Beverly Students Head to Dominican Republic to Volunteer at Orphanage

This April eighth graders at Glen Urquhart School will travel to the Dominican
Republic, where they will spend one week working and playing with more than 200 children from an NPH orphanage.

For the past nine years, Glen Urquhart has been working with NPH, (Nuestros
Pequenos Hermanos, Spanish for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters”) a charitable organization, which serves orphaned and abandoned children in South America.

Glen Urquhart emphasizes the importance of community service at all grade levels: The culmination of their community service program has eighth grade students participate in a week long service learning project.

Students have the opportunity to volunteer at an NPH Orphanage in Latin America, a Native American Reservation in South Dakota or a shelter in nearby Boston.

This year, GUS students have committed to funding two initiatives at the NPH orphanage: “Food and a Future.” Students will raise money to offset the rising food budget, specifically funding the budget for beans, the staple food in the DR, helping over 200 children receive three nutritious meals a day.

They will also raise money for birth certificates, as many children end up at the orphanage with no identity, preventing them from becoming a participating member of society. (No driver's license, no marriage certificate or passport, no access to university.) By funding the legal process to get a birth certificate, Glen Urquhart students hope to guarantee these children a brighter future. “Every
child has the right to a name and the right to food,” said Barbara Kelley, Spanish teacher at Glen Urquhart and coordinator of the trip.

So far, through fundraising efforts at the school, including an “Open Mic Night”, GUS students have raised over $3,000, which will provide enough to fund 20 birth certificates, or to buy enough beans to feed 225 children for half a year.

The students’ overall goal is to raise $7,000. All tax- deductible donations may be sent to: Glen Urquhart School, attention Barbara Kelley, 74 Hart St., Beverly, MA. 01915