In the name of love

The plight of orphans in Zambia and the messages of the band U2 stir Roscoe teen Paige Clancy to help children half a world away

By RICHARD A. ROSS

ROSCOE, NY — As the holidays approach, candle-lighting ceremonies, trees adorned with lights and miles of luminaria lining the roads of our hamlets will suffuse the night with their brightness, symbolizing the joys of the season and reflecting the qualities of love and compassion that define mankind at its best.

Now, more than ever, we need that light to offset the darkness of a world beset by grim personal tragedies and the ominous shadows of war, poverty and disease.

Just such a light burns brightly in Paige Clancy, a 13-year-old native of Roscoe whose unselfish devotion to help orphans in Zambia may well give new meaning to the adage, “Give and ye shall receive.”

Already acknowledged by her community as a fine athlete and a model student, Clancy also demonstrates a remarkable sense of empathy, marked by her decision to surrender her most prized possession in order to raise money for the orphanage. What that item is, how she came by it and what she hopes to derive from its exchange form the nexus of a saga that is both compelling and inspiring.

Clancy’s generosity and activism are born out of a deep sense of compassion and justice, qualities often not that developed in a person of such tender years. But Clancy hails from a family steeped in values and heritage. Her parents, John and Maryanne, have provided a supportive and loving environment for their three children that include 17-year-old John and six-year-old Dan.

Clancy has also been greatly influenced by her grandparents. Her paternal grandparents, John and Carol Clancy, have given her a sense of pride about her Irish roots and taught her about tolerance and justice. Her maternal grandparents, Fred and Rebecca Ahart, have modeled as fine teachers and coaches who have imparted the values of fair play, hard work and leadership to Paige, who plays three sports.

This story involves a group of seemingly diverse people from near and far who are united by their capacity for great love and the desire to help others. They include Clancy’s family, her church, The Hankins Assemblies of God, Hope House Ministries in Kenoza Lake, the band U2 and its iconic lead singer Bono, and a caring soul named Charles Mumba who, along with his wife Margaret, founded the Hope House Orphanage in Ndola, Zambia.

Clancy first heard about the orphanage at church and its mission to save a small number of children bereft of their parents, who succumbed to the scourge of the AIDS pandemic that has swept the African continent. The disease claims the lives of nearly 5,500 Africans per day. Many of these are children. The cost of antiretroviral drugs that can slow down the progress of the disease amounts to only about a dollar a day, but even that modest outlay is far too dear for people who often don’t even earn that sum for a day’s labor. Consequently, the death toll mounts and the number of orphans is on the rise.

Hankins Assemblies of God Pastor Sam Sikapyze and his wife Kasamba are from Zambia. Mumba is Kasamba’s father.

Moved by the plight of the children, Clancy began to search for a way to help.

Clancy and her father John share a strong affinity for U2. Drawn by the band’s incredible music and Bono’s socially conscious messages, they attended a trio of concerts staged on the East Coast as part of the band’s 2005 Vertigo tour. Asked what drew her to become such an ardent fan of the band, Clancy replied, “U2 is incredibly optimistic. They believe that we can make the world a better place, and change the world. They make you want to be a part of that.”

Clancy brought pamphlets about the orphanage to the first concert held in the Meadowlands in May of 2005. She handed the pamphlets to Bono, who has been on a mission of his own since the band’s performance in the Live Aid Concert in 1985 to raise consciousness about the plight of people in Africa. Bono’s popularity and influence led to his organizing the One Campaign, which influenced world leaders at the G8 summit to forgive African debt and, most recently, the Product RED campaign wherein some of the money from the sale of popular products is donated to purchase medicine. Bono was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2005, along with Bill and Melinda Gates.

Bono read the pamphlets and handed them to the audience while telling them “to go for it,” but did not personally take up the cause. After attending concerts in Boston in November of 2005 and another in Philadelphia two weeks later, Clancy wrote a letter to Bono reminding him about the leaflets and the orphanage and asking him to use his influence to help Hope House.

She gave that letter to his personal assistant, A.J. Rankin, who delivered it to Bono prior to the third concert. Clancy was subsequently ushered forward to the front row of the Wachovia Arena, given a set list of songs by Rankin and later handed a headband worn by Bono with the word “coexist” written on it. The letters c, x, and t in the word are formed by the Islamic symbol of the crescent moon, the Jewish Star of David and the Christian cross.

The headband means a great deal to Clancy, but her desire to help the children means even more

Determined to find a way to convert this item of great personal value into something that could help others, Clancy and her dad mulled over the situation. In early January of 2006 prior to attending church, John Clancy advised his daughter to pray for a sign. It was Mumba’s last day in the country before returning to Zambia, and he asked the young teenager to stand. He thanked her for her support and told her, “God works in mysterious ways.” The teen and her dad were flabbergasted. That is the title of a U2 song. Convinced that she had been given the sign she sought to act, she and her dad renewed their quest to deploy Bono’s celebrity to aid their cause. To do that, they made some attempts to sell Bono’s headband to people interested in rock memorabilia, but they were told there was no way to prove its authenticity.

They now realized that they would need him to sign the headband. After waiting an entire day in September at a Manhattan book signing, they waited outside of the barricades for the band to emerge.

Sure enough, Bono came out and was reminded about Clancy by John Head of U2 security. Bono had Clancy lifted over the barricades. He signed the headband and posed for pictures with her. “You’re amazing,” he told her, and wished her luck in her ongoing quest. “You inspire me,” he added. (You can watch Clancy’s encounter with Bono at www.kemtreee.com which was filmed by another fan.)

Now with the signature, the pictures and the video to prove its authenticity, the headband may indeed be a valuable commodity. The Clancys are hopeful that someone reading this story will want to purchase it for a sum that can truly be useful in helping to defray the cost of the orphanage’s needed expansion.

On December 1, World AIDS day, Clancy spoke to assemblies of children at Sullivan West Elementary School and the Light and Life Christian School. Her appearance was part of a program called “Out of Africa,” organized by Sullivan West Special Education inclusion teacher Sharon Fife, and Bobby Hust, both of Hope House Ministries, a Christian counseling service which has helped to sponsor the orphanage and the school which Mumba set up to accommodate those children denied access to government schools because they can’t afford the required uniforms.

Mumba spoke at the assemblies and at an evening presentation. Sicapyzie, his wife, and other members of the church were on hand as well in the program designed to familiarize people with Zambia, its culture and the orphanage.

If you are interested in making an offer to purchase the headband, e-mail John Clancy at maryanne16911@hvc.rr.com or if you would like to donate money for the orphanage, contact Hope Ministries at 369 Old Taylor Road, Kenoza Lake, NY.

For her part, Clancy continues to search for that special caring individual or group who will purchase the headband so that she can take the money from its sale and donate it to the orphanage’s expansion.