CALABASAS : School Sale Nets $740 to Help War Victims

Calabasas High School students wrapped up a six-day cookie and candy sale Tuesday, netting about $740 for war victims in Bosnia. “We cannot go out and fight, we cannot go out and rescue people on the battlefield,” said Calabasas French teacher Elisabeth Boghosian, who helped organize the bake sale. “This is one small way we can do something for those victims.”

The money will be donated through the Los Angeles-based American Network for Services and Relief (ANSAR), which sent about $22,000 in small donations to the war-torn region last year. The funds pay for food, clothing and medical supplies, an ANSAR representative said.

The Calabasas bake sale was the brainchild of French student Ramy Sadek, a Muslim who said he felt a special need to become involved in helping victims in Bosnia. “I was watching the things going on over there on TV, and I just wanted to do something about it,” Sadek said.

Boghosian, an Armenian immigrant who helped organize a similar sale for victims of that country last winter, said she, too, has a special duty to sponsor outreach programs for students.

“As a foreign language teacher, part of my job is to bring the outside world into the classroom,” Boghosian said. “We have to learn more about other cultures in this country, because Americans often let themselves get isolated.”