By Liz Coffin-KarlinThe Daily Northwestern
This week a group of students sold fair-trade Maya goods on the ground floor of Norris University Center to raise money for their trip to the San Lucas Mission in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala.
Items available for sale included textiles, bags and picture frames. They were provided by MayaWorks, a Chicago-based fair trade craft company that works with Guatemalan artisans. The money raised from the sale will help pay for 13 students to go on the Spring Break trip.
The trip is being sponsored by the University Chaplain’s office and the University Christian Ministry. University Chaplain Tim Stevens and Julie Windsor Mitchell, the head of UCM, accompanied the students.
This is is the second year UCM has sponsored a trip to the mission, located about three hours from Guatemala City. The mission works year-round with volunteers to cater to the needs of their community. Several projects run simultaneously, including efforts to aid reforestation, the construction of a women’s center and the management of the local clinic.
“I really think this mission does a good job of doing international volunteer work in a cool, respectful and even entirely revolutionary way,” said SESP senior Lauren Parnell.
This year’s trip will be the sixth trip to Guatemala for Parnell, who traveled to the mission four times during high school and participated in last year’s ministry trip. In past years she planted baby trees for the reforestation project and helped build the school, the clinic and the Women’s Center.
“(The first time I went) I totally fell in love with the place and the culture and the people,” Parnell said.
On that first trip, Parnell became friends with the daughter in the family who owned the hotel where she was staying, even though the two teenagers didn’t speak the same language. Since then, Parnell said she makes sure to visit the family whenever she visits the area.
Last year the UCM volunteers worked on building temporary shelters to house community members displaced by the region’s yearly mudslides.
“There are all these natural disasters that they don’t have the infrastructure or the money to respond to,” said SESP sophomore Nikolai Smith, who went on last year’s trip. “They have mudslides in Guatemala all the time, but you won’t see that on the news.”
The group also will bring goods with them that the mission has trouble finding locally, such as Children’s Tylenol, children’s vitamins and school supplies, Smith said.
Although the mission is Catholic and the trip is run through UCM, the yearly relief trip is open to students who aren’t Christian. In past years, trips have included Jewish, atheist and Hindu students.
Weinberg freshman Rachel Gribben purchased two beaded bracelets from the students. “They’re authentic and they’re really beautiful,” Gribben said.
The students will sell the crafts from 5:30 to 6 p.m. and after 7 p.m. Sunday at the UCM house, 1834 Chicago Avenue.
The students also will give a presentation on their experiences when they return from their mission trip. The presentation is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. April 22 at the UCM house.
Reach Liz Coffin-Karlin at [email protected].
