We've already had several fundraisers since the birth of OVFL, including two dance parties, a 5k run, and a flea market which currently brings us to five thousand dollars raised for the orphans. Our most recent event was a multimedia performance at the Kleinart Gallery in Woodstock.

The stunning talent included the Woodstock Elementary Chorus, Energy Dance Company, local youth singers and dancers from NYCA, independent local dancers, poets, and musicians, and the Saugerties Ballet Center. I have to be honest, this is the fundraiser that I was most excited about because of the level of my involvement.

I had two self-choreographed pieces in the show that I performed as well as a collaborative duet with another OVFL member, Rachel Schackne. I was even lucky enough to have the privilege to be a part of putting together the production as a whole from costumes and choreography, to which stories of the orphans are to be conveyed. I must also say that with the passion comes excellence, beauty, and detail in each piece that will made up the performance.

I feel that this production and the process behind it is something our community has possibly never seen; the youth coming together in such an organized, creative, and selfless way that is for a cause that goes beyond the borders of our immediate lives.

The One Voice For Laos/Teens For Change organization aims only to improve the lives of the Laotian orphans that are otherwise out of our reach. Yet, I am starting to see that the group is having a simultaneous effect on those who are involved and those who have been witness to what we are doing; a unified need to help people who are less fortunate than ourselves.

I've seen this need emerge in our community in a way it never has before and I am one of the many who will see to it that it does not disappear.