PEA RIDGE — Nikki VanDyke doesn’t expect to get much sleep on the night of June 10, but she’s willing to risk an uncomfortable, sleepless night to give her students an experience most eighth graders don’t have in English class. Eighthgrade English teacher VanDyke may raise some funds for a very worthy cause as well.

The class project is summed up in a slogan the students have been painting onto banners this week: “We close our eyes to open the world’s.”

Shortly after summer vacation begins, VanDyke will meet between 30 and 65 of her rising freshmen at City Park where they will spend the night with only sleeping bags and the bare necessities to bring attention to the suffering in Uganda.

It all began when she showed them a web site for a short writing assignment. She heard about the web site, http://www2.invisiblechildren.com/, on television and it made an impression on her students. They wanted to do more than write about it, she said.

It was the age of the Ugandan soldiers that made an impression on student Summer Littrell: “I was seeing kids my own age.”

“I feel guilty just sleeping in my own bed at night,” Ivy Burnett added.

“It made me realize how lucky we are,” Abbye Coan said.

The web site and the organization, Invisible Children, Inc., were created by three young filmmakers, VanDyke explained.

They traveled to Uganda in 2003 looking for a story to tell. Whatthey found was a 25-year-old war being fought by very young soldiers. They made a documentaryabout it and organized a national event that encouraged thousands of people to sleep outside in2006. VanDyke plans to show the documentary at the Pea Ridge sleep out next week.

She’ll probably project it from her lap top onto a white sheet tied between trees, she said.

Video, she explained, is the best way to reach middle schoolers, but she didn’t plan on the response her students had to the Invisible Children videos. It was their idea to do more, she said.

Ivy Burnett put up the Facebook page and has already had 30 students commit to the project.

There will probably be many more, she predicted. It’s easier to reach kids on line, she said. They don’t always look at flyers posted around the school.

Each camper must come with an adult chaperone, VanDyke said, and they won’t be bringing tents or grills or music. They won’t start until after dinner and she will allow them to bring small snacks, but it won’t be a party atmosphere. She’s already arranged for the Pea Ridge Police Department to patrol the park that night.

Most of the campers will probably bring a small donation and Invisiblechildren.com is setting up a web page in case others want to donate. Any money raised will help build schools in Uganda, she said.

But it’s really about raising awareness, she said.

“You need to start young,” she said about teaching her students to help others. “I want them to know that they can do whatever they set their minds to.”

She wants to impress the community as well.

“I want people to realize that young people can do things,” she said.

After that, donations are just the icing on the cake.

Sports, Pages 7 on 06/08/2011