From Friday, January 23 through Friday, January 30, students who participate in Kids Helping Kids at Upper St. Clair High School volunteered in the Dominican Republic. Mme. Chase, Srta. Krakosky, and Mr. Peskorski joined the students on their mission trip.

Club members visit the Dominican every year to complete service projects. Julia de la Parra, a senior, says that this year she and her peers “helped to construct an aqueduct.”

The students worked on their service project for two of the seven days of their mission trip. They also visited a Haitian refugee camp and an orphanage to deliver clothing and supplies. When the students were not volunteering, they were playing games with local children. The natives challenged the club members to play games of baseball and soccer.

Aubrey Carson, a junior, says, “All of the villagers were screaming and cheering for [us]!” Despite the support of the locals, the students lost both of the games to the Dominican children.

While reflecting on the local children’s talent as sportsmen, Maddy Rocks, a junior, smiles and says, “They’re incredible.”

Even though everyone loved playing with the natives, many of them say that their favorite part of the mission trip was staying in one of the villages near the site where they helped to build the aqueduct. Because the living conditions in the village were very poor, the club members were not sure what to expect from their host families.

Nevertheless, Carson details, “As soon as Julia and I got to our host family’s house, she brought in buckets of water because she said she wanted us to wash ourselves. […] All of the families were so insistent on giving [us] everything they had even though they didn’t have anything.”

In addition to completing service projects, the students try to gain cultural knowledge from the Dominicans. Through their nights spent with the villagers, they pursue this goal.

The students started preparing for the trip in the fall. They collected clothing, jewelry, school supplies, and sports equipment to donate to the Dominicans. Rocks says they took dozens of pairs of underwear in a variety of sizes because the Dominicans “expressed a need for it last year.”

Before the club members left, they held a packing party to sort the clothing and supplies that they had gathered from the community. They filled 27 50-pound suitcases with donations.

To prepare their bodies for the mission trip, the students visited a medical clinic in Oakland. De la Parra notes that she and her friends received many “funky shots.” The volunteers also took antimalarial medication to protect themselves from the dangerous mosquitos that lurk in the jungle where they worked on the aqueduct.

Students at the high school who want to participate in Kids Helping Kids should contact club presidents Julia de la Parra, Kenny Rapko, or J.P. Schrott. Because of the nature of the mission trip, every student who wishes to visit the Dominican Republic needs to complete an application in the fall prior to the scheduled mission trip.