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One local teenager wished for something big—really big—as she marked her 16th birthday.
In fact, what she asked for was a building—or, more precisely, the money to purchase the cement needed to help build a school in Ghana.
“Instead of having a Sweet 16, I wanted to do something that would benefit someone else,” said Kara Magoolaghan, a junior at the Academy of Our Lady of Good Counsel in White Plains, in an interview.
Deciding whom to help was an easy one for Kara. She had often heard of the work of John Barber, founder, director and volunteer coordinator of the nonprofit organization Ghana ACT (Alliance for Community Transformation). Barber’s mother and Kara’s mother, Joan Magoolaghan, are longtime friends.
The organization was seeking donations for a new school in the town of Ho in Ghana. Bags of cement were needed to make the bricks necessary for the construction of the building. Thanks to Kara’s selfless act, her family and friends donated enough funds to purchase some 50 bags of cement.
“I thought that it would be much more memorable and meaningful if I went somewhere to help other people, and I got just as much out of it as I would have if I had a party,” Kara said.
Helping the less fortunate is a lesson her parents emphasize with her. Her mother is a civil rights attorney; her father, Lawrence McElroen, is currently vice president of Hudson Valley Bank in Yonkers. The family belongs to St. Paul the Apostle parish in Yonkers.
Her parents have showed her how helping others also benefits the whole community, and that lesson is reinforced at school. “Good Counsel really encourages a lot of community service,” Kara said. “The motto here is ‘compassionate leaders.’ ”
Sister Laura Donovan, R.D.C., principal of Good Counsel, proudly told CNY, “Having the students learn to become a compassionate presence in the world is part of our mission. She did that in a much broader context.” She added that Kara’s spirit of compassion and enthusiasm for service has been contagious among the girls at Good Counsel, particularly in drawing interest to the school’s already active Habitat for Humanity program and the Community Activist Club.
“When you see the mission embodied in a person, you feel you are making a difference,” Sister Laura said. “That’s what makes it worth educating in a Catholic school.”
In addition to raising money to purchase the cement, Kara traveled to Ghana for 10 days in August with her mother and friend, Hana Koob, to the town where the school was being built. While there, they interacted a lot with the local children, helping them with their English and math skills. “All of the kids don’t have very many opportunities. The parents want them to work in the farms and the marketplace. The kids wanted to go to school and learn,” Kara said.
She said that the experience taught her of the importance of giving back to the world community. She said, “It’s important that more people go and see how they are living in Third World countries and appreciate how fortunate we are.”
Of her 16th birthday, she said, “I think I am going to remember it forever.”
