Wednesday, September 19, 2007

"You are a lot stronger as a community than you are as an individual." Hilary Fenet, ’02, shared this idea when she spoke to the upper school about her volunteer experiences in Nicaragua. After graduating from Vanderbilt in 2006, Hilary joined a program called "Communities Helping Communities." She, as a member of a ten person team of volunteers, spent 13 months in Managua, Nicaragua assisting 400 families who live inside the city’s trash dump. Hilary and her fellow teammates assessed the needs of those living in the dump, assessed the skills their team could share with the people, partnered with organizations that could provide assistance, and created a child sponsorship program to raise money for food, medical care and clothing for children of the families. 46 children have been sponsored to date.

Hilary’s message to Episcopal students stressed the idea that a group is so much stronger that an individual. She urged students to serve in the community by working together to identify community needs and formulate plans to help meet those needs.