Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (June 21/02) - A group of 35 people went hungry for 30 hours to help raise money for World Vision -- an agency that provides food and medical supplies to Third World countries.

The group gathered at Samuel Hearne Senior secondary school at 8 a.m. last Friday and didn't eat until 2 p.m. the next day.

The participants of the 30-hour Famine got friends and family to sponsor them for the famine by the hour or by the event.

The fast is normally held around the world on April 5, but that falls on Samuel Hearne's spring break, and then there was the prom and grad, so they decided to hold it last Friday.

Organizer Amanda Johns said the hungry group tried to keep their minds on other things, with a wide selection of diversions available.

"This year was a kind of entertain yourself thing," Johns said. "Last year we had the people divided up into groups and they had to compete in different activities for dibs on the line for pizza."

The kids lined the halls with their GameBoys, and played basketball and charades.

"Des Loreen got a hold of a big projector and we hooked it up to our big sound system and watched it on our big screen," she said. "We had this huge theatrical thing."

"The boys from a band also brought all their instruments and set up in the home ec. room," Johns said.

Everyone brought their sleeping bags and the guys slept in the gym while the girls slept in the library.

Samuel Hearne Beaver Dianne Liwanha was also one of the organizers and has spent many 30-hour famines hungry while in high school and had fun organizing this one. For the sake of safety and sanity, she didn't stay hungry for this fast.

"It got really crazy, just organizing; getting all the juice, all the games and the pizza -- I was running around here all day," Liwanha said. "I didn't think it was smart for me to not eat and have 40 kids running around."

"They all were really good though," she added.

With only ten minutes to go in her 30-hour famine, Johns said she had some ups and downs with spurts of energy and pangs of hunger, she felt fairly normal.

"I don't feel very hungry at all," she said. "I'm perfectly in control."

Unlike Grade 8 student Matthew Seward, who said he fell asleep about 3 a.m. and was feeling the effects from the lack of nutrition.

"I'm very hungry and very bored," Seward said. "It's amazing that a school with so many activities going on, can be so dim and boring."

Seward raised over $70 for World Vision. As of press time, the total amount raised was not tallied.