Back in 2010, Steve Sandbo, an Upper Arlington resident and member of the Upper Arlington Rotary Club (UAR), decided he wanted to get his club involved in a long-term international project.
Sandbo passed along the idea to Dave McCurdy, who was then the club’s president.
Sandbo would become president the next year, and eventually district governor of Rotary 6690 in 2016. There was enough motivation between the two dedicated Rotarians to start a project that would have a lasting contribution.
UAR had been part of many international projects in the past, but had yet to undertake a project like the one Sandbo and McCurdy were proposing.
“We wanted to have something that Upper Arlington Rotary could do on a consistent basis,” says McCurdy.
Of course, one of the biggest steps in the process was finding the right non-governmental organization (NGO) to partner with.
“I spent seven months looking around the world for the right type of NGO partner,” says Sandbo. “Having traveled in Central America myself quite a bit, I knew that Guatemala was an incredibly needy country. They had just finished a 42-year civil war in 1996, where a quarter of a million indigenous people disappeared. So I started to look around, and the name Mayan Families just kept coming up.”
The Mayan Families foundation is an NGO that works to improve communities in rural Guatemala. It focuses on building schools, sponsoring students, getting microloans to small businesses and many more projects that work toward a better future for these communities.
“I called many Rotary clubs that had done smaller projects through them, and was told that they were the real deal,” says Sandbo. “Earnest people. So Dave and I jumped on a plane and flew down to meet them.”
UAR and its members have donated over $1 million in the past six years, funding several large projects in the remote rural areas surrounding Panajachel, focused largely on education and infrastructure.
“Before, the village offered no opportunity for schooling beyond sixth grade,” reports McCurdy. “Only farm labor.”
The club’s contributions have funded a trade school, a preschool, an elder care program and many different water projects.
Perhaps one of UAR’s largest projects is the construction of UA Rotary Middle School in Tierra Linda, where 66 students are now enrolled. UAR has attended every graduation of the middle school so far.
“Before, the village offered no opportunity for schooling beyond sixth grade,” reports McCurdy. “Only farm labor.”
Not only did the UAR fund the school’s construction, the club was so dedicated that when the government pulled funding, it funded the school for a full year.
“I knew we wanted it within one-day travel because we wanted to be able to bring people down to see where their donations went, and we wanted to be able to monitor the projects,” says Sandbo.
McCurdy emphasizes that the communities have worked with Mayan Families to complete the water projects funded by the club.
“It’s a collaboration,” says McCurdy. “We provide the funding for the piping, and the people that live there do the manual labor to install the piping, so it’s a very collaborative effort to provide areas of the country … with clean running water.”
The UAR’s most recent water project, in the village of Nahuala, provides running water to 500 people who could not access it before. The club’s dedication to sustainable change is clear through its research and active communication in Guatemala every November, during its annual trip. In fact, travel time was one of the most important things Sandbo and McCurdy considered when considering NGOs.
“I knew we wanted it within one-day travel because we wanted to be able to bring people down to see where their donations went, and we wanted to be able to monitor the projects,” says Sandbo.
Many large groups of UAR members have visited the projects they’ve donated toward over the last six years. Sandbo estimates that the total days spent in Guatemala by UAR members is over 800. And this connection between the club and the communities near Panajachel extends even further, with the most recent project donating two refurbished fire trucks seen at Upper Arlington’s Fourth of July Parade this summer.
“Many of these small villages have volunteer fire departments, but no equipment,” says Sandbo. “So I started … figuring out how I could get my hands on two older fire trucks that might not meet U.S. standards but, with a little work, could become functional.”
The trucks were bought with funds from several Rotary clubs in Ohio. They were repaired by the Upper Arlington Fleet Maintenance Division, filled with supplies, driven to Port Everglades by a group of Rotarians and shipped to Guatemala. They will be dedicated in November during the club’s annual trip.
“Then we’re going to look for additional projects,” says Sandbo. “And that’s what we do on these trips. We evaluate need, cost and focus on our next large-scale project.”
Valerie Mauger is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at jwise@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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