Bringing pencils to Cuba

Micah Worner, left, delivered pencils to students in Cuba. While visiting Cuba last December, Micah Worner, a seventh grader at American Martyrs, was concerned to learn that the government severely rations provisions like school supplies. “When I found out that kids only got two pencils, I just started asking questions,” Worner, 12, said recently. “What would happen if the kids didn’t have any more erasers? I was worried, so it came to me that I should make a service project.” Worner was in Havana with her mother, Elka, who was producing a documentary on Fidel Casto, The Fidel Castro Tapes. During their stay, Elka introduced Micah to the Torres family, whom Elka met twenty years earlier while working for Fox News Channel in Cuba. One of the kids, Yancarlo Gonzales Torres, is Micah’s age. “He and Micah had a bit of a language barrier, but they got along,” said Elka. “Also, she didn’t want to be in a newsroom with me all day, so instead, she spent time with Yancarlo and found out a little bit of what Cuban life is like.” According to Micah, the central discovery that sparked her interest for her service project was that Cuba uses ration cards to distribute various provisions. As a…

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