.002+01:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday, enjoying the sunshine and taking a well-earned break after the extremely busy (amazingly productive) end of term challenge days!

I am really encouraged to see that many of you have been keeping the blog active with comments and kinds words to one another, I know that many people admire the blog and all the work you are putting in to keeping it up to date in preparation and anticipation of the Water Challenge launch!

Thanks to our friends from the Valley Fm Radio station in Bo’ness who gave us a shout out. Thanks Sam, Larissa and Abz! We really enjoyed your visit to the school and I personally was so proud of all the interviews the pupils at Wallace High gave; they sounded amazing on the radio!

With this superdooper link in mind I want also to invite you all to meet up. Lilias is running a trip to Alton Towers on Tuesday and has asked me to invite all of the Wallace High Soul Touch team! I have more details of the trip and consent forms so please start blogging if you would like to be part of it! We leave at 1am Tuesday and return 1am Wed morning! The cost is £45 (you can pay this in instalments if you wish).

It is an awesome opportunity to get to know other young people who share the same interests and are experienced in “being the Change”! You guys have also so much to contribute and I’m sure the valley FM team will be hyped by all the work you’ve put in to Soul Touch so far…

Ok, so before I babble on for Scotland all that’s left to say is Happy Holidays. Thank you…for caring, for making an effort to support people other than yourselves and for impacting so many lives by living yours right! You amaze me!

Hope to see you Tuesday!

Ps bring earplugs…because I’m terrible on roller coasters!

Love, thanks and blessings in abundance Miss B x

Air Waves!

2009-06-22T00:14:00.011+01:00

"Get caught in the wave" is what's aptly woven across our “Soul Touch/Ugandan” notice board at school and that is exactly what is happening: the pupils at Wallace High School have literally started a wave of enthusiasm and excitement that is sweeping across schools, churches, homes and individuals around the world, motivating and encouraging others to make a difference and to “BE THE CHANGE”!
I can proudly say that I have had another awesome weekend full of praise and thanks for the young people at Wallace High School and Bo’ness Academy/ St Andrew’s church. Last week the two forces got together for the first time since meeting over video conferencing on skype. The gorgeous crew from Bo’ness were invited to visit Wallace High on Friday and so after kindly accepting the invitation they gave up their time to come and interview our team.

The interviews were fantastic, packed full of information about organisations Dwelling Places and Raising up Hope for Uganda. After some nerve-racking recording the takes were edited and then aired live across the airwaves on Valley FM this morning. This has allowed more and more people to hear about the awesome work of these organisations from the voices of the young people who are committed to supporting them.

So, well done teams (in Stirling and Bo’ness) and an especially huge THANK YOU to Lilias who co-ordinates, plans, prepares, eats, sleeps and breathes working with these young people...you are amazing!

Guys, you are an example to us all that together we really are better and that united we can accomplish so much more. Also lots more exciting texts and emails have come in from people who have heard about the Water Challenge and want to become involved. Miss McHale, in Leeds, has been in touch to say her pupils have already downloaded the sponsor sheet and are taking up the challenge starting… tomorrow!

Finally I’d like to give a huge shout out to Tim and Annette Gulick, in Argentina. You guys are such a huge encouragement to Lorna and I and now to all of the young people we are working with. Thank you, we love you!

So guys, we have one week left of term to get everything ready for the “Water Challenge launch, which is taking place the first week back after summer! Keep up all the hard work and the momentum. You started the wave, invited others to get caught in it and now you have to roll with it!

It’s HUGELY exciting!
Love and blessings Miss B x
ps...what do you mean you're not allowed to eat in the studio?

Wallace High Goes Over The Airwaves :)

2009-06-19T10:34:00.004+01:00

Today we met pupils from Boness High School, who have thier own radio station, Valley FM, run by St Andrews Church. They came to interview us for their radio show on Sunday. They asked us about our Challenge Week and the Ugandan Experience. We told them about the blog, the Water Challenge and our Skype link-ups with Uganda, India and Boness.

It is amazing that they have taken the time out to come and visit and interview us. The whole group is really lovely, even though we all got nervous when it was our turn to speak. Thanks very much guys! :)

Please listen to the show, Sunday from 12 - 2, at www.valleyfm.org.uk :)

Welcome Miss MacHale!

2009-06-17T11:59:00.004+01:00

Dear Miss MacHale and all of her pupils. Miss Bonnar has told us about your enthusiasum about THE WATER CHALLENGE! We would be very happy to include you in this years WATER CHALLENGE as we want it to be a great and successful event and we want are excited about the opportunity for it to go nationally. Thank you for participating in THE WATER CHALLENGE 2009. If you have any questions we would be happy to answer them and are really excited your invlved.
Lots of love,
Donna and Caitlin on behalf of Soul Touch, Wallace High School xx

H2 0o0o0o0o0o

2009-06-15T15:26:00.002+01:00

Hi guys,

Just to let you know that Mr MacRae at Highland Spring has generously donated 300 bottles of water for our launch day! This is just the beginning...it's going to be huge!

Hope you're all well and ready for the meeting tomorrow at lunchtime, 1.15 in Miss Bonnar's room L103.

See you there, bring your lunch and your ideas!

Carlie

2009-06-13T10:27:00.003+01:00

Good Morning Mini Soul Touchers, I hope you've all recovered and have had some good, well earned, rest after a busy week of challenges! I am going to announce the Water Challenge at my church (St Andrew's church, Bo'ness www.standonline.org.uk) tomorrow morning and I am hoping that some of the people there and the youth team with take part in the Water Challenge! I've got my whole family signed up...although not all of them know it yet!

Carlie and the advertising team still have some letters to send out on Monday. Any ideas you can contribute or help you can give her with that is very much appreciated! We will meet at lunchtime!

Some of us stayed at school after the bell yesterday and spoke to more of the children from Dwelling Places Children's Home. They had beautiful smiles and are already expressing lots of love and thanks for all the help you are giving them. Just knowing that you are thinking about them really makes a difference to their lives! They asked me to say a huge "thank you" to you all!

Also Rita Nkemba, the founder of Dwelling Places, extends a huge thank you and is looking forward to meeting you all in October when she is in Scotland.

Have a great weekend, Miss B x

2009-06-12T11:30:00.000+01:00

To Mrs Dawson,
Thank you so much for the lovely card you gave us. We much appreciate it. We are so far really enjoying the things we are learning! We hope that we can make a difference this week as it would mean a lot to us and we are glad that you are doing that too. The Ugandan children would be very happy to hear that you are giving them money to help change their lives. Thank you again, we really appreciate it! 

From Caitlin, Ashleigh and Donna xxx

Paul And Family

2009-06-12T10:17:00.004+01:00

Hi Paul its James and Aaron at Wallace high, we spoke to you yesterday! We would just like to say it was nice to hear from you. You have a beautiful family nice to see a picture of them. We are inspired by all the work that you and your wife have done with the orphanage. It is a privilege to know that we are helping other people who are less fortunate than us and it is nice to know that we are not the only people helping them .We are trying to raise money by doing a water challenge for Uganda but Aaron, Gary and I would personally like to help Sangita orphanage and are going to wax your legs and Aaron's shaving his head bald for to raise money too.

We thank you for all the work you do for the children.

You are the CHANGE!

2009-06-11T15:43:00.007+01:00

Soul Touch would like to extend a huge thank you to James Chalmers and Aaron Hazel who have been helping us this week! You boys keep our spirits high and have so much enthusiasm for the work in Uganda. It is inspiring!

I personally would like to thank you for encouraging ALL of the younger pupils. Your input has been invaluable. You have really worked hard to bring the team together and keep new members up to date with what’s going on. I know Patrick will have appreciated all your comments! Well done with hosting and managing the live link ups and organizing the questions for our discussion with India! It’s been a great week…and the best is yet to come!

Well done also to Megan, Blair and Dale who joined our team late but have managed to make a really valuable contribution already! We appreciate your efforts, thank you!

Thank you also to Mrs Henderson for you efforts with the card making team, I’m sure the staff will love their personalized invites when they get them and will all be willing to take up the challenge! Finally to everyone, keep up the good work.

Team, you are fantastic! Make sure you keep up to date with everything that’s going on and let people know what your group has achieved by posting it on the blog. The notice board, leaflets, sponser forms, flyers and presentations are all outstanding! Go Wallace!

A huge WELL DONE and thanks from a very proud Miss B! x

Patricks Letter

2009-06-11T15:09:00.002+01:00

Hi Patrick,
We heard about your story.
you are an insperation to society and to all of us.

We would like to find out more about your orphanage .
We would like to know about what you will do in the future.
How many people are in your orphanage?
What kind of activities do you do at the ophanage?
We are looking foward to hearing from you lots of love from Blair James And Aaron.

Message from Emma and Olivia :)

2009-06-11T15:00:00.005+01:00

Hello from Wallace High!

It's Olivia and Emma here!

We have achieved a lot today, we have been making posters to help promote out 'Water Challenge' which is running from the 1st of Semptember 'til the 1st of October. We know not all people are fond of water, and we undertsnad this, so we have changed the rule to 'flavoured water also', we hope this encourages people to feel more comfortable whilst taking part in the Water Challenge.

The posters are all handmade by us (of course!) and various senior girls helped us with their creative ideas! We would like to give a shout out to the girls saying 'Thank you for all your help, you all made the poster that extra bit special, we couldn't have done it without you!' The posters are now ALL AROUND the school, and they are looking fab!

THANK YOU TO IRENE! FOR LETTING US USE THE PHOTOCOPIER AND USING LOTS OF YOUR A3 PAPER, WE PROMISE IT HAS NOT GONE TO WASTE, AND HAS GONE TO A GOOD CAUSE! THANKS! :)

Our motto is ' THE CHALLENGE: Drink water, THE CAUSE: Uganda, THE RESULT: Saving lives!' :)

Thank you for all the supportive comments, they really help us to keep you all posted and inspire about what we are doing! Thank you all! We will keep you updated tomorrow! We hope you are all proud of our work, we are!

Thank you to Miss Bonnar also, she has been fantastic!

x

Lorna ..... We Love You! xx

2009-06-11T14:44:00.005+01:00

Lorna,

We just wanted to take the chance to tell you how much we appreciate all the work you've done. We would love to meet you, anytime you wish. Miss Bonnar has told us so much about you, and you're an inspiration to each and every one of us here at Wallace High and every one else around the world. We've also heard a lot about when you and Miss Bonnar were travelling and its sounds amazing. We hope to travel around the world and visit less fortunate coutries too, but when we're a little bit older. Even though you're not here, we just wanted to say that we love you so much, you've made such an achievement with Soul Touch. Thankyou so much for all your support and encouragement. We Love You! x

Hope to here from you soon,
Carlie and Rebecca xx

Water Challenge Sponsor Form!

2009-06-11T12:11:00.001+01:00

This is a copy of the sponsor form for the Water Challenge.
It will work best if you click on the image so it is enlarged. Then highlight and copy the whole enlarged image into a word document, to print.

Front.

Back.

Wallace High School WoW the world!

2009-06-11T09:00:00.005+01:00

Wallace High School Soul Touchers you amaze me! What a wonderfully productive day we had yesterday, you all worked so hard to make progress on the Water Challenge and everyone is commenting already on how professional and enthusiastic you all have been.

I would personally like to thank all of my team, especially the seniors who have been helping put everything together! We couldn’t do this without you.

Anyway lots still to do. This is just the beginning of amazing things to come. Have a great day and remember you really are changing lives.

It is a privilege to be part of all this with you. Go for it: BE THE CHANGE!

Lots of thanks and oodles of excitement Miss B x

ps we have our India link up with Lilias and the guys at 12 noon so make sure you have all your questions ready and you are looking smart! x

2009-06-10T23:53:00.001+01:00

2009-06-10T23:42:00.002+01:00

India Link Up!

2009-06-10T14:58:00.006+01:00

We have just spoken to Lillas, Stacy and Mhairi from Bo'ness! They went to India , it sounded so amazing and very worth while. They helped alot of people while over there. They spent a year fund raising to make sure they could go over there. Stacy is doing a psychology degree at the moment, and while over in India she was offered to go back for 6 months and further her degree, as it would be very useful for her to help over there. They also have a radio station, which the youth in Bo'ness run, DJ and organise (with the help of Lilias!) and it would be very useful and really fun for everyone to tune in , it runs from 17th june to the 27th, 7am-12pm - www.valleyfm.org.uk

We'll be listening!!! You gotta give some shout outs for the water challenge 'n' get all the Bo'nessians involved! Laura at Deanburn says she's up for the challenge....we're excited to hear that!

We really loved speaking to you guys, you have been an inspiration to us all, and hope to be speaking to you soon

THE STORY OF PATRICK

2009-06-10T12:18:00.015+01:00

Patrick's one of my good friends. I met him in '07 and he helped me when I was helping some street kids in Kampala.

I couldn't do the work on my own and randomly met Patrick who was an orphan and unemployed and wanted to give his time to help the kids.

I say randomly, but it couldn't have been, God knew what I needed to help me and provided a total angel in Patrick, I love how He does that!!

Patrick hadn't finished school and had no money but knew that he'd be created with a purpose and once he found it he put everything into it. He's 20yrs old and looks after over 50 kids!! His faith is incredible and challenges me loads - imagine having to trust that God would provide food for 50 kids cos you have no money?!?!

He text me this week saying they had no food in the home - but people had given me money and I was just about to send over nearly £500 (1.6 million Ugandan shillings!!) That's enough to rent land to grow food - woohoo!! Good timing eh?!

Msg back!
Gillian

Wallace High School says Hi to the world!

2009-06-10T11:49:00.002+01:00

Hi Wallace High, Wallace Girlies and everyone else! In two days you have managed to get responses from Uganda, Argentina and Bolivia?? Thats amazing!! Well done everyone there and Im really excited to find out where the next comment is going to come from??? Keep blogging...

Lorna x

Are you up for the Challenge? We are!

2009-06-09T22:18:00.001+01:00

Hey Guys

2009-06-09T20:17:00.004+01:00

We're waiting to see how far this all goes!!!!!!

You have all obviously worked very hard today and seem really committed to the campaign!! You will I am sure be aware how much this means to Miss Bonnar but I have to tell you she is so impressed with all of your work so far and is very excited to see what can be achieved! Keep it going!!!!

Good Luck with the next few days, I will keep up to date with your progress!

Love Miss Dunsmore

Wow, wow and....WoW!

2009-06-09T19:49:00.005+01:00

Well, what can I say? I am completely overwhelmed! Firstly, by the superdooper enthusiasm of all of the pupils at Wallace High School involved in the Ugnadan/ Soul Touch experience and secondly because of all you who have encouraged and written to them!

I feel so blessed and ridiculously privileged to be in a position where I can contribute to something so worthwhile and know people who are so compassionate towards others.

Wallace troops: you guys are doing the best job ever! You have made so many people smile today and I can tell this is only going to get better! Your comments and messages are lovely and I am pleased that so many really thoughtful questions have been asked.

Hope you’re up for another great day of challenges tomorrow!
See you there
Miss B x

Wallace High School Shout Out!

2009-06-09T14:31:00.007+01:00

Sending you all some pics of the beautiful peeps at WHS! We have all worked so hard today and so enjoyed getting in touch with you! Love you all x

We've had an awesome day hearing all about our new friends in Uganda and all of the good work you are doing! We love you and want to be involved in everything in any way we can! We are looking after the Soul Touch blog this week and look forward to keeping everyone up to date with what is going on! This is day 1 of an incredible partnership and friendship! Love all the peeps at WHS x

Greetings from Wallace High School! x

2009-06-09T14:21:00.003+01:00

Thank you Patrick!

2009-06-09T14:05:00.002+01:00

Patrick you are such a huge inspiration to us here at Wallace High School! We love you! xxx