the Portico
“Our mission is to enhance the relationship between the University and its alumni and friends and promoted pride and commitment within the University Community.”Braids over the ocean
By Mary Dickieson
Eight-year-old Taya Kendall has braided the lives of several Guelph graduates because of her desire to help other children. She is the unlikely publisher of a book by acclaimed children’s author Robert Munsch, H.D.Let. ’00.
Taya is the daughter of Paul Kendall, BA ’90, and Rebecca Kendall, BA ’99, a writer in U of G’s Department of Communications and Public Affairs. Last January, Taya started a newspaper at Sir Isaac Brock School in Guelph as a way to raise money for Children of Bukati, a charity founded by veterinary professor Cate Dewey, DVM ’79, M.Sc. ’88 and PhD ’92. The school regularly raises money for the charity, which assists more than 650 HIV/AIDS orphans at Bukati Primary School in Butula, Kenya.
After a chance meeting at the local library, Munsch sent Taya an unpublished story about braiding hair to print in the school newspaper. She asked other students at Sir Isaac Brock to draw pictures for the story, and the response was so great, she eventually produced a 36-page book called Braids.
A former adjunct professor at U of G, Munsch has written more than 40 books and has sold 30 million copies.
The story about Braids has garnered national media attention, with the children of Bukati being the ultimate winners. “Profit from the sale of one book will feed an orphaned child for a week and provide a pencil for the child to use at school,” says Dewey. “Profit from the sale of two books will provide a school uniform for a child at Bukati.”
