Chicago HS Girls' Plan to Help Haiti

Chicago - At Mother McAuley High School, science and humanity live on common ground.

Last Decemeber, students at the South Side Catholic school got the idea to build a solar powered biodiesel processor for an impoverished school in Haiti. It was just an idea until a massive earthquake hit the island nation in January.

"All of a sudden it happend and were like whoa, so then we tried to help up and get everything that we could to help anyone and make sure we really finished this," said

The girls are members of McAuley's environmental club. Once they heard the Haitian school for which they were building the processor survived the quake, they redoubled their efforts. Soon, the processor was finished.

The machine uses the power of the sun to turn organic matter into biodiesel. A by-product of the process is glycerine, which can be used to make soap and fertilizer.

Solar power won't only fuel the processor, but will provide enough electricty for lighting and running water.

The only problem for the young environmentalists now is funding. They need help getting the processor and themselves to Haiti. They're in a race to raise money because they know Haiti can't wait.

School administrators plan to ship the processor to Haiti this spring. If you would like to help the students make that trip, you can vote for them at the website of True Hero, a group that awards funding for community service projects.

www.truehero.org