Jyl Dittbenner has been teaching at Villa Augustina for seven years, and each year she organizes a junior high sleepover to participate in the World Vision 30-Hour Famine.

The 30-Hour Famine is an international youth movement to fight hunger, and each Villa student promised to eat nothing but rice and water from 2 a.m. on Thursday to 8 a.m. on Friday.

“Our main goal is to encourage schools and youth groups to participate in what it feels like to be hungry, to actually not be able to eat every day,” Dittbenner said. “We want our students to be aware of the world and try to change it.”

One student who took the message to heart was Connor Fitzgerald.

“This is my third time fasting. It gives you an idea of what it’s like for them in Africa, and they go through it every day. We have our friends and family to help us, but they might not have anyone,” said Fitzgerald.

Parent volunteers organize activities to help the youngsters take their mind off the missing meals.

Cassie Laskowski reported that, “The games were really fun, and kept our minds off eating.”

“I wasn’t hungry the whole time,” agreed Jessica Langlois. Everyone was eating rice cakes in the middle of the night!”

Spivey McLane enjoyed spending the night in the school. “The sleepover was the perfect way to end the night. Everyone was together and we played games and watched a movie.”

Not every student who fasted spent the night at the Villa. “I fasted at home,” said Abby Mark. “It was hard, but I went up to my bedroom while my parents ate dinner.”

“I really like the breakfast, and I only had four hours sleep!” said Audry Beaudoin.

Pancakes, French toast, fruit and bagels were prepared by parent volunteers Lynn Photiades and Eileen Bergeron. Dittbenner also brought along her hometeam, Vicki and Dennis Fontaine, and Fran and Ike Dittbenner.

Dittbenner prepared a full curriculum based on the educational materials available on the World Vision Web site. Strumming her guitar, she encouraged students to sing along as she opened the new morning with a song of thanks for their coming meal.