Girls hope to raise money for educational trip overseas

WASILLA — Two Mat-Su Borough students are hoping to soon embark on the adventure of a lifetime, and learn more than a thing or two in the process.

Hailey Moore, a sophomore at Wasilla High School, and Bailey Schaeffer, a sophomore who is home-schooled through Mat-Su Central, have been accepted into the Global Leadership Adventures (GLA) flagship program in Bali, Indonesia, along with 20 to 30 other students from around the world. The teens will spend three weeks on the island teaching English to elementary school students, attending workshops taught by local instructors and entertainers, exploring the landscape and more.

“I like little kids a lot and I think it’d be really fun to get to teach them English,” Moore said.

Schaeffer — who was watching her mother race in the Northern Lights 300 sled dog race this weekend, and called from Big Lake on Friday — said she, too, enjoys being around children, as she volunteers at a Talkeetna daycare and babysits often.

Moore said she found out about GLA and the Bali program through an online advertisement, and shared the information with Schaeffer, who she’s been friends with for about five years.

Having never traveled outside the United States, Moore said she’s excited to become “a better person” who is more “culturally aware” — not only by interacting with the Balinese people, but with the other students on the trip.

“Talking, getting to know them, I think that’s probably gonna be the hardest part,” Moore said.

Schaeffer said she and her mom had been thinking of taking a trip to Bali to visit relatives (Schaeffer’s aunt is from Bali) when Moore told her about the GLA program. Schaeffer had been to Puerto Rico for a two-week family vacation once, but was too young to remember it, so her mother encouraged her to take the chaperoned opportunity with Moore before going with family.

One of Schaeffer’s biggest concerns, she said, is the expected 42 hours of travel time.

“Traveling, getting there, that seems stressful,” she said.

However, there’s also the matter of money. Tuition for the GLA Bali program is $4,999, and covers lodging, meals, in-country transportation, secondary medical and travel insurance, all educational materials, all cultural activities and lectures and a 24/7 parent support hotline during the program. Plane tickets for Moore and Schaeffer will be about $1,500 each, round trip.

Both girls are distributing letters to family, friends and local businesses for financial support, and conducted a bake sale fundraiser at the Anchorage Sportsman’s Warehouse on Saturday, which gained them $115. The girls also have a GoFundMe.com page set up with a goal of $8,000, which they hope to raise by the end of April. They will depart for Bali at the end of June.

“I think it’ll be a really good learning experience, really good life experience for her,” said Moore’s mother, Gwen Grimes. “I’m hoping that this adventure will shape her career and her future into a sort of leadership position.”

Moore said she is currently looking forward to becoming a doctor or a lawyer.

Her biology teacher, Alicia Lane, said she thought Moore would be “a really good ambassador for Alaska,” having shown herself to be a “very responsible and caring” person in class.

Becky Moren, Schaeffer’s academic advisor in Talkeetna, said she expected her student

to benefit from and contribute to the program as well.

“I think her leadership skills will be enhanced with the GLA experiences both in herself and as she works collaboratively within a group,” Moren wrote in an email. “Exposing young people to service learning gives them a deep understanding of the world outside of their own as well as learning to speak for and incite change where it is needed. I suspect an experience like this will return its rewards with whatever the person is willing to give to it.”

To donate money for Hailey Moore and Bailey Schaeffer to go to Bali this summer with Global Leadership Adventures, visit www.gofundme.com/GLAfund.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.