Gaining new perspective

Although appearing to weigh less than the 100-pound sacks of cement on their backs, the men of the village of Chimaxyat effortlessly carried them at a swift pace up and down steep, rocky trails. Their peaceful village is tucked in the high mountainous jungle of central Guatemala. The dirt-floor homes of 59 indigenous Mayan families are constructed with bamboo or wooden poles and tin roofs. They have no electricity, a water system but no latrines, no furniture and few possessions. They speak in quiet tones to each other and their children.

Enter the Americans. Type A personalities — managers, financial advisers, insurance sales people of Beneficial Financial Group. Each had earned the opportunity to travel thousands of miles to the Cloud Forest Region and perform backbreaking work, a reward for excelling at their white-collar office jobs. This Salt Lake-based group of 41 included some returning to the villagers they had come to love last year.

"Coming here with the company, it just changes your perspective. It changes your vision," said Chad Kerby of the Orem office. "When you go to a resort, it changes maybe your desire for monetary things, this changes my desire for what I want to become."

No huge bonuses, no luxury vacations or condos for these top-selling insurance agents, rather a destination in a primitive setting that took two days to get to where they set up camp and got to work. Beneficial Financial Group sent 12 employees and their guests on a weeklong service expedition according to a Winston Churchill maxim: "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

The vision began two years ago when chief marketing officer Mike Jensen came up with the idea of bringing his people from various offices around the Western U.S. together to do some good. After research and travel, he and events manager Kimber Theurer decided to work with CHOICE Humanitarian, which suggested an expedition to a village where about 290 people were living much as their ancestors had more than 100 years ago.

"I don't know how anyone wouldn't want to do something like this. I think if anybody gets an opportunity to serve, I think you realize what life is all about, it's serving and helping others," said Sharon Ricks, a financial adviser in the Orem office.