September was an exciting month at the Spitler School as we began our fourth year of operations with the addition of a fifth grade class and a “first day of school” for approximately 400 students.

 

The first day of the 2008-2009 school year began with a ceremony welcoming the students back to class, which the parents are encouraged to attend. Sarin continues to provide great leadership for all aspects of the school in between his paying job as a tour guide and preparation for the arrival of his second child. Mary is due on Nov. 11. We look forward sharing this happy event with Sarin and Mary.

 

 

 

 

 

In the days leading up to the start of the school year Sarin arranged for some additional landscaping to be added to the campus. As some of our earlier plants begin to mature, and the gardens continue to grow, the campus is taking on the look of a beautiful sanctuary in the midst of a village still suffering from poverty.

 

 

We also send out our thanks to a local organization that has sent volunteers to the school to provide free haircuts to many of our students.

 

 

Of course our big news is that Pam and I will be returning to Cambodia to visit the school in about three weeks. We will be visiting Thailand first, but we will be arriving in Cambodia on November 20, and we will be participating in a ceremony at the school on November 21, featuring some of the local dignitaries and including a member of the Cambodian Parliament. Upon our return at the end of November we look forward to sharing lots of new information and photos from our visit.

 

We are especially happy to have my father, Irvin Spitler, and my sister, Kay Spitler, joining Pam and I on this trip, along with friends Cheryl Turner and Melissa Fox.

 

In addition to showing our family and friends the amazing temple ruins of Angkor Wat and the other wonderful attractions of the area, we plan to make a visit to the Angkor Children’s Hospital and to visit the secondary school where our graduates will attend when they have completed 6^th grade at the Spitler School. We are looking forward to adding to our own education about the local culture and meeting new friends.

 

Cambodia has been hit, along with most countries in the world, with heavy increases in their cost of living, in particular fuel and rice. We have given all of our teachers a raise in salary to $100 per month starting in September, and we added a new teacher for our fifth grade class. However, even with the additional salary costs, we continue to be able to cover the basic monthly expenses with around $1300 per month. It is still an amazing value to provide an education for so many needy children. During our visit we will be planning for at least one additional construction project as we prepare for our last class addition (6^th grade in September, 2009), and we will be looking at other new initiatives that can be explored to continually improve conditions at the school as well as the surrounding village.

 

We continue to receive nice contributions from several supporters which helps provide resources to spend on uniforms, student supplies, library books, etc. We also continue to have tourist groups visiting the school and contributing pencils, notebooks and other needed supplies for the children. For all of these generous contributions we are sincerely grateful, especially during these very tough economic times.

 

Thank your for your continuing interest in the progress of the Spitler School.

 

 

Daniel Spitler, President
Spitler School Foundation
P.O. Box 730
Peoria, AZ 85380
“Resource Providers for Cambodian School Children”
http://dannypam.smugmug.com/gallery/2466201_eEC9c

IRS EIN # 20-8085411

At the end of July, the 07-08 school year came to a close, and the Spitler School wrapped up its third year of existence with a celebratory year-end party. The party consisted of music, games, and snacks for the children and a lunch for the teachers and their families, village leaders, and special guests. The children were treated to the great American soft drink, Coca Cola.

 

 

 

A week prior the year end party the school had another exciting event as our daughter Lindsey Spitler visited the school with her good friend Jana Clegg. Lindsey and Jana celebrated their 30^th birthdays by traveling to Thailand and then Cambodia. Of course Sarin and his wife Mary were wonderful hosts, and Sarin guided them through the amazing temples of Cambodia as well as making all the arrangements for a great visit to the school. Lindsey wrote the following comments about her visit to the Spitler School.

 

 

 

I was overwhelmed with the warm welcome and smiling faces of all the children.

When I visited each classroom, I was greeted with a song and excitement from the children.  My friend, Jana Clegg, who is an elementary teacher in Arizona, was amazed at how well all the children behaved.  I asked them what was their favorite subject, and they all replied, “English!”  They proved it too at recess when a number of the students were bold enough to approach me and ask me questions to practice their English – “What is your name?” “How many siblings do you have?” “How old are you?” etc.

At times during recess there would frequently be students standing close to me with their hands behind their backs.  Once they gathered enough courage, they would reveal in their hands a folded piece of paper, and with wide eyes, say, “For you.”  Inside the folds of the paper were crayon drawings ripped from their notebooks – treasures from their imagination.

Only three years ago these children were spending their days in the fields, tending to their chores, or just sitting at home.  Three years later they are singing songs, reading and writing, learning English, and giving hope to their community.

Before he built the school, Sarin asked the children of the community if they wanted a school.  The children replied, “We would be lucky to be able to go to school.”  They certainly have exceeded our expectations.

 

 

 

Jana is a teacher and Lindsey is an attorney working in the U.S. Justice Department, but they both love to travel (don’t know where Lindsey gets that from???).

 

While Lindsey and Jana were at the school they were recruited to help make several presentations. The Kiwanis Club of Phoenix donated funds to purchase uniforms for 50 of the students along with some mosquito nets for some of the village families. Lindsey and Jana enjoyed being able to make these presentations to the students and the villagers.

 

 

 

 

Lindsey and Jana were also able to make another special presentation as we awarded brand new bicycles to the two top students for the school year. We presented these bicycles to Sngoun Kiley from the 3^rd grade class and to Meng Seng Hour from the 4^th grade class. We are very proud of them for their hard work and academic success.

    

 

We also want to acknowledge and say thank you to the Lyon Travel Agency. This agency schedules numerous Elderhostel groups for visits to the Spitler School throughout the year. Recently they brought a group of grandparents and grandchildren. This group asked to participate in a work project at the school. We have been in need of a parameter fence to protect the school from wandering animals that can damage the buildings and the gardens. The Elderhostel group provided some funds for materials and pitched in to help with this project in the hot Cambodian weather. Other members of the group helped out with the painting of one of our classrooms.

 

 

 

We also send a thank you to three of our teachers, who have agreed to give up their August break and continue to teach a summer school session for 100 students needing extra help with their studies.

 

Finally, we will close the 07-08 school year by expressing our heartfelt gratitude to the many donors who have provided financial support to the school during the past academic year. We have had just over 50 individuals and groups who have made donations to help with this very special project. We also want to acknowledge the following individuals and groups who have sent donations in the last couple of months since our last newsletter.

 

Lyon Travel Agency

Rae Spitler, matriarch of the Spitler Clan

Angela Lopes, a regular contributor from Australia

Terry Lyman, one of our regular contributors from Boston

Beverley Maxwell and all her friends in Seattle

(Beverley recently held a book party and fundraiser with a Cambodia theme)

Lillian Schanfield, an Eldelhostel Traveler

Susan Galliher, one of our fellow travelers

Joan Gilbert & Joel Armstrong, visitors to the school

Mike and Marsha Lyons, friends from Scottsdale

Ibett Garcia, a generous employee of Oak Craft

 

Pam and I look forward to the coming school year and the beginning of our first 5^th grade class. We are looking forward to our return visit to Cambodia in November, when we will be accompanied by my father and sister, who have both been great supporters of the school. We also send our best wishes and congratulations to Sarin and his wife Mary. They are expecting their second child in November, so we just might be there in time to welcome a new baby into the world.

 

Spitler School Foundation
P.O. Box 730
Peoria, AZ 85380
“Resource Providers for Cambodian School Children” http://dannypam.smugmug.com/gallery/2466201_eEC9c

IRS EIN # 20-8085411

The third year of the Spitler School is winding down to its final month, and we couldn’t be more pleased. After all of the structural improvements and building projects of 2007 we are sure that our hardworking team, led by Sarin, was happy to have a few months where all they needed to do was to teach those 320 little kids.

 

April is the time for Cambodia’s biggest holiday, and we closed the school for a good portion of the month as the students and their families celebrated the Cambodian New Year. Sarin made his new year’s celebration very special by using this time to coordinate the drilling of a new water well in a very poor village where he had lived as a small boy.

 

Brenda Davis, a California resident, who visited the school in January, provided the funds to the Spitler School Foundation designated for this project, and of course Sarin did a great job of making all of the arrangements. Until the drilling of this well the only access that the village had to clean water was the rainwater that they would collect in clay pots.

 

 

 

Sarin also shared some of our school supplies with the village school, which has two part time teachers and very little access to any funds for supplies. We were happy to share some of our supplies with these needy children.

 

 

Back at the Spitler School our supply of school materials increased substantially after visits from our good friend Richard Chong bringing gifts from Singapore and the Chew Hua Seng Foundation. We especially appreciate the gift of two computers for the school. Their visit was followed by Selina Heng, also from Singapore, who brought school supplies, gifts for the children, and some special snacks.

 

 

 

 

The new books donated by these two groups were put to immediate good use in the school’s library.

 

 

Pam and I recently enjoyed meeting a charming lady from Cambodia who survived the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, emigrated to the United States, and survived many trials to become a recent author of a compelling book about her life. Oni Vitandham lives in Long Beach and her biography is entitled, On the Wings of a White Horse. You can also learn more about Oni by visiting her website at: www.onistory.com.

 

We can endorse her book as a compelling story about her will to survive and overcome horrendous tribulations as a young child. She now operates a foundation and is working to provide educational opportunities to children in Cambodia. We enjoyed meeting Oni when she was invited to speak at the Pebble Creek Community Center in west Phoenix.

 

 

 

The school continues to be blessed by the generosity of many friends and family, but we also get surprised by unexpected acts of kindness. Recently our school children became the beneficiaries of a generous gesture on the part of Sedona residents Michael McKinney and his bride Nancy Ruby. Michael had visited the school during the school’s first year and he and Nancy asked their friends and family to make donations to the Spitler School Foundation in lieu of wedding gifts.

 

This generous gesture on their part resulted in over $1400 of donations to the foundation. From all of us associated with the Spitler School we send Michael and Nancy our thanks and our warmest good wishes for a wonderful life together.

 

 

The Cambodian school year will continue to the end of July and then we will begin preparing for the new school year starting in mid-September. We will be adding 40 new desks, which will be purchased using funds from Mr. Karsten Schroeder, from England. We appreciate Karsten’s interest in supporting the school and also we send a big thank you to our volunteer from last summer, Virginie Paessler, for introducing Karsten to our work in Cambodia.

 

New projects at the school include adding a perimeter fence using wooden posts and three strands of wire, which will protect the school from domestic animals which can wander into the school and cause damage to the buildings and the gardens. We are also adding a small building to house our compressor. It needs to stay out of the weather and now that we have two computers, which will need to have electricity, we will be operating it more often and need to get it out of the classroom. We hope to be able to increase the use of the compressor to provide electricity for television learning programs and perhaps some evening events for the village where lighting will be needed.

 

We are also grateful to Lyon Travel, who brings many Elderhostel groups to visit the school throughout the year. They are always generous with their gifts of school supplies, and in July one of their groups will be assisting with a work project at the school. Also, we are excited about another visit to the school in July, as my daughter Lindsey will be visiting Cambodia with her friend Jana. Lindsey is an attorney with the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, but she loves traveling the world and will be visiting Thailand and Cambodia on her first trip to Southeast Asia.

 

With the slumping value of the dollar we plan to increase salaries for our teachers when school resumes in September, and we will need to hire a new teacher as we add fifth grade to the school. We are also asking our teachers to increase their hours so that we can add more school time for the older students. While costs have increased we continue to feel that we get an amazing value for the funds that are expended to give over 300 children a chance for an education and the hope of a better future.

 

We sincerely appreciate the interest and support that we continue to receive from so many friends around the world.

 

Danny and Pam, Directors
Spitler School Foundation
P.O. Box 730
Peoria, AZ 85380
“Resource Providers for Cambodian School Children”
www.dannypam.smugmug.com/gallery/602793/

IRS EIN # 20-8085411