The Spanish Club at Gorham High School is doing much more than practicing a foreign language these days, as they have proven with their recent service project. Mrs. Roy, or Senora Roy as her students refer to her, a Spanish and French teacher at GHS and the director of Spanish Club, recently came up with the idea to send supplies for children overseas to Nicaragua with one of her students. Kasey Jiang, a sophomore at GHS, gave Roy the opportunity.
“GHS usually has somebody every year that’s going on a mission trip,” said Roy. “And just to do a little service project we find somebody that we can donate to.”
Photo credit Abbie vanLulingSpanish Club members Emily Crepeau (center) and Matt Campbell (right) join Kasey Jiang (left) who recently returned from a mission trip to Nicaragua. They are holding samples of the gifts and toys that Jiang brought to children in Nicaragua. Other Spanish Club members not pictured are Fernando Melo and Camryn Morton.
This year, that person was Jiang. Roy describes how in the past the Club has helped to send different supplies to other countries, like sports equipment; this year, she sent something to help them practice their Spanish.
Members of the Spanish Club prepared coloring books and Noah’s Ark sticker kits, accompanied by colored pencils, for the kids in Nicaragua. It was Jiang’s job to distribute them, which she did, along with so much more.
The list grew as Jiang described her jobs in Nicaragua, where she stayed at the Cicrin Orphanage on the island of Ometepe. She and others played with children, built a ramp to the orphanage, and harvested plantains, in addition to building a house for the director of the orphanage, who had never had one before.
When she wasn’t working, Jiang paid house visits where she would walk around the neighborhoods and donate food to the people living there. Overall, it was a great trip, and based on what Senora Roy says about the Club’s yearly donations, this won’t be the last successful service project it does.