Purchase by the bottle (5 fl.oz.) or by the case (12, 5 fl.oz. bottles).

Ashland, Mont. ---- St. Labre Indian School advanced biology students are turning to the World Wide Web rather than going door to door to raise money for their annual ecotourism expedition in May.

By purchasing an individual bottle or a case of Marie Sharp’s Habanera Pepper Sauce you will help send American Indian advanced biology students to live amongst other indigenous peoples of Costa Rica for a week to study the zoology, botany and biology of the region.

What began as an incentive to attract students into advanced biology, has blossomed into an annual hands-on trip for nearly a dozen students who compete academically in the college-level class. Award-winning St. Labre science teacher Tom Andres wasn’t about to let the fact that the majority of St. Labre students come from some of the poorest reservation communities in the nation deter him.

“Students started approaching me in the 8th grade saying they’re already making plans to take the course so that they can go on the trip,” Andres says. “They’re not only willing to step it up a notch in their academics; they’re willing to undertake any fundraising involved to make it happen.”

Every fall since 2000, Andres and his students begin the arduous task of raising funds (approximately $2,500 per student) to make the trip in late spring. The students have worked tirelessly growing plants to sell in the St. Labre greenhouse, renovating abandoned trailer homes, and most recently, selling the Belizean hot sauce they discovered while touring a factory in Belize that manufactures the sauce.

“This is an experience you can’t replace with a movie, a textbook or a lecture,” Andres shares. “These are rare opportunities to experience a native habitat, to live amongst other tribal people and a chance to feel, taste, hear, see and remember for a lifetime.”

To make the trip will require the selling of lots of hot sauce, and that’s where you can help. Simply click on the link above to discover ways to purchase.

“The label on the bottle says don’t play tricks on the weak or elderly with this sauce.” warns biology student Mariah. Her classmates nod in affirmation. “It’s XXXX Hot!”

St. Labre Indian School, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation established in 1884, provides nearly 800 Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservation students in southeastern Montana with a tuition-free, pre-K to high school education, that combines spirituality and Native American culture to educate the whole child.