Back to In The News

The Park Record

International Effort Bears Fruit for Killing Fields Pagoda School

October 20, 2005

Spurred on by a little publicity, a displaced Parkite in Cambodia is changing lives there with the help of some here in town.

Park City High School graduate Brandon Ross, 26, and his wife, Andrea, have lived in Cambodia for several years, running a bed and breakfast called Journeys Within. The Park Record wrote a story about the Rosses in July of 2004, which struck a chord with Jeremy Ranch’s Donna McAleer, who had visited Cambodia several years previously.

The article reminded McAleer of an impoverished school/orphanage she’d visited there, the Killing Fields Pagoda School, so she collected and sent school supplies to them. She never heard back from the school, so she contacted Brandon to see if he would check on it.

“Arriving at the school it was obvious the school needed a lot of help so I said I would do one thing then another and it snowballed to where we are today,” Brandon told the Record in an email.

McAleer inspired her friends Alison Modrovsky and Kailey Slusher, two Treasure Mountain International School seventh-graders, to collect money for the Killing Fields school last year. The drive fulfilled the community service component of their International Baccalaureate curriculum.

The girls raised money by creating and selling crafts and cards.

“It’s great to know that kids in Park City are thinking about those kids less fortunate than them and then to have the drive and tenacity to do something about it is truly commendable,” Brandon said.

Because of that money, the school has a new coat of paint, new fans and better electricity because the girls raised $200. One of the reasons the girls wanted to help the Cambodian school is because money goes so much farther there than it does in the United States, Modrovsky said.

“It affects them more than it would us,” she added.

The girls’ efforts prompted Brandon to form a non-profit organization Journeys Within Our Community to help.

‘If everyone was just willing to help when they see the need then I think Cambodia could continue to improve and the children here would be able to see a much brighter future,” Brandon continued.

Journeys Within Our Community’s projects include the school, a clean water project, and an effort to help advanced students get higher levels of education. The Rosses also facilitate volunteer work in Cambodia by tourists.

“Our guests that have participated have loved it and the projects, especially the school, have benefited so much from the Western input,” Brandon said.

Humanitarian efforts are important to the Rosses.

“I was lucky,” Brandon wrote. “I was born in a rich country with so many opportunities. I got to choose where I wanted to live and start a business. I chose to live in a very poor country. I think when you see how much you have and how little others have you have to justify it somehow and for me it is that I can use my good fortune to help others.”

The topic of orphans in Asia is particularly to McAleer because her sister was adopted from Korea and her brother from the Phillipines.

Modrovsky’s advice to other students who want to get involved in community service is, “Find something you’re good at, or something you like to do, then find an organization that does that and contact them.”

They plan to continue their fundraising efforts this year. Modrovsky hopes to travel to Cambodia to visit.

“I definitely want to do that,” she said.

Brandon’s favorite quality of the Cambodian people is their smiles.

‘They love to laugh and smile, and even without knowing anything about them it’s easy to believe they have the greatest smiles, but then when you think of their history and how hard their life is even today, it is amazing how much they smile,” he said.

When Brandon feels stressed, he says he goes in front of his building to watch everybody laughing and smiling. “I figure there’s no way my life is harder than theirs and you can’t help but smile back,” he said.