Volunteers traveled by boat to deliver many of the hundreds of water filter kits they installed for Patanatic residents.
How did they do it? Beckum proposed that if 1,000 people
gave $2 every Tuesday at Chapel, dubbed “$2 Twos-days,” the nine-month initia- tive would raise the majority of the funds needed. Along the way, students got creative, holding more than 13 fundrais- ers that included everything from selling “iF” t-shirts to holding a 5K run, to selling hot chocolate at a football game.
It worked. By
January, more than $35,000 was on the books. In April, matching donations from Pioneer College Caterers and the MNU Board of Trustees launched the total over the top, to more than $60,000.
“Often, people
think big goals are too hard and take too much effort,” Bec- kum says. “But with the right motivation and dedication to helping others, little can be turned into much.”
On April 27, a celebration event that
brought out Kansas City media culmi- nated in a check presentation of $52,212 to Heart to Heart International. On May 5, a team of MNU students and project leaders traveled to Patanatic to see the clinic’s progress. While there, they assembled and distributed several hundred more water filters, educating the villagers on proper use.
“I will never look and think of water as I have in the past,” says 2010 marketing graduate Amber Rhoades. “Now water
is precious, a gift, and something to cherish. I can hardly believe I have the privilege of turning on a faucet and having clean, pure water that I can drink and not wonder if it will make me sick.”
Volunteers also conducted health and
vision assessments with children and adults, seeing conditions that are rare in the U.S. and often easy to cure with antibiotics or simple medications.
Now officially a
nurse, Unruh stayed behind to continue working in the village at the request of Heart to Heart.
He is providing
on-site assistance and serving as the contact person for Heart to Heart. Unruh writes about the progress and his observations in his blog “Lost in Patanatic,” accessible at http://
lostinpatanatic.tumblr.com/. He is slated to return to the U.S. after a second MNU team completes its Guatemala mission this summer.
MNU will seek to replicate this year’s
project in years to come, knowing that big dreams combined with open minds and determination really can come true.
In fact, Beckum announced the 2010-
11 Passion to serve project: building an orphanage in West Kenya, Africa.
That’s another stretch goal, of course, but there’s no one in the MNU commu- nity who doubts that it can happen.
Patanatic villagers provide most of the clinic construction manpower. Left center: Caleb Jarratt, junior nursing major, conducts a health assessment.
Passion to Serve 2009- 2010 by the numbers
24
Number of Go Global Certifi- cates earned. Certificate requires foreign language, modern interna- tional coursework, and either an international academic experience abroad or approved co-curricular or service-oriented internationally focused activities.
1,800 Volunteer episodes performed,
from simple tasks to the complex.
45,000/$810,000 Local and global service hours performed at an industry standard of $18 an hour. Source: Corporation for National and Community Service.
$151,000
Total dollars raised by students to fund mission trips in 2009-10.
$62,212 Total amount raised for Pata- natic Clinic.
$1,023,212
Combined total giving by the MNU community.
Summer 2010 | Accent magazine | 5
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