A summer pea jag, cooked with rice, beans, summer squash, peas, linguica, and red onion entered by contestant Myrna Amado, of Wareham, took the top prize at a jag cook-off fundraiser held at Dudley L. Brown VFW in Onset on Saturday.

The fundraiser was coordinated by GLEAM Abroad, an organization that aimed to raise money to purchase an audio/video projector for a secondary school in Santa Cruz, Cape Verde.

GLEAM's efforts raised $1,150, exceeding the fundraiser’s intended goal of $500. Donations came from the nearly 50 people who paid to sign up as taste testers, qualifying them to vote for the variety of jag recipes cooked by eight contestants. Corporate donations came from Eric Dawicki, President and CEO of Northeast Maritime Institute, of Fairhaven, who donated $100, and Shenanigans Bar and Grille that donated $250.

The name GLEAM Abroad, is an acronym for "Global Love for Education for All Mankind". In its early stages, the organization centered around contributions to educational resources in developing countries. GLEAM Abroad's organizers are five college students, all of whom are Wareham High School graduates: Mason Vasconcellos, now at Bridgewater State; Jeremy Wilder and Shayna Santiago, now both at Bristol Community College; Kelly Merlo, now at UMASS Dartmouth; and Katelynn Helpren, now attending Curry College.

Wilder said it made sense to target Cape Verdean students, because of the organizers' Wareham roots and familiarity with the Cape Verdean culture. The group also had access to organizers of the Cape Verdean Festival Association who donated the access to the VFW Hall.

“We are establishing a network at separate colleges,” Wilder said. “How it works is that we start chapters, and we operate as our own entity under a big umbrella. It provides a way of collecting donations and working in different locations so you are not overlapping on the same demographic.”

Wilder says as GLEAM progresses, it will seek to help students not only in Cape Verde, but in other places around the world.

“We want to reach out to more countries," Wilder said. "I and my mother have roots in The Philippines. I would love to work with students there, but I am going to cross one bridge at a time. I don't want to overstretch us.”

Helpren has started to see interest from people on her campus at Curry.

“I already have ten people who are willing to start-up the program with me, and we're planning to have a fundraiser at Curry in February – probably sell carnations and roses during Valentines Day," Curry said. "It's a simple, fun way to raise money.”

The students said the beauty of GLEAM Abroad is that it's something that they can do part time, since it's based on individual fundraising projects that can be planned within reasonable timelines. At this point, there is also the hope that it would be something that they could continue with as potentially a non-profit organization after they graduate college.