Boothbay Region High School students Kayla Lewis, Brooke Harmon and Sierra Murray are putting on a Bingo Afternoon in support of Freedom 424, an organization committed to ending the injustice of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Freedom 424 raises funds for organizations working directly with victims and survivors of trafficking and exploitation.

The event is Sunday, March 4 at 1 p.m. in the BRHS gymnasium.Thr cost is $3 per bingo card with no limits on cards per person. All proceeds will go to the Freedom 424 organization. Bingo winners will receive prizes donated by local businesses: Ames Supply, Jansens, Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop, Cahill’s Tire, Harbor Tech Solutions, Freedom Auto Care, Wiscasset Detail Express, House of Logan, Hannaford and Carousel Music Theater.

The event, independently planned by the three students, resulted from an Independent Senior Seminar taught by Mary Miller in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was a topic of research.

Lewis, Harmon and Murray settled on the fifth article of the UDHR – “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

“We picked a charity that was connected to this right and tried to think of the best way to raise money for them,” said Lewis. “We got in contact with the organization, and together we decided that the demographic of our community would respond well to a bingo afternoon.”

The students shared some of the statistics on the subject pulled from sources like the US State Department and Equality Now. About  half of those affected by trafficking and exploitation are under the age of 18, around 4.5 million people are trapped in sexual exploitation and 20.9 million are trapped in trafficking and exploitation overall.

Said Lewis, “We would love if people would join us for this event and help us raise awareness for this issue. For people who can’t make our event, you can still donate directly to the organization on their website.”