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BY MARY PRAGER

In print | Published April 17, 2008

The 2008 Swarthmore Charity Fun Fair will take place on Sunday, April 20 in the Ville, starting with a kickoff parade. This year’s theme is Carnivale, and everyone is invited. Hundreds of groups will be staffing booths at the fair, including charities, non-profits, merchants and student groups from the college.

Among them is Project Shingayi, founded by Chengetai Mahovma ’11 and Ashia Troiano ’11, which “aims to build low-cost environmentally and socially self-sustainable schools in Africa,” Mahovma and Troiano said in an e-mail.

“[The Charity Fun Fair] gives various charities the opportunity to raise money and raise awareness for their causes,” said Marty Spiegel, Swarthmore Town Center Coordinator.

Spiegel, who enjoys the ambience and what the fair brings to the community, is in charge of overseeing music at the fair.

The Charity Fun Fair is run by the Swarthmore Rotary Club, and involves hundreds of people from seventeen committees. Dozens of groups will be raising money for their various charitable causes. For instance, Lions International of Swarthmore will be hosting a 5k Fun Run and Walk through the college and surrounding areas. Members of the Delaware Valley Bicycle Association will host a bicycle tour.

Also, musicians will be performing throughout the day on three stages. Proceeds from the fair go to support roughly 50 charities, Fun Fair Host Kenneth Wright said.

Student organizations can participate in the fair for free, while other organizations pay a $25 fee.

Mahovma and Troiano hope to raise $800 dollars at the fair to supplement the $1,200 they have already raised for Project Shingayi.

Mahovma and Troiano founded Project Shingayi (Shona, a Bantu language spoken in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, for “stay strong together”) early in the semester, and are working on their first project — starting a self-sustainable school in Zimbabwe.

The project involves buying ten eco-sanitary latrines, projected to cost between $2,000 and $2,500, depending on inflation. The collapse of the Zimbabwean economy and the subsequent hyperinflation have made accessing running toilet water and purchasing food difficult.

The eco-sanitary latrines convert human waste into fertilizer, so students will be able to grow their own food.

At the Charity Fun Fair, the two will raise money through a “version of bobbing for apples with an eco-sanitation twist,” Troiano said. Rather than bob for apples in a generic container, fair-goers will dip their heads into a toilet.

Along the same lines, visitors can toss objects through toilet seats for stickers and other prizes, pick up an informational brochure or donate money.

According to Wright, the organizations participating in the fair last year, which drew a crowd of 5,000 people, raised a total of $33,000.

Wright helped found the Charity Fun Fair in 2002, after an inspiring experience in England. He and his wife were wandering in Woodstock, a town seven miles north of Oxford, and came across a “delightful fair,” he said.

Wanting to adopt the fair and bring it to Swarthmore, he spoke to the organizers, who suggested that the most successful fairs are short — no longer than four hours — and crowded — that is, held not in a spacious field, but rather right in the center of the community. They also suggested that fairs should be loud — packed with entertainment, activities, fun games and music. The Fun Fair in Swarthmore is organized based on these suggestions.

“Everybody enjoys it — the town enjoys, charities enjoy it,” Wright said.

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