MDI High students prepare for journey to Ecuador

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Mount Desert Island Regional High School sponsors a program titled “Ecuador Field Studies” for juniors and seniors.

The program is offered every other year, according to Spanish teacher Susan Vafiades-Diaz, and is an academic class “that culminates in a monthlong trip to Ecuador, where students live with host families for a cultural immersion; do a series of community service projects; and visit the rain forest,” she said.

This year, she said, “15 students, two alumni to serve as translators, and three older adult chaperones, including me, another teacher and a local community nurse” will begin their journey on Wednesday, April 3.

It is regarding the community service project “that we need support of the public to pull it off at the other end,” Vafiades-Diaz said.

“We’re looking for sewing machines, new or used, manual or electric, that will go to a foundation that has a preschool, a medical clinic and free, private education for very poor children who wouldn’t be able to go to school, but would have to work, if not for the support of this foundation.”

The sewing project “is a spinoff from the school clinic and the K-12 school,” Vafiades-Diaz explained, “in that many of the parents of these kids are single parents – unemployed moms – and they are starting a sewing cooperative to have some means of supporting themselves.”

In order to “give people an idea” of what economic conditions are like today in Ecuador, Vafiades-Diaz said that “the inflation rate in Ecuador is 91 percent and has been high, like that, since 1995; underemployment is in the low 70 percent and unemployment is 17 percent. Ecuador is sort of in the same crisis as Argentina.”

The group also is accepting and requesting donations, of “medical supplies of any kind,” she said, referring to bandages, especially, which will go to a clinic in Guayaquil.

The group also is collecting new and used children’s clothing – for 110 abandoned children, up to age 17 – who are living in an orphanage in Quito.

“We need new socks, underwear or very small shoes that are in really good shape,” Vafiades-Diaz said. “Not any shoes overly used.”

For the school, the group is seeks donations of supplies such as pencils, pens, markers and crayons, she said, but is not asking for paper “because that weighs too much to take.”

And, of course, any financial donations to the mission would be most helpful.

“We are soliciting tax-deductible contributions to buy an industrial mixer for the orphanage so they can make their own bread,” Vafiades-Diaz said, “and the price tag for that is $1,250. We also need money to buy paper and textbooks.”

She reported that each student “is raising $3,000 to pay for his or her own trip,” adding that the visit to the rain forest alone costs $1,000 each.

Because the travelers will be packing their community service bags on Wednesday, March 20, “we need all the donations by that time,” Vafiades-Diaz said.

“If anyone had something like a sewing machine,” she added, “we could arrange to pick it up but, for other donations, we have boxes at the four island elementary schools.”

Contributions of items for the mission can be left at Connors-Emerson School in Bar Harbor, Pemetic Elementary School in Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert Elementary School in Northeast Harbor or Tremont Elementary School in Tremont.

Checks for tax-deductible financial contributions can be made out to MDI High School, with Ecuador in the memo line, and mailed to MDI High School, P.O. Box 180, Mount Desert 04660.

Anyone with questions about this admirable and most ambitious project can call Vafiades-Diaz at school, 288-5011, Ext. 115 or, at home, 244-5849.

One of the most fantastic summer programs for youngsters in grades three through six enrolled in Bangor schools is the Camp Bangor Program.

Sponsored by the United Way of Eastern Maine and funded by The Libra Foundation, this is the third year for the Bangor program, the second in Portland and fourth in Lewiston.

This year, the city of Bangor is sponsoring Camp Bangor T-shirts for every eligible child, as well as co-sponsoring the Camp Fair and the citywide cleanup, which will be held on Saturday, May 4.

The Camp Bangor Camp Fair is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Bangor Civic Center.

It is free, and the public is invited to learn more about the program.

This year, 67 camps are registered, and UWEM has prepared a camp directory with information on more than 120 camp programs available throughout Maine.

The directories are free and will be available at the Camp Fair.

Camp Bangor offers pupils a $1,000 scholarship to attend the Maine summer camp of their choice.

The one requirement is that they meet good citizenship guidelines, and volunteer in the community.

Last year, 1,035 pupils attended camp through this program and it is the hope all involved with Camp Bangor that even more youngsters attend summer camp this year.

For more information about Camp Bangor, call Sara Yasner at 941-2800, or visit www.unitedwayem.org.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.