THIRD ANNUAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE BOOT CAMP

ANSO’s third annual English Language Boot Camp (ELBC) is taking shape.  This year there will be four teachers traveling to Ethiopia to conduct the ELBC (total immersion English instruction) to 70 high school students from the Karayu tribe between July 8^th and 28^th.  The teachers are Rebeca Elliot, Lara Swanberg and Sharon Biggs all from the Grande Prairie area and Jennifer Morrison from Red Deer.  As usual, the teachers will be paying their own airfare and volunteering their time while ANSO will be covering the expenses associated with the ELBC and the cost of room and board for all participants.

In support of this year’s camp, the ELCB alumni (the teachers that have previously taken part in an ELBC) organized the ANSO Balderdash Auction & Barnyard Buffet which was held at BJ’s Q Club & Sports Lounge on June 1^st.  The event attracted about 100 participants, featured a buffet dinner, a variety of fun auctions, a goat raffle, a piñata and a lot of good fellowship.  It raised almost $6,000 to help off-set the costs of this year’s ELCB, so it was a definite financial success.  There is a good chance something similar may happen again next year.

The teachers traveling to Ethiopia this year were very involved with the buffet & auction, have been actively preparing lesson plans and are collecting the various teaching aids they will be taking with them.  From Ethiopia we hear that student selection is taking place, support staff has been selected and the planning process is well underway.  This has all the markings of another very successful ELCB.

If this sounds like something you would like to do, consider volunteering for ANSO’s fourth annual ELBC in 2013!