Students help Honduras youths

Draper Elementary students and community members have another reason to smile after participating in a campaign to provide items to children in need.

During January and February students participated in the school's second-annual Smiles for Honduras Humanitarian Project. Students collected items including boxes of crayons and markers, construction paper, stickers, small toys, backpacks, blankets and candy to take to Honduras youth, most of whom live in poverty, said Keri Corfield, literacy specialist for Draper Elementary, who oversaw the project.

Corfield, along with a humanitarian group, delivered the items to Honduras from April 26-May 6.

"You come back from there a changed person," she said. "It put my life in perspective."

Corfield said the students were much more involved this year, helping put educational and art kits for the children together and tying blankets. Even after all the donations had been collected, Corfield said students would still stop her in the hall to ask if she needed help with anything.

The project became a communitywide effort with the help of Paula Glassett and Cynthia Thorsen, who got the word out and solicited donations from community members. Glassett currently has children enrolled at the school while Thorsen's no longer attend, but she became the community liaison. Corfield said residents in the neighborhood where she lives in Riverton also got excited about the project and were happy to donate. Girls in Corfield's LDS Church ward helped tie blankets.

"I loved seeing the community come together for one cause," she said. "Everyone was working together and wanted to give."

Nothing could match the experience of bringing the items to those they were intended for, Corfield said. Backpacks with art kits, educational materials, hygiene kits and stuffed animals were given to children in a cancer hospital, some of whom are terminally ill. The humanitarian team also made cardstock frames and took pictures of the children because many families don't have access to a camera and have no pictures of their children.

"The kids just stared at the pictures," Corfield said. "Many of them have never seen a picture of themselves."

The group delivered items to boys living in a detention center and spent two days making improvements to it. They made food baskets with basic staples to take to 10 families in the greatest need. They also took items to El Ranchero, a center designed to teach Honduran youths essential skills and prepare them for college, and Casa Angeles, an orphanage for children with special needs.

"These people were so happy and so humble. They have a different focus on life than we do," Corfield said. "It's not what they need but taking care of what they have."

She plans to make a slideshow of pictures from her trip to show students and community members the results of their hard work.

"When you get to see in the faces of people (how the donation impacted them), it's powerful," Corfield said.

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E-mail: twalquist@desnews.com