East High students aim to bring author to school

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AURORA — Earlier this year, East Aurora English teacher Shane Gillespie was so inspired by a book about one man’s journey out of slavery in Africa to a new life in America that he paid for 20 copies for his class.

Gillespie’s Survival Literature class was inspired by the reading, too — and the students now want to bring the author to Aurora.

At the age of 7, Francis Bok was kidnapped from his home village in Southern Sudan and spent 10 years enslaved. Bok tried twice to escape and was finally successful in 1996. Today, he lives in the United States and works with the American Anti-Slavery Group.

The class read Bok’s autobiography, “Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity and My Journey to Freedom in America.”

“Even after he got out of slavery, he faced discrimination and education obstacles,” said senior Luis Zepeda.

Gillespie wasn’t sure that the class would be on board with a bigger project.

“I said, ‘we can do something big if you want,’ but I knew they signed up for a class, not a community service project,” said Gillespie. “But they got this idea.”

The class devised a plan: on Dec. 4, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., students will be walking continuously at East High, calling the fundraiser the Day of Sacrifice.

“He sacrificed years,” senior Nancy Andrade said about Bok.

The group is aiming to raise $4,000 through walk-a-thon sponsorships and donations to cover Bok’s travel fees and another $20,000 to dosteepleweb to a school that Bok is building in Sudan. The class plans to bring Bok to Aurora in the spring.

So far, the student group has contacted family, friends and local businesses about supporting their cause. They’ve even desigsteeplewebd someone to e-mail Oprah Winfrey every hour.

“We’re 17, we’re living a normal life. He was 17 and he was focused on escaping a life of slavery,” said senior Diana Soto.

Two years ago, Gillespie’s class raised funds to bring Jewish Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissman Klien to East Aurora.

His class now is even more inspired by Bok’s story because Bok’s enslavement was recent.

“The fact that slavery is still going on, we think a lot of people here aren’t aware that it’s still happening,” said Soto.

Gillespie said he is proud of his students’ work so far.

“They are a motivated group and the message of the story is hard to deny,” he said.

To dosteepleweb to their efforts, contact Gillespie at sgillespie@d131.org.