Hello my name is Sophina Jones and I am a parent of three beautiful daughters. I am also a strong parent leader and advocate at the only Spanish immersion public school in Berkeley called Sylvia Mendez Elementary. For the last year, I have been organizing the first (of which I hope there are many) Spanish immersion trips for African American children learning Spanish. We have raised $20,000 to send 6 African American students to Costa Rica this Spring Break 2024. The trip will be monumental for these students as they will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the language and culture and create life-long memories. Our goal is that this opportunity comes available as an annual trip for students at Berkeley Unified.

One of the students who is supposed to be on this trip is named Sage. She is a 2nd grader at Sylvia Mendez. Sage and her mother, Shatae Deckard, were the first family to sign up for this trip. But tragedy hit our community on September 19, 2023, when Shatae was in a fatal car accident on the I-580 freeway.

Sage’s father, John, now the sole parent to this beautiful little lady, is reluctant to send his daughter on this trip without a parent.

Now, we're in a bind. The trip operators will not refund Sage's ticket and will not transfer it to another student. Not only would we lose out on over $3,500 that we have raised, but Sage will not have the opportunity to experience this trip...the experience that her mother, Shatae, wanted so badly for her daughter.

John would never ask to help with this wish on his own. He wanted to come up with the funds himself, but with the time constraints, it is impossible to do so...and he would love to give this gift to his daughter.

I am reaching out to the community on behalf of John to ask for assistance on behalf of John and Sage. We need to raise $3,729 and $145 in late fees totally approx 3,800. of the month to be able to add John to the trip. I am the tour leader and will need to pay the trip directly the fees raised. Any amount is so helpful and gets us closer to getting both John and Sage on this trip and Ms. Shatae would be so happy to know her baby girl got this amazing opportunity.

Gracias!