Students will help out in Guatemala

By Teresa Stowell of the Daily Times staff
Monday, March 24, 2008 12:39 PM CDT

Ben Bushie (left) and Beth Skibinski are two students participating in the service learning trip to Guatemala this summer. The Watertown High School sophomores are pictured above packing backpacks, which will be given to students in Guatemala. (TERESA STOWELL/Daily Times)

Watertown High School juniors Beth Skibinski and Ben Bushie spent an afternoon filling backpacks with school supplies. The backpacks will be given to children in Guatemala when the group visits schools there this summer.

High school social studies teacher Natalie Nienhuis is leading the service learning trip to Guatemala for 10 students. The students are part of a class which covers history, culture and cross cultural travel. Each student must have a C average and complete two service learning projects to participate in the trip.

“I am hoping they will really understand the concepts we talk about in class about global economics, poverty and the difficulties children face in most other countries of the world,” Nienhuis said.

Berres Brothers and Uni-Trade, a coffee conglomerate, have partnered together to offer this service learning trip to Mataquesuintla, Guatemala for Watertown High School students from July 1-15. Students will pay for their own airplane tickets, but once they are in Guatemala, Berres Brothers will cover all of the costs.

Berres Brothers launched a discount program in September to raise funds for the trip. The special offer allows patrons and supporters of the program to purchase a $100 membership card from the school district that will give a 20 percent employee discount on all products in the Cafe and Bean Hall Retail Store. The membership is fully tax deductible and all money collected will be channeled into the trip.

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In Guatemala the Watertown students will work in a Uni-Trade's project school teaching lessons to elementary school students. Those lessons include art, physical education, computer instruction and English. Various teachers in the district are helping put together lessons.

The backpacks with supplies including four pencils, two pens, a notebook, a folder and a pack of crayons, will be given to students at the school.

The Watertown students will also be touring the area including the historic town of Antigua, the Lake Atitlan region where they will visit the site of Hurrican Stan. They will visit sites related to the Civil War, and go to an orphans and widows coop.

In Guatemala City the students will visit Safe Passage/Camino Seguro, a facility that services the hundreds of thousands of people who live in the city dumps where there is a school and a clinic. They will also visit the Hogar de la Piedad orphanage. Watertown High School has a relationship with Hogar de la Piedad orphanage including an arts project. Also, three WHS student volunteers worked there last year and money raised has been used to rehab the water system, pay for books and some tuitions.

“Hopefully the students will have a new appreciation for the lives of others and will feel pride in the task at hand and the completion,” Nienhuis said. “I really want them to have a hands-on experience that leads to real learning.”

The Watertown students are in need of Spanish phrase books and small dictionaries, which can be donated to the school.