Igali gets a firm hold on students’ hearts

May 7 2002

School raising money to help Nigerian village
Mississauga high schooler Brian Mac has never been out of North America. So it's understandable he's having trouble getting his spiky-haired head around the fact he's leaving for Nigeria in eight days with Olympic gold medal wrestler Daniel Igali.
Both Mac and classmate Kelsy Cummings are still reeling at being selected two weeks ago among the students at Gordon Graydon Secondary School in Mississauga to join Igali on a trip to his birth village of Eniwari to help lay the foundation for a well and schoolhouse he hopes to build there. It's been a whirlwind, from getting immunization shots for yellow fever, meningococcal meningitis, and taking anti-malarial pills, to trying to figure out what to pack for a trip that begins May 15.

"To go to Africa ... I'm still blown away by it," said Mac, after Igali made a trip to his school yesterday to speak at two separate assemblies and play soccer with the students. "It's crazy. I never would have imagined something like this would happen."

Ditto for Cummings, who like Mac is 16 and a Grade 11 student. "It's really overwhelming," she said. "Everything just came at us. We were choked. Everything's been a blur."

Igali, a native of Nigeria who became a Canadian hero when he won an Olympic gold at the 2000 Sydney Games and laid down the flag of his adopted country on the wrestling mat and kissed it, has struggled in raising the minimum of $200,000 needed for his project - he's been stuck at $30,000 for three months.

The teenagers at Gordon Graydon have embraced Igali's cause to help his village, where the water they drink is from the same source where they bathe and relieve themselves.

The school is in a dilapidated building where kids huddled in a corner when it rains and are evacuated during storms.

Mac and Cummings are being dispatched to Nigeria with Igali as the first step to help raise more awareness for the project and to gather information that can be disseminated upon their return. They will be keeping daily video diaries. Mac and Cummings were selected through an interviews open to everyone at the school and their expense are being covered with grants, some local businesses sponsorships and other fundraising.

Cummings, who was on the school wrestling team for two years, is thrilled about getting a chance to wrestle with some of the kids in Igali's village, where wrestling and soccer are the two most popular sports. "I told her they wrestle on the grass," said Igali, grinning. "She didn't care."

Cummings and Mac are getting a lot of support from fellow members of the Globalinx club, a network of students across the world who link together via the Internet on social, environmental and economical issues.

It was through Globalinx that the students heard about Igali's project and reached out to help him.

"We've been inspired by what he's doing," said Melissa Deonarino, a Grade 12 student.

"A lot of people become big, they get some fame and their priorities change, what's important to them changes. With him, it's really remained the same. He's remained true to the things close to his heart."

Igali was impressed by the students' passion.

"The kids are so awesome. I wish I was as organized as they are when I was in high school. I wish I was that organized now."

The people in Nigeria are expecting Igali to come through with this project. When he postponed a trip in March to lay the foundation, he said there were whispers there that he wouldn't be able to come through.

"Now that we're finally going, I feel a lot relieved."

Tax deductible donations can be made through CUSO to the Daniel Igali School Construction Project. CUSO can be reached at 1-888-434-2876.