Third Time’s A Charm

by John Geyerman

My 17-year-old daughter, Sydnee, and I just returned from our third trip with the Retail Orphan Initiative to Plan Escalon, a school for orphans and at-risk students in Honduras. It’s hard to believe that each trip seems to be just a little better than the one prior to it.

On our first trip to Plan Escalon in 2012, we were asked to assist in planning a kitchen for the 600+ students and staff; in 2013, we helped install $60,000 worth of state-of-the-art kitchen equipment at their new building; and this year, we developed and taught a food-safety curriculum for all the kitchen leads at the school.

The food-safety class was just one in a series of projects that were going on during this trip. We had Executive Vice Presidents from companies such as SAP, Gartner, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Xerox, RIS news, and more speaking to the seniors about character, integrity, and work ethic. There were several marketing seminars offered, as well as an interviewing session, which we facilitated. We also had a group making a cookbook of common Honduran recipes that are being prepared at the school. This cookbook will be bound and sold at the campus micro-store.

As always, the trip was much too fast. We would have loved to have stayed another week, or even more. Now that we’ve become regulars at this facility we’ve really had an opportunity to establish some relationships with students and staff, and it’s always nice to see the students still attending school the following year. I’ve had the good fortune to befriend one of the facility leaders, who had been a student himself. He is now a primary facility administrator and worship leader; and one of the coolest things about the trip was the ability to give him a new guitar from donations we had collected. We’ve even sponsored two of the students, and continue to grow our collection of friends on Facebook every time we have the good fortune to visit.

One last thing – I have to give a shout-out to my 17-year-old. With a small amount of assistance from me, she has created a “Hope for Honduras” T-shirt, and is currently selling them to raise money to help renovate some of the facilities at the school. All 16 of the youth who went on this trip have an order form and are collecting from their friends and family from all across United States. Super proud of my daughter for leading the charge on this!

There are so many stories that I could share, but I’d never really be able to fully relay what this trip does to your heart, your soul, and your psyche. For that, you’ll have to experience it for yourself, which I FULLY recommend that you do!

Anyway, great trip (again). Tough to leave. Good to be home. Can’t wait to go back.