After a 22-hour flight, a group of students from Bermuda High School arrived in Thailand ready to get their hands dirty.

Twelve students and five adults travelled to the South East Asian country on a school trip to build the foundation for a community centre on the island of Koh Phi Phi Don.

The school had raised money for the Thai community by holding bake sales, selling bags made from recycled juice boxes and selling Hope bands at Harbour Nights.

They raised around $43,000 which they put in a trust fund. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said the group had donated the most money of any organisation world-wide.

Frances Cook, a science teacher who was on the trip said: "The idea of the trip was to learn through experience and to create a focused person. They are taught to learn through adventures and experience."

Student Caitlin Westhaver, 15, said that these are all components of being a Round Square School, which is an organisation of over 60 schools in five different continents.

Bermuda High School (BHS) partnered with another Round Square school from Thailand called the Regent's School, whose students dug the foundation with them.

The trip, which lasted from March 14 to April 1, was the second to Thailand for BHS, who previously sent representatives to help with tsunami relief.

Tina Nash, the school's guidance counsellor said that the centre is a two-and-a-half year project. While the 12 students were in Thailand they moved 70 tonnes of dirt, Ms Cook said of their considerable efforts. While they dug, the temperature topped 107 degrees Fahrenheit. "Their work ethic was fantastic," Ms Cook said. "A lot of them were worried about whether they were going to be strong enough."

"It was hot," student Rebekah Can-Rowland agreed. "Very hot."

All agreed, however, that despite the heat the girls represented themselves and Bermuda well.

Teacher Sheila Chase said: "I never heard them complain once."

"They always do us proud, they were so responsible and so motivated," added Ms Nash.

The student participants said this would definitely be something they would want to take part in again. "We want to go next year, we had so much fun and we want to finish," said 15-year-old Hayley Nikodem. "I wanted to experience something different. It's good to know that we helped the community, even if it was a little bit."

Ms Cook said that the trip gave the students more self-confidence to explore new places. That certainly was true for Miss Westhaver who said she normally spends spring break shopping abroad. "There was a lot more poverty there than I imagined. It was more than eye opening," she said.

And spending time in Thailand definitely reinforced the students' awareness of how privileged Bermuda is.

"The trip allowed them to understand that we only have relative poverty here in Bermuda and that we can fight global poverty," Ms Nash said. "I think they understood how fortunate we are."

She said their example even prompted others to jump on the volunteer bandwagon.

"There was a couple on their honeymoon in Thailand and, when they heard what we were doing, the husband joined us for about two days. Even waiters who had found out joined us on their day off."

The students did not work without reward. The group also had time for culture tours, orchid farms, palm sugar plantations and even learned to cook Thai food.

The students want to encourage more Bermudians to participate in charity work and stress that sometimes giving money is not enough.

Miss Westhaver said: "It feels great once you're doing something like this instead of writing a cheque, you're doing something with your bare hands. When you send off a cheque, you don't know where it's going. We knew we were helping."

The students and teachers kept a blog of all their work at www.sawasdeekohphiphi.blogspot.com which includes daily updates and more pictures.