05/18/09
World language teacher planning return mission trip to Guatemala
Based on the success of a 2007 trip, Community Services and a Middle School Spanish instructor is looking to take another group of Cape Elizabeth students to work with poorest of poor children in Guatemala.
Susan Dana, the teacher who is organizing the trip, presented her plans to the School Board at their meeting May 12, 2009.
"I'd like to take a group of Cape Elizabeth students to Guatemala to volunteer for Safe Passage, an organization that provides educational opportunities to underprivileged children of Guatemala City," Dana wrote in a memo dated April 30.
"Safe Passage has experience with support teams, they are well organized, and I saw their operation first-hand in June 2007 when I took 16 Cape Elizabeth students to volunteer there," she wrote.
Dana is planning to take a second group next summer, in the last week of June or first week of July 2010. Safe Passage has changed many of their rules since her students first went, Dana said, so early planning is more essential than ever.
About half of the current support team handbook, which outlines many of the requirements associated with a Safe Passage mission trip, is based on what the Cape Elizabeth team did when they went two years ago, Dana told members of the board. Teams need to have projects and lessons planned in advance; and, in today's economy, the trip is more expensive.
"I plan to meet once a month next year to support the students," Dana said.
The purpose of the trip, as it was two years ago, is to give students an opportunity to see another part of the world, and to use their Spanish in a practical setting while doing community service. The trip will be open to High School students who have completed at least two years of Spanish.
"Our students were ambassadors of Cape Elizabeth to Guatemala," Dana told members of the board. Students returning from the trip gave talks to varied members of the community, including the Lions Club, Rotary, senior citizens and Brownie troops. "It has tremendous community support and was a wonderful community services project," she said.
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