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4- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 9, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Stephen Lewis PLUM fresh at Iroquois Ridge's innovative This summer season AIDS Awareness Plum is featuring Global Conference Take-Home catering EVENT Party Platters & Hors D'oeuvres Tired of preparing all the food for your party? Let Plum prepare your platters for you! Platters starting from: Fruit Platter $ Veggie Platter $ Also: custom prepared meals ready-to-go for your cottage & boating needs. Ready by Friday afternoon. By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF 30 30 Cocktail Shrimp $ /dozen Pepper crusted steak & horseradish cream 24 $ 24/dozen Please call for pricing or a quote. 905-844-7110 www.plumcatering.ca 467 Speers Road Unit #15, Oakville info@plumcatering.ca The plights of Africa ­ an HIV/AIDS pandemic, poverty, a lack of education, illiteracy and more are the focus Friday at Iroquois Ridge High School. The school's Annual Global Conference: Raising Awareness ­ HIV/AIDS and the Race Against Time, will see its 1,200 student population and teachers devote the day to information sessions and other means to draw attention to the continent's struggles. The cherry on top: a visit and address by Stephen Lewis, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations who just finished his term as the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. The attempt to get Lewis to visit the school began last year after students in Monique Gazan's Canadian and World Issues class and in Nicke Brune's History of the West class read Lewis' book, Race Against Time. "I read the book about a year and a half ago, and I was just struck by it," said Brune, who teaches history and physics. "I'm a writer as well, myself, so I sent my kudos to Stephen and asked how remote the possibility was that he would Saturday, May 12, 2007 @ Central Library Branch 10:00am-3:00pm - 120 Navy Street, Oakville Learn from the experts! Both events are FREE, but tickets required. Tickets available at all branches and at the front kiosk in Town Hall. 10:30am ­ Maintaining a Healthy Lawn ­ Without Pesticides! Presented by Harry Jongerden, Director of Horticulture at the Royal Botanical Gardens 1:30pm ­ Growing Vegetables Organically / Sonia Day Grow Wild: Garden with Native Plants / Lorraine Johnson Acclaimed Canadian gardeners Sonia Day and Lorraine Johnson will teach you how to garden with the environment in mind! www.opl.on.ca Also join us for: Plant Sale in Support of Kwale Library in Africa Great Garden Extravaganza for Kids Enter to win prizes! entertain the idea of a speaking engagement. Eighteen moths later, we're getting ready for his visit." Fundraisers, workshops on literacy, discussions about poverty, education and other barriers to Africa's development have been going on at the local high school over the course of the year. The goal, on top of raising awareness, is to raise $10,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF), which works at the grassroots level to help ease the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The school has almost reached that goal, and is continuing to raise funds this week. "We've just had a myriad of different fundraising activities," said Brune. "Raffles, loonies for Lewis, do a good deed for the greater good, bake sales ­ you name it, it's been done." While not every student in the school read Race Against Time, Gazon's World Issues Class has spread Lewis' ideas through the student body. The class put together Re Awaken, a magazine that simplifies and explains the book. It was circulated around the school to introduce students to the issues associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Earlier this month, senior students visited each class to deliver a lesson to raise further awareness of Africa's plight in preparation for Friday. The efforts culminate on May 11. The entire day will see students learning about Africa's struggles in everything they do, including in regular classes. "A student taking Data Management may study the statistics of the epidemic, a student in history might take a look at the origins of the disease, a student in business might look at how AIDS affects African countries or how NonGovernment Organizations (NGO) are set up," states a letter written to parents by student Stephen Soock, on behalf of the Stephen Lewis Planning Committee. Outside their regular classes, students will have a chance to attend 14 different break-out sessions. Engineers without borders, World Vision, Casey House, the Halton AIDS clinic, Right to Play and various other NGOs will be attending the school to host sessions to teach students about what they do to help out in Africa. That's not all. The day kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with a "disease transmission activity" that every student in the school will participate in, Brune said. Classes and workshops will be held until 1 p.m. After that, Lewis will take the stage in the school's gym to address the entire student population, in addition to 300 students from other schools and other members of the community. Tickets to hear Stephen Lewis cost $15 each. There is still a small number available for purchase at Iroquois Ridge High School, located at 1123 Glenashton Dr.