How does one get personally involved with an International Rotary project? For Mary and me it started with a trip to the Chicago International Convention in June 2005. As Mary was a middle school teacher we found the booth for Cooperative for Education (CoED) very interesting as to their mission of educating middle schoolers, especially girls.
They have an eight-day service trip every February which offers you the chance to travel across the Central Highlands of Guatemala to visit schools to deliver school supplies, inaugurate brand new computer centers, and interact with students, teachers, and families who benefit from CoEd programs.
Mary and I went on this tour in February 2008 and our lives were dramatically changed for the better. I can’t share all the highlights but it touched our souls to see the dedication of the teachers, parents, and children to rise above their substance lives and get an better education thanks to CoED.
Thus began a nearly 20 year involvement with Guatemala and CoED from supporting district and global grants and personally funding various classrooms and students which lead us to reach Arch Klumph level.
This February I will revisit various sites and see the remodeling of CoED’s major new project which is a boarding school and university residence house for young women of which part will be named in Mary’s memory.