By Hannah Hecht– This Christmas season, Spanish Club and Campus Ministries are teaming up with nonprofit Sharing the Dream in Guatemala to help Morningside students with their Christmas shopping while supporting Guatemalan children. The groups will be selling inexpensive, high quality, handcrafted goods from Guatemala, and the proceeds will help send a child to middle school.
The groups will be selling artisan items such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets, beaded handmade scarves, and decorative wooden pieces.
Students, faculty, staff, and community members can purchase the goods in the Campus Ministries office on the lower level of Olsen Student Center on Dec. 1 from 8:30 am to 3 pm, Dec. 2 from 8:30 am to 11 am and 1 pm to 3 pm, and Dec. 3 from 8:30 am to 11 am and 1 pm to 3 pm. The goods will also be available for purchase from 11 am to 1 pm at a table on the main level of Olsen Student Center on Dec. 2 and 3.
The event is a fundraiser for Sharing the Dream in Guatemala, a volunteer-based fair trade organization that reduces poverty in Guatemala through collaborative partnerships with the locals. Campus Ministries and Spanish Club hope to make enough money to fund one Guatemalan child’s middle school education for a year.
Spanish Club faculty advisor Gail Ament says that since many Guatemalan families live on an income of less than $200 per month, if the fundraiser makes $300, it can make a real difference in a child’s life.
“Even though $300 may not seem like a lot, it can be the difference between a 7th grader staying in school for one year and having to drop out to support his or her family,” she said.
Spanish Club has supported Sharing the Dream in Guatemala for six years through taco in a bag sales in Lewis Hall and even a couple of service May Term trips to Guatemala.
“In the past, our sales and proceeds from Taco in a Bag have gone to support a Guatemalan elder,” said Ament, “But, with the recent media focus on child immigration from Central America, we’ve decided to switch to a middle school student.”
The money raised may go to students such as Aurelia, an eighth grade survivor of abuse who wants to go on and be a teacher, or Alexander, who wants to become an accountant to support his six siblings. You can find more information about the Guatemalan students here and more information about Sharing the Dream in Guatemala here.
Leave a Reply