By Douglas Paton
When Anne Foster of Summerland first heard about her daughter Cathleen Loge’s plans to jump out of an airplane to celebrate her upcoming birthday, it didn’t take her long to decide she wanted to join in the fun.
“I thought about it,” she said, “and I thought, yes.”
While this might seem like a fairly normal occurrence, people go skydiving with their kids all the time, after all, it was the first time in Anne’s 85 years on the planet that she had even entertained the idea of skydiving.
Cathleen admitted she was surprised when her mother first mentioned that she wanted to join her on her skydiving birthday adventure. “Somewhere she got this adventurous spirit,” she said with a laugh. But, she admitted she loved the idea and her only condition was she see her doctor first.
Soon, Cathleen was not only being joined by her mother, but her 20-year-old daughter Natasha also decided to join in the fun, making it a three generation skydive.
It didn’t take long for them to realize this would be the perfect way to help Cathleen finish building the school she had spent the last two years building in Tanzania, Living Waters Secondary School.
Only five per cent of children in Tanzania receive education beyond elementary school, a statistic that spoke to Cathleen when she first heard it, so much she was moved to take action.
What followed was two years of fundraising, collaboration and work to help school kids in the east African country get a leg up in the world. Living Waters Secondary School is almost complete and is set to open in January of 2018, but still needs some equipment to help finish the project.
Living Waters Secondary School was actually built from shipping containers that were hauled in to place, organized and then renovated to be used as a school.
One of the things that Cathleen hopes to be able to get from this fundraiser is enough money for special tablets that can connect to the internet via a satellite connection.
This would allow the students of Living Waters Secondary School to learn how to code, said Cathleen, which would give them a huge advantage.
Anne, a former school teacher, had watched her daughter spend the past two years working on the school, but wasn’t sure how she could get involved.
“This started out as a fun thing, but we decided to make it count. This was something I could do to help,” she said. “Education is dear to my heart.”
Anne, Natasha and Cathleen will be flown up to 20,000 feet for the jump and, should the conditions turn out to be ideal, will free fall for approximately 30 seconds on July 8.
Anne has admitted she’s a little nervous about the initial jump, but since it’s a tandem jump, she’s going whether she wants to or not. “I won’t have much choice,” she said laughing.
The three generation skydive to raise funds for the Living Waters Secondary School project happens on July 8 in Vernon.
To find out more information about the jump, to find out how you can donate, or to find out how you can jump yourself, visit: http://freefall.hopeforthenations.com/ or http://rise.hopeforthenations.com/campaigns/anne-foster-free-fall-for-africa.