Reading lesson prompts visit to seventh-grade class

Middle school students came face to face last week with a person whose inspiring story was the subject of their reading lessons.

Joseph Katona arrived at the Long Branch Middle School on March 18 to share his story with the seventhgrade class that reached out to him after reading of his efforts to send a Middle Eastern youth to college in America.

“In my reading class, I give them articles to read that hopefully inspire them,” said Candice Bidner, the teacher responsible for bringing Katona to Long Branch last week. “Sometimes we write to the people we read about because we think a word of thanks can go a long way.

“We emailed him 28 emails in February.”

Katona said the visit coincided with his plans to visit New York this week, and the influx of letters from Bidner’s seventh-grade class persuaded him to stop by.

“I had planned a weekend in New York City, and I was so humbled and flattered by the letters and emails from her students that I decided to come speak to them,” he said. “I never thought I’d be speaking to 300 students today; I thought I’d be speaking to 28.”

Katona is hoping that his words will resonate with the students.

“They are going to go home and tell their families and tell their friends and hopefully spread the word,” he said. “If that raises money, that would be great, but it is more about inspiring these dreams.”

Katona’s efforts to help a friend have been profiled in national and local publications.

The friend, Omar Dreidi, a Palestinian, and Katona, a student at the University of Virginia, spent two summers together at the Seeds of Peace (www.seedsofpeace.org) camp in Maine, which eventually led to Katona raising money for Dreidi to fulfill his dream of attending an American college.

Katona explained the camp in an interview before the assembly.

“I participated in a summer program called Seeds of Peace in the summers of 2004 and 2005,” he said. “Seeds of Peace brings teenagers of regions of conflict from around the world together.

“We go to the summer camp in Maine to represent how life should be. Very peaceful, serene, it is actually on Pleasant Lake.

“It is a normal summer camp with sports activities, arts and crafts, water activities,” he added.

Katona said the camp differs from others because it tries to bridge cultural gaps between teenagers from countries around the world, including Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan and India.

“Every day we engage in these two-hour dialogue sessions,” he said. “Here kids who otherwise think of each other as enemies have an opportunity to face each other and talk about the issues important to them.”

Katona explained why American teenagers are also included at the camp.

“The idea of the organization is in order to bring peace to the Middle East, that Americans play such a role that they need to be there,” he said.

Founded in 1993, Seeds of Peace is dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence, according to the website. The organization is actively working in the Middle East and South Asia.

Katona and Dreidi spent both summers together, but he said their relationship started out on rocky ground.

“Omar and I were not very good friends in the beginning at all,” he said. “We both had a crush on this girl at summer camp.”

During the second summer, they bunked together and developed a friendship that led to Katona helping Dreidi achieve his dream of attending college in America.

“That summer, we both were applying to colleges,” he said. “He is a fantastic soccer player, and we filmed a video of him playing soccer and sent it out to 117 different universities across the U.S., hoping someone would take a chance on him.”

Katona said the video got Dreidi a look by some Division I programs, but none of them would commit.

“Some schools paid for him to come on a recruiting trip to the U.S.,” he said. “He looked at some big schools.

“At the end of the day, none of these schools were willing to make this $350,000 gamble on him,” he added.

One of the issues was getting Dreidi clearance to visit America.

“There were a lot of immigration issues,” Katona said. “He’d often fly out of Amman, Jordan, and be sent back because he didn’t have the right visa work.”

Katona said that Seeds of Peace had a relationship with Division III school Earlham College, which led to Dreidi getting a shot with them.

“Seeds of Peace had this great relationship with Earlham College, this Quaker school in Richmond, Indiana,” he said. “They offered him a half-merit scholarship to go there based on his academic performance.”

Dreidi was placed in a work-study program, but the funding for his education still was a daunting task for him.

“It still wasn’t going to be possible,” Katona said. “At the time, with the work-study program he would need about $10,000 a year.”

Katona didn’t think raising $10,000 a year would be much of a challenge for him.

“I don’t know why, but at the time, as a 17- year-old, I thought that would be easy,” he said.

Katona tried soliciting funds from people he knew, but Dreidi’s financial situation would soon become dire.

“It turned out his work-study fell through, and he ended up needing much closer to about $90,000 in total,” he said.

Katona, who has been raising money to fund his friend’s education, said he is currently about $10,000 away from his goal of $90,000.

“I have now raised $79,765,” he said. “I get a new check just about every day in the mail.”

Dreidi is currently one of the leading scorers on the Earlham soccer team and has also played for the Palestinian National team.

Katona said that Dreidi’s soccer prowess has made him a local celebrity.

“He is kind of the big man on campus there,” he said.

Katona said he has never met the majority of the people who donated money.

“It really has ballooned to this project of 180-plus individual and family foundation donors,” he said. “Of the 180 donors, I probably know 50.

“Some are anonymous, but most are people who read stories about us in local newspapers and online blogs across the country and world. Without knowing me, they’ve sent me checks ranging from $10 to $4,500.

“I received consistent $2,000 or $3,000 checks for the last two years from people I’ve never met before. I oftentimes made efforts to try to get in touch with these people,” he added.

Katona said his work goes beyond just trying to put Dreidi through college.

“Something that has been much more about spreading awareness of the cause than putting one kid through college,” he said. “The fact that I have the energy to do this proves to other people that they can achieve their dreams.

“It has been very difficult, and I’m not there yet,” he added.

Katona was the subject of a People magazine “Heroes Among Us” article, but he credits local coverage as a bigger help in raising money.

Katona and Dreidi both are on schedule to graduate this May, and he said that his time helping Omar financially is coming to an end.

The two have visited each other at their respective colleges and homes, but it was Katona’s visit to the Middle East that may have opened his eyes.

I visited him twice in the Middle East,” he said. “It was really important for me to stop hearing secondhand what his life was like and experience it for myself.”

Katona said that anyone interested in donatingmoney toward Dreidi’s education could contact him at Josephkatona@gmail.com.

Read Kenny Walter’s article at Atlanticville »