Local students fast for 30 hours
By Bill Rea

These students at Brampton Christian School took part in their own 30-hour famine Friday and Saturday.

World Vision is holding its 30-hour famine this month, but people at Brampton Christian School got a jump on things, fasting over Friday and Saturday.

Teacher Karen Davis said about 100 students took part in the fast, which involved films, games and other activities lasting until noon Saturday. The event concluded with a barbecue.

She added they had been hopping for an appearance by Dave Baksh, lead guitarist for the Canadian rock band Sum 41, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from making it. The group took a trip to the Congo in 2004, to document the impacts on the war-torn country, and they found themselves in the middle of civil war fighting, and were forced to wait in their hotel for the shooting to die down. When it didn't, a United Nation's Canadian peace keeper named Charles "Chuck" Pelletier helped guide them and other civilians to safety. The group named their next album Chuck in his honour.

The trip was documented in a one-hour film entitled ROCKED: Sum 41 in Congo, and that was shown to the students.

Davis, who teaches world issues at the school, said the kids were taking part in this effort "just to get a glimpse of what hunger feels like."

But she also stressed the film told of a group who were under fire for just two days, reminding the students people living in the Congo have to go through that all the time. She also pointed out to them there are no civil wars in Canada, and food is easy to find. The same can't be said for the Congo.