She calls it a God thing. A year-and-a-half ago, Ashlie Busone dropped a business card on a ferry boat on her way to Vermont. Someone picked it up and called her a couple days later, asking if she’d like to sponsor a school for girls in Tanzania. Busone said yes.
Now, Busone, who graduated from Ballston Spa High School on Wednesday, June 23, is getting ready to travel across the globe to meet the girls she’s come to know and love.
`I’m really very excited to see the smiles on their faces when we finally meet. I know I’ll learn a lot more from them than I could ever teach them in the couple weeks I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to being able to say I met these 50 girls I sponsor and am really changing their lives,` said Busone.
In July, Busone, her guidance counselor and a teacher will spend three-and-a-half weeks at Sega Girls School in Tanzania, teaching the girls English, gardening and helping out however they can.
But Busone started helping her faraway friends long before she set out to meet them. Each month, she takes a portion of the sales from her grassroots charitable organization, Hippies for Hope, and mails them a check. She recently sold some Tanzanian paintings as a fundraiser and was able to send over a $1,000 check. All the money goes toward things we take for granted, like school supplies, energy, clean water and electricity.
Hippies for Hope combines the idea of `peace, good energy and positive karma` that ran rampant during the hippie era. The name also went perfectly with the organization’s calling card: tye dye shirts.
`I always say, this is ‘To empower the dreams of hundreds and send smiles to thousands more. Wear a shirt, give a smile, spread hope,’` said Busone.
She started tye dying shirts as a fun babysitting project when she was 14. When the two girls she babysat for got sick that year and were in the hospital, she made them shirts as a gift and not only did it thrill them, it got the nurses and doctors interested.
`Other kids wanted shirts so I made a batch of 100 to deliver and it kind of spiraled from there,` said Busone.
Hippies for Hope was born. Busone hand dyes around 100 shirts a week in her garage. She then sells them in various sizes for $10 apiece. For each shirt sold, she gives one away.
`I do monthly hospital visits to Albany Medical Center and smaller visits to different group homes and special organizations in the area,` said Busone.
So far, Hippies for Hope has raised more than $10,000 and donated close to 5,000 t-shirts.
Besides getting ready to graduate, heading up her not-for-profit and maintaining the Hippies for Hope blog, Facebook page and Twitter account, Busone has also been learning Swahili.
`I’ve been taking classes and teaching myself. It’s exciting and a difficult language but I have a lot of fun with it,` said Busone. `I mail them a couple letters in their language and it’s fun to have them critique it.`
Busone sponsors Sega Girls School through a non-profit in Africa called Nurturing Minds. It provides financial and technical support to programs that improve access to education for girls in Tanzania, specifically those who are poor, marginalized and at risk of being exploited. The school gives girls in Tanzania an education, teaches leadership skills, social responsibility, environmental care and how to be self-sufficient.
To keep up with everything Hippies for Hope, check out the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Hippies-for-Hope, follow Busone on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hippiesforhope and follow the blog at www.hippiesforhope.tumblr.com. To buy a shirt email [email protected] and to make a donation send a check or money order to: Hippies for Hope, 276 Lake Road, Ballston Lake, NY 12019.
“