Fundraiser to help fight with poverty

from Today's Sunbeam

By COLLEEN P. MOORE
Staff Writer

WOODSTOWN Laurie Miles spent part of her childhood growing up in Latin America and observing the poverty stricken areas, but she was too young to do anything to change things.

She lived there because her father was in the Foreign Service, and two years ago the Mary S. Shoemaker School teacher got that chance she always wanted to make a difference.

Miles joined her church, Woodstown Presbyterian Church, on its first mission trip to the Dominican Republic where they helped build a new public school for the village of Pantoja.

A large fund-raiser auction will be held Sunday to help get the group of about 30 people to the Dominican Republic again this summer. Money raised will also go toward a youth group trip to West Virginia.

"It hurt me to see the poverty," Miles said. "This is a way of giving back to the Latin community. Things have come full circle for me."

The group has worked on the school which now serves 500 students every year. This summer they will paint the building and volunteer at the village medical clinic.

"The best part is seeing how it progresses but also seeing the same people," Miles said.

They are going with the Foundation for Peace, a non-profit group which focuses on building relationships with the Dominican people.

Though the people in Pantoja are poor and live in wooden and tin shacks, Miles said their spirits are always high and a group of at least 30 village children help them every day.

"The kids would all help if they were allowed to," she said. "They just want to help build their school."

One of Miles' favorite memories involves an 8-year-old boy from the village who she noticed one day was just watching the other kids color and he wasn't participating.

"He had never used a crayon in his life," she said. "It was difficult to notice how an 8-year-old can get so far and not know how to color."

The 10-day trip will cost each participant $950 plus airfare, and it will be far from luxurious.

They stay near Pantoja in a mission house owned by Foundation for Peace. Miles said it's a large building with no air conditioning, and they usually drag their mattresses to the rooftop to sleep.

She hopes a large crowd will attend Sunday's auction because it's a simple way to get involved.

Money raised during the fund-raiser will go toward construction materials, in-country transportation, housing and supplies.

Half of the funds will also go toward the youth trip to Ronceverte, W. Va., which will be for nine days at the end of July and will include a group of 15 high school students.

The cost is $400 per student plus transportation.

"We really felt called to help people in our country, too," said Dawn Jeffers, director of Youth and Family Ministries at Woodstown Presbyterian Church. "We will be working on houses for mostly elderly people who just can't do the work."

The trip is organized through the Group Workcamps foundation.

Sunday's auction will begin with a complimentary lunch and refreshments at noon in the Woodstown Presbyterian Fellowship Hall.

The event will include 72 live auction items, 12 silent auction items, and 11 silent auction kids' table items. The items range from a week at a Colorado vacation home to free hours of tutoring and baby-sitting.

"A lot of people would love to help people in other parts of the world," Miles said, adding the auction is a way to do it without actually going on the trip.