I would like to share a story with our members regarding one of the several World Community Service projects, which our club has supported this past year and looking to support this year. It is not a grandiose project involving tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of people and getting spectacular media coverage. No, it’s about a father and son from St. Paul, MN, who go each spring to Honduras to work on construction projects to assist a small village with simple but critical problems related to construction. Allow me to elaborate.
In 2009 Vince took his son, Winn, to the village of La Calonia/Bella Vista on the island of Roatan, just north of the Honduran coast in the Caribbean. The primary purpose was to begin helping others but almost as important was to demonstrate to his son how service to others works. Vince, a home builder by trade, comes from a solid Midwest America family, which instilled core values of hard work, caring for others and service to community in their children. This trip was an application of these values.
During the first trip, they began building a family house, which they completed the next spring. Vince got to know other builders in the village, who assisted in this task. Then they built a second house. But in time they realized that it might not be sustainable to build the village house by house and how was it fair to those who might not be helped. So they turned to community-wide projects, as determined, recommended and planned by the local leaders. The first was a set of stairs (in concrete and wood) up the hillside so the women could get to the next village and carry water to their village, where it was not yet available. This was a broader approach to community service and Vince and his son continue to come each April.
The annual two-week trips got the attention of others in the Twin Cities area, many of whom were service-minded builders who volunteered to join Vince. Others in MN contributed to the expenses. As these annual visits matured in Honduras, in terms of developing local work teams and identifying valid projects, back in MN a formal name was given to the project – Construction Volunteers, an annual fundraiser was organized and a website established (https://www.constructionvolunteers.org). Now they were an organization, with a cause, funding and sustainable future. But they remain quiet, humble and committed to serving the small community in Bella Vista – the main principle behind their work is that all projects are proposed, planned and co-executed with the local community participation and volunteers. A typical visit might involve $15,000 of US-raised funding, five to seven American volunteers, a local team leader, called Alex, his 15 paid workers and another 10-15 local volunteers who come whenever possible to join in the project work over the two-week annual project.
The last three years have been dedicated to building a school, now a grade school, but hope to include a high school in the future. This current April trip, which included a $2,000 contribution from our RCTC, focused on finishing the bathrooms and new floors in the upper level. Since the village is located on a steep hillside, everything has to go up and down so a school building has upper and lower levels even though it has only three classrooms. Our late John McCarthy told us last year to ensure that the bathrooms had separators between the areas so the young girls could rely on privacy as they matured. Many developing world bathrooms include only the sets of toilets and never consider the girls’ situation. John reminded us of this practice and error, we passed it along to Vince, and they built it exactly as desired. This may sound quite minor, but in many places around the world the young girls stop attending school at age 11-12 because of this problem. Not in Bella Vista! The team also worked on finishing grading and paving a road through the village – up the hillside, of course, which now allows reliable traffic and the taxis taking the women to the next village for most of the vital goods now charge 2/3 less due to the increased safety of the road.
This small project team has had significant impact on the lives of the residents of Bella Vista: a safe & dry new school; bathrooms with privacy for the girls and which allows the classes to run throughout the day without interruption; a road to get up/down the hillside; steps to allow safe foot traffic up the hillside; recreation for the children – soccer equipment- balls, uniforms and shoes for over 100+ children; school supplies; plus local training and paid work for the local builders.
Looking to the future, team chief Alex and the main school teacher have recommended electricity for the school, a road in front of the school, a large water tank so the village can have it own water source, windows for the upper level of the school; more classroom supplies and a playground.
We in the WCS committee feel it most valuable to share these stories of projects, large and small, which impact real lives each day around the world. Please do not hesitate to inquire about the several projects under consideration. And the immensely generous support provided by our club is not something we take for granted. Thank you for contributing to the efforts of people like Vince, who are on the front lines of changing peoples lives through international service to others!
May 15, 2018
