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45 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, March 24, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 20, 2005 St. Mary�s High School senior Sophia Mantheakis will travel to Vietnam for two weeks to see first-hand the country�s orphans, to whom she has been devoted through charity for several years. She will travel with three Ashland Rotary members. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven St. Mary’s senior will visit Vietnam By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune A Medford teen has raised money to help orphans in Southeast Asia since she was in seventh grade, donating her earnings from small jobs and selling Christmas books. Now a senior at St. Mary’s School, 17-year-old Sophia Mantheakis will head to Vietnam to see the children whose stories have long tugged at her heart and purse strings. Sophia will travel to Vietnam Feb. 25 with Ashland Rotary members Donna Andrews, Tim Bewley and Jim Dunn. The group will join a two-week tour conducted by Kids First Vietnam, a Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based charity that Rotarians have aided on school, orphanage and health-care projects. Bewley, who works with Rogue Valley Community Television, plans to make a documentary to chronicle Rotary’s work in Vietnam, in hopes of encouraging more Rotary activity and increasing support for the service organization from the Vietnamese government. As the youngest member of the tour group, Sophia isn’t sure what her role will be. Advertisement "It’s a weird, one-chance sort of thing," she said of the trip. "I don’t know what I will learn, but it will be worth it." Sophia, considering a medical career, hopes to have time to play with the orphans. She’s making sure there’s room in her suitcase for small bottles of bubbles, bouncy balls, crayons and rubber frogs to share with the youngsters. She also wants to participate in the film-making, whether by helping tote gear or trying something more technical. The troubles of the children, many of whom are chronically ill or disabled, and the devastating poverty in a country still coping with the ravages of war and the constraints of communism will be eye-opening, Sophia expects. "Living in the Rogue Valley, you just don’t see that," she said. "There aren’t orphanages here." Sophia has visited her father’s native Greece and the family also has spent time in Tanzania, where her dad, Platon Mantheakis, is active in Rotary projects, including building a school and improving a water system. "For them to want to see the world is natural," mom Janet Mantheakis said of Sophia, twin Anna, and their younger brother. Sophia’s interest in the orphanages was sparked about five years ago when she saw Betty Tisdale speak at a fund-raiser. Tisdale is an activist who has worked with Vietnamese orphans since the 1960s. Andrews, who serves on the board of Tisdale’s Seattle-based Helping and Loving Orphans (HALO), had brought Tisdale to Southern Oregon for that fund-raiser. She encouraged Sophia to gather a group of schoolmates to help support the organization. When Sophia needed a freshman community-service project for school, she raised money for HALO by working at the Jacksonville Inn, where her dad is catering manager. "Most children her age are hung up on what to wear and what car they drive," Andrews said. "She has a charitable heart." Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Advertisement s