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Aug. 12, 2009
The Morningside College Spanish Club recently completed a service project to provide four Guatemalan senior citizens with meals and medical care for one year, and a few students traveled to Guatemala in May to meet the senior citizens who are benefiting from the service project.
While the focus of Spanish Club has historically been cultural activities, members of the student organization decided last fall to focus more on service after they attended a special presentation on campus, said Gail Ament, professor and chair of modern languages and advisor of Spanish Club. The students learned about Sharing the Dream in Guatemala, a service organization created by Diane Nesselhuf of Vermillion, S.D., and they decided to support Sharing the Dream’s Elder Project.
Students held four taco-in-a-bag events on campus to raise money for the project. Then in May, when several Spanish students traveled to Guatemala to study at a language school, a few of them traveled with Ament to the elder center to meet the senior citizens they were helping – and to give the center $100 worth of vitamins.
“Sixty-five people hugged us and thanked us,” Ament said. “For the little bit that we were contributing, the generosity of spirit was way out of proportion. It was just very, very heartwarming.”
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Morningside College employees Becky
Thompson (left) and Jeremy Meyers purchase tacos-in-a-bag from students Katie Ericson, Samantha Thiele and Kim Mendoza during a Spanish Club fundraiser last year. |
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Students Amanda Aschinger (left), Shannon Schroeder (second from right), and Jessica Kuhr (far right) join Gail Ament (center), professor and chair of modern languages and Spanish Club advisor, for a photo with one of the senior citizens their service project is helping. They are near the senior’s home in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala; the little girl is her granddaughter. |
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