Local nonprofit organization wins 2013 North Carolina Peace Prize and strengthens campus involvement.
The North Carolina Peace Corps Association awarded the 2013 North Carolina Peace Prize to 4 The World, a non-profit group based out of Garner, for its collaboration with different communities across the globe.
The nonprofit works with communities to help identify and solve problems, specifically in healthcare and education. It provides support to ensure these communities are capable of continuing to grow, according to the organization’s website.
“It’s about a relationship; were not just going in and dumping resources,” said Shea Kerkhoff Vessa, 4 The World Education Director.
Recently, 4 The World Founder, Robert Froom, not only refurbished a school in the poorest district of Belize, but he redesigned it, said Vessa. “Every time they would rebuild it, the rains would just take it out again.”
Froom redesigned the school so it wouldn’t happen again, Vessa said. Froom essentially reinvented the structure. Not only will the school benefit from Froom’s design but the rest of the community will adopt the structure as well.
Robert Froom, an entrepreneur and California native, founded 4 The World nine years ago in North Carolina. He recently worked with the intern who established the first college chapter at N.C. State, according to Megan Goodfellow, a senior in business administration and 4 The World executive board member. The N.C. State chapter of 4 The World is working to recruit new members and organize events. They aim to pull in interested students by handing out free ice cream at the group’s first formal event of the semester.
4 The World’s next event will be a mass advertising service project in order to raise money for its spring holiday Belize trip, said Goodfellow.
On March 16th, On the Border restaurant in Cary is donating 10 percent of every customer’s purchases who mentions 4 The World to the NC State chapter. The money raised will go directly toward school supplies for children in Belize. All students have to say is, “I support 4 The World,” Vessa said.
The Belize trip will not only benefit the schools, but also the economy as a whole. Along with the money being raised from On the Border giveback night, the Cary Rotary Club gave the 4 The World parent organization a grant for school supplies, said Vessa. But instead of gathering supplies in America and shipping them to Belize, 4 The World will take the money down to Belize and purchase all the supplies at local businesses. “We can get more for our money, it’s more efficient, and we stimulate the local economy.” The N.C. State students on the trip will distribute the supplies to all the local schools.
Currently N.C. State is 4 The World’s only campus chapter, but a UNC-Chapel Hill chapter is in the works and college students throughout the United States are assisting communities through the organization regardless of a formal chapter, Vessa said. The parent organization is currently working with students at UNC-Chapel Hill to establish four executive board members and with Oklahoma State University medical students to volunteer in Belize.
