From Douglas Rhodenbaugh who is The Pencil Project’s Executive Director on our wonderful donors, sponsors and supporters.
As you may know, Douglas just got back from his January trip to Guatemala dispersing the many school supplies, used clothing and basic necessities made possible through your generosity.
This is from Douglas…
Just a quick note of thanks and amazement to all of you who helped make this trip the most abundant of all. In Austin, in Classroom 504, the excitement of the donations coming in creates a real sense of accomplishment, and young workers begin to see an abstract idea, a goal actually take shape as each donation box is emptied, and bags of useful goodies begin to appear and accumulate in the classroom. What had been a conversation “magically” has a life, and weight, of its own. As the student volunteers sort and bag donations, I am touched by the truly enlightened comments about “what I want for Christmas, and what I really need”. I also find tiny notes from my students tucked inside some of the bags, wishing them friendship, urging them to stay in school, some simply say hello across the miles. Special requests are made to accept stuffed animals, etc, and I begin seeing baby blankets and tiny shoes outside my door when I get to work. These anonymous gifts often say only, “Thanks for doing this.” or “This is what Christmas really means.” These small comments from the outside world have a deep and validating effect on my students, who look for signs that they are on the right track. The excitement this year also has a special quality… My students have the moral and financial support of a handful of donors who literally “give their hopes wings.” With the assistance of The Pencil Project (www.thepencilproject.org), and a generous help from Mexicana Airlines in San Antonio, they know that all their donations will reach the children in Guatemala. I never stress the financial limitations (or the ordeal of over-land travel with steamer trunks) when talking about Service Learning, but focus the curriculum instead on the Character Building aspects that foster courage, sharing, education, and social justice. Nonetheless, they understand that there are grownups “out there in the world” that believe enough in this project to actually pay for it. This is an awe-inspiring sign of approval from the community, and they send their thanks. From the other side of the car, wheel-cart, airport, push-cart, stevedore, taxi, rural bus, pickup, and even burro pipeline, also come many thanks. There are many, many loving hands, and arms, and backs, and shoulders…and hearts that help in every trip with distribution. Without their unwavering and creative support, I could never cover all the bases. In fact, without these sometimes spontaneous volunteers, I cannot move 800 pounds of pencils a single inch without assistance. I am grateful for every donation, for every cash contribution, for every taxi driver who carried the boxes inside from the street, for every baggage check-in worker who took the time to ask management to waive the excess, to each missionary pastor who lent me a radio transmission, for Mayan translators, for simple boosts to get the trunks atop the buses….I could go on and on. The re-occurring surprise is how many times I am rescued by ordinary strangers, then thanked for what I am doing. I always feel proud to explain that I am just a messenger, sent by my students. A new mutation of the volunteer tree presented itself this December when I was making a radio announcement in the Western Highlands of Quiche. When I am short on time, I sometimes call ahead and the children line up at noon in a village for supplies. The old man who was in charge of the radio transmitter suggested that I make an announcement for teachers to come also, and give them two days to get through the hills. When they began to arrive, I was amazed at how far the transmission had carried, and how excited the rural teachers were. In three different dialect regions I had equal success, each with young, sometimes teenaged teachers pointing to the hill where their students live…counting past the green mountains, past the purples ranges, to the gray hills even more distant. Two eager ones even arrived on horseback to pick up supplies, since an earthquake the night before had blocked the road with slides and cell phone towers! I hope that you look at some of the photos I sent along this time. I do professional work in black and white, but I am adjusting slowly to this new digital camera. The smiles and colors of this place are irrepressible, and my students are filled with keen insights and pride when we do “museum day” and show the photos…. Such powerful connections. So we end back where we began, in my classroom. While the Pencil Project (thepencilproject.org) helps thousands of Guatemalan children each school year, the real magic of the experience is in the giving. My values-embedded curriculum, combined with the photo-documentary work creates this "vicarious field trip" ....and has completely turned what we have always been told about Selfish Middle Schoolers on its head. In fact, most of the comments I get are not about the excitement of exotic Guatemala, but how these community-building conversations, eye-opening visuals, and discussions about wants versus needs are training and transforming Young Urban 13 year-olds into caring Citizens of the World. What's more, they are acting on their empathy. They are already stacking up donations for July, long after their promotion to High School! Thank you from both sides of this adventure for making it possible.
