Y.O.U. Can Help
How Kristen Rossbach Cares for Young Orphans of Uganda
NEIRAD enilno edition
Walking into the pool area, Kristen Rossbach is confronted with muggy, steamy air and the overwhelming smell of chlorine and sweat. She carries her towel under her arm, talking with teammate Kristen Sanborn about the previous night’s O.A.R. concert, making dramatic hand motions as she speaks.
As she approaches the bleachers, her other teammates quickly get up from their seats and ask her about the concert. She answers, “It was so much fun, they played all my favorite songs, it was the best birthday present ever”. Having to repeat the story a minimum of three times, she patiently waits as another person cuts in halfway through her tale and ask her if it was fun.
Coach Steve emerges from his office door underneath a large, red and black New Canaan YMCA banner at precisely 8:00 AM, the usual start time of practice. He announces the schedule for the next three hours and then all the swimmers follow him to the side of the pool for dry-land practice. Here, Rossbach and Sanborn lay down their towels on the tile, sit down, and continue to chat. Used to this behavior, Coach Steve ignores these two and continues to train the rest of the team.
Even though the noise of all the activities taking place at the pool was very loud, everyone could hear Kristen what she shouted, “Didn’t you/Love me faster than the devil/Run me straight into the ground/Drowning deep inside your water/Drowning deep inside your sound,” everyone in the pool stared at her, but she kept singing. Kristen Sanborn described the situation as, “We were getting psyched up for practice by singing O.A.R. songs, but Kristen took it to the next level.” Not afraid to look like a fool, Kristen flailed her arms as she sang and twirled in multiple circles.
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In the spring of 2006, Kristen Sanborn saw an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show that featured Invisible Children and felt the need to help raise money and awareness, but she wasn’t sure how to begin. She immediately called Rossbach to see if she was interested. Rossbach jumped on the idea and forwarded it to her best friend, Christy Lattimer.
Although Rossbach, Lattimer, and Sanborn are only in high school, they felt that the problems in Uganda were, and still are, so detrimental that they wanted to help immediately. When asked about the problems occurring in Uganda, “I can’t summarize the damage being done in Uganda in one sentence.” The girls started their own non-profitable organization called Y.O.U., Young Orphans of Uganda.
Without any prior experience, the girls were off to a rough start. To begin, they did a lot of research on background information on Uganda and Invisible Children. Invisible Children is another non-profit organization to help children in Africa and Y.O.U. raises money to help support them.
Rossbach, Sanborn, and Lattimer aimed for meeting at least once every two weeks, whether it was at one of their houses or at Starbucks. As their schedules got more hectic, things began to fall apart for Y.O.U. and Rossbach felt the need to step up and take the lead. Her mother, Mary Jo Rossbach, said, “Kristen has always been a go-getter. She likes to go after things and when she really believes in herself she’ll achieve it. Although she’s always been very patient, if something takes too long she’ll be the one to take a stand.”
They first enforced their two goals of raising awareness and money at a church in Shelton. The girls created a presentation to inform the people there about their organization, slept overnight, and attempted to experience life in Uganda. Rossbach said, “It was really a great experience for all of us and allowed us to imagine how many people we could inform about the tragedies occurring in Uganda.” Y.O.U. has also presented at the senior seminars in 2006 and 2007 at their high school.
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Sitting at a small round table in the corner of Starbucks, Rossbach, Lattimer and Sanborn discussed what they planned to do with the $3,000 they raised from their spring boutique that took place in March 2007 at the Rossbach’s house. Sanborn said, “I think that we should hold onto the money and put it in a safe place where we can keep together all the money that we’ve raised and plan to raise in the future.” Rossbach replied, “I think that’s one good idea, but I personally feel that we should immediately donate the money to Invisible Children so that it doesn’t get lost or misplaced.” The two came to a compromise where they would set a goal for the amount of money to be raised and each time that it was achieved they would donate that money to Invisible Children. Rossbach showed how she can be accepting but at the same time not allow her thoughts to be shut away and unheard.
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Rossbach can hardly remember ever living in her birthplace, Westchester, NY, due to the immediate move to Darien. Rossbach felt at home when she first attended Ox Ridge Elementary School from Kindergarten to 5th grade. She later moved onto Middlesex Middle School for grades 6th through 8th where she met her best friend, Christy Lattimer, in 6th grade.
As the oldest child in her family of four, Rossbach feels a lot of responsibility to set a good example for her younger brother, Andrew, who is in 4th grade. Andrew was adopted into her family when she was only five years. Rossbach says, “I was just so excited to get a little brother. I remember twirling and dancing around in my front yard yelling, ‘I’m getting a little brother!’ Andrew and I are very close and are always sharing a funny joke and laughing.” The Rossbachs have had other additions to their family such as a dog named Bella and a bird named Tweeter Joe.
Family has been an enormous factor in Rossbach’s life. When asked who her role model is, Rossbach replied saying her mom because of her great involvement in charity. She also added that her parents have always taught her how to work hard and have always supported her with her decisions. Rossbach is very close with her extended family. When she was younger, her older cousins would always set an example for her, such as how she should behave during Christmas mass. Recently, her cousins have shown her the way to cope with the death of her uncle, which meant a lot to her.
Not only has her family influenced her with being part of Young Orphans of Uganda, but so has her style of living. Since Darien is such a privileged town, she feels that it is easy to forget about other people around the world that are less fortunate and suffering. Just the thought of this made her feel the need to make a difference.
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On top of finding time to spend with her family, Rossbach crams her schedule with school work, Y.O.U. meetings, swimming, and the Buddy Systems club at her high school. She didn’t figure out that swimming was her true calling until she tore tendons in her knee while playing soccer in 5th grade. Because of this injury, she visited a physical therapist who told her she would either have to continue having sessions with him on a regular basis or pick up swimming. She decided to swim and has stuck with it ever since.
Although, it may not come across anyone’s mind, Rossbach uses swimming as a stress-reliever, both physically for her knee and mentally. Even though swimming takes up a lot of her time, she likes to clear her mind as she swims. She believes that she is in her own world underneath the water and uses that time to think about upcoming events and meetings for Young Orphans of Uganda, school, and anything else that may be on her mind.
Rossbach spends most of her time at school preparing for her future. When she isn’t absorbed in a class, she likes to spend her free period with some of her closest friends. They can frequently be found at the square table located in the far corner of the library in the video section. Goofing around, Rossbach lets out all her energy that has been kept inside her all day. Justine Costantino, a very close friend of Rossbach’s, claimed, “She frequently finds herself at a loss of words and instead of finding the right word she will use noises or hand motions to try to get us to understand. The sad thing though is that we always find ourselves understanding her.”
From the outside, Kristen Rossbach may seem like your ordinary teenager but that is far from what she is. Being a co-founder of the non-profit organization Young Orphans of Uganda, a competitive swimmer, and having a loving and supportive family and friends behind her, Rossbach has a bright future ahead of her.
