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High schoolers leave comfort zone to help Kenyan peers

EDGERTON — Hana Marino knows in her head that Kenya is different from the United States.

Soon, she’ll know by experience.

Marino, 17, Edgerton, will join about 40 high school students and adults on trips to Kenya this summer as part of Wrestling the World, a group dedicated to helping the less fortunate around the globe.

“I’m most excited about meeting someone my own age and seeing how her life is different than mine,” Marino said.

The trip will serve several purposes, said Phill Klamm, Wrestling the World executive director. The group will see what it already has accomplished, help out while it’s there and learn about another culture, he said.

Klamm, a teacher at Edgerton High School, co-founded Wrestling the World after a devastating tsunami hit Southeast Asia in December 2004. The group has raised money for Sri Lanka and New Orleans.

In 2006, the group started sending money to Hopewell High School, a free school for poor children in Nakuru, Kenya.

It has raised more than $50,000 for the school, enough to build five concrete classrooms and establish a farm so the students can grow their own food.

The group has raised about $150,000 overall for communities in need, Klamm said.

Klamm, co-founder Matt Werner and others went to Kenya in August 2006. Klamm is excited to see how the school has changed, he said.

He’s also excited for the 14 teens making the trip, he said. He wants them to experience something new and life-changing.

“I’m really looking forward to looking them in the face and knowing they’re uncomfortable,” he said.

The original plan didn’t include many teenagers. Then Klamm held a meeting for Edgerton High School students in fall, when there were four or five spots left.

“The next morning by 8 o’clock, we had nine deposits of $500,” he said.

So the group expanded the project to two trips, one June 17 to July 2 and one July 2 to 22. Klamm and four others will stay through both trips.

Participants can choose whether to volunteer at Hopewell High, at an orphanage, at a junior academy or at a women’s center while there. They also will go on a safari and explore Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, Klamm said.

“I guarantee they will never forget this trip,” he said.

Several participating teens said they’re excited yet nervous about the trip. They had to get shots for the trip, and the doctors told them everything that could go wrong while they’re there, said Erin Klubertanz, 17, Edgerton.

“I’m scared … but also I’m really excited to go out and help people,” she said. “I will get homesick, but I think I’m ready for that.”