Spending a week last month helping to build a school in the Dominican Republic was a change from Patty Drobny’s daily role as principal at Kent’s Daniel Elementary School.
Drobny was one of 52 educators from throughout the country who took part in the Lifetouch Memory Mission trip.
“Everything about this was beyond what I expected,” she said.
Drobny learned about the Memory Mission program, which was stared by Lifetouch photography in 2000, at a National Association of Elementary School Principals conference last June.
“I was really touched,” Drobny said of a video from a past mission trip she saw at the conference.
She entered a drawing at the conference for an opportunity to go to on the mission trip. Drobny wasn’t selected as the winner, but in October a representative from Lifetouch showed up at Drobny’s school and told her she would be going on the trip.
Unbeknownst to Drobny, she had been selected as the alternate and the winner was unable to go, opening the door for Drobny to make the trip, which was funded by Lifetouch.
From Jan. 18-26, volunteers helped build an elementary school in Rio Grande, a community of about 380 people.
The bottom floor of the two-story building is expected to be finished and in use by July. Next year’s Memory Mission participants will work on the second floor.
Another elementary school was constructed in the area during four previous Memory Mission trips and serves hundreds of children.
Drobny said building the school was physically taxing.
“We literally used a pick to dig a ditch for a sidewalk,” Drobny said.
She learned how to lay bricks and has a newfound appreciation for work that goes into building a structure.
But the trip wasn’t all work and no play.
Each day, work would stop for an hour during the morning and again in the afternoon so volunteers could interact with local children.
“We scooped kids up and played baseball, soccer, bubbles, cards,” Drobny said.
At first, Drobny said the locals were skeptical of the foreigners that had descended upon their community. But by the end of the week, the residents had welcomed the visitors.
“We got to watch this transformation,” she said. “They started showing up and working (building the school).”
Lifetouch also took portraits of the children and volunteers, and on the last day they exchanged photos.
Families also had the opportunity to get a family photo taken and printed on site.
“Just to see the looks on their faces,” Drobny said.
One man came with a photo of his 19-year-old daughter, who had died the year before, and asked to have a picture taken with the photograph, Drobny said.
Trip provided valuable lessons
Drobny tried to make her school and students a part of her trip. She told them prior to her trip where she would be going and what she would be doing.
While in the Dominican Republic, Drobny had the chance to participate in a Google Hangout video chat with third-graders at her school.
“They could see me and ask me questions,” she said. “I told them about what we’re doing. They could see the work in the background.”
Other classes at the school also were able to view the video chat.
Drobny shared a photo slideshow from her trip with her students during an assembly last week.
Drobny’s interpreter’s name was Daniel, so she made him an honorary Daniel Elementary Explorer and gave him a T-shirt with the school’s name on it.
Drobny hopes to apply what she learned during the trip to her own school.
She said it was challenging not knowing Spanish, but it made her appreciate the challenges non-native English speakers face in America.
“I feel like I am going to go out of my way now, more than ever, to help my families who don’t speak English,” she said.
Drobny has taken culture sensitivity training in the past, but her trip gave her a new perspective.
“When you are the one that is going into the culture, instead of receiving someone else, it becomes more relevant,” she said.
The experience was rewarding, Drobny said.
“We were repeatedly thanked for giving hope,” she said. “That is really what education is all about.”
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