Highland Students Going to Dominican Republic on 4-H Service Trip – Part 1

 

This summer, 4-H is doing a service trip to the Dominican Republic.  The trip will include students from across the state, including two from Highland County, Cash Chambers and Mary Anne Rogers.

Ben Hindman is also going.  He is the 4-H Youth Development Agent in Bath and Highland Counties.

“So, we’ll be going to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, which is on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean,” says Hindman.  “One of the big service projects that we do while we are down there is the teens from Virginia will work with Dominican teens to put on a two-day day camp for local Dominican children, who would not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in an experience like this.  They’ll do all kinds of crafts and games and team building activities over the course of two days.  We will also visit an environmental center and do some service work there, as well as some service work in the community.”

Mary Anne Rogers is one of the two Highland students going on the trip.  She’s in 9th grade at Highland High School.

“I’m so excited,” says Rogers.  “So, I’ve always been interested in going and doing something internationally.  When I get older, I want to teach and I’ve been interested in teaching internationally, like I said.  I want to just experience the world and see what everything else is like.  Never been on a plane before.  I’ve really never been too far outside, I’ve only been to like five states, so I really want to just experience other parts of the world and I enjoy working with people.  So, it’s just a combination of all the things that I like doing.”

“I’m looking forward to testing out my Spanish,” says Rogers.  “So, I’m in Spanish III this year and I’m really excited to try to continue learning about Spanish and trying communicating with other people.” 

“I just want to say thank you to Ben and Christine and everybody who has told me about it and got me involved,” says Rogers.  “I love 4-H so much.  I love going to 4-H camp and just this opportunity to go internationally and try out something completely different and something that I never even thought that would happen to me, especially at 14.   I mean, I thought I was going to have to wait until I was an adult to travel like this, but I’m really excited and I’m so blessed for this opportunity.”

4-H is accepting donations of supplies for the Dominican children.

“So, we are going to be working with several schools over in the Dominican Republic,” says Rogers.  “We’re going to be working with kids during the day camps and so we like to take supplies and toys and school things over there, so that we can give them to them, because they don’t have a lot of things like that.  So instead of having toys to play with, they play with trash or bottles and sticks and things like that and it’s really awful.  We like to bring over some simple things for them to play with and leave them behind.  So, we are asking that, if you would be willing to donate, you bring school supplies and toys to the Extension Office throughout the summer so that we can bring them over to them.”

To hear more about this 4-H service trip to the Dominican Republic, stay tuned to Allegheny Mountain Radio for part 2 of this story.

Story By

Bonnie Ralston

Bonnie Ralston is the Assistant Station Coordinator at WVLS and a Highland County news reporter. She began volunteering at Allegheny Mountain Radio in the fall of 2005. In 2006 she became an AMR employee and worked in Bath County for eight years as the WCHG Station Coordinator and then as the news reporter there. She began working in radio while in college and has stayed connected to radio, in one way or another, for more than thirty years. She grew up in Staunton, Virginia, while spending a lot of time on her family’s farm in Deerfield, Virginia. She enjoys spending time outside, watching old TV shows and movies and tending to her chickens.

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