Today, Memory Mission volunteers will put the finishing touches on a new school for the village of Costanza, Dominican Republic. The building’s walls have gone up—and now, a barrier to education can come down.
“We’re trying to open the opportunity for all students in Costanza to have an education,” said Mark Sale, NAESP member from Swain County, NC. This week, Sale was moved when he saw a student buy food for a child begging outside the school fence.
“I thought, what a dynamic illustration of what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to take down the fence,” he said.
Sale and his fellow volunteers have been working steadily since their arrival in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, November 29, hauling and pouring concrete, laying block, building stairs and painting the school's inner and outer walls bright yellow and orange.
“We’ve taken this building from a pretty bare structure to getting very, very close to an occupied state,” said Rob Monson, NAESP President and principal from Parkston, SD.
On Friday, December 2, Lifetouch organized a school portrait day for Costanza’s students. Outside the school building, the Memory Mission team helped line up thousands of students, many of whom had never had their picture taken before.
“The amount of enthusiasm is really exciting,” said C. Lynn Babcock of Dexter, MI. “It was such fun to see these children lining up anxiously to have their photos taken.”
Today, students cheered when volunteers handed them their portraits. (Watch video of the students seeing their portraits here.)
After their days of hard labor on Friday and Saturday, volunteers had Sunday off, taking the opportunity to tour Costanza, play a little baseball and go zip-lining. Along the way, volunteers have been reporting back to their students at home with video updates.
“We’ve been able to come together as a team,” said Mary Smalling of Boone, NC, in her update. “We’ve laughed a lot, we’ve cried a lot and together this team is doing wonderful things for children.”
Click here for more information, including photos and video, and check back for updates as the Memory Mission team returns home on December 6.