“We are not a team because we work together. We are a team because we respect, trust, and care for each other.”
– Vala Afshar
A message from the Supervisor of West Deerfield Township:
A HEARTFELT THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL LOCAL COMMUNITY
The outpouring of concern and assistance following the plumbing mishaps that occurred January 28th is so appreciated. As you may know, the subsequent damage decimated our food pantry and forced our office to relocate our programs and services to the Deerfield Village Hall. We also thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we work together to ensure that the highest standard for community health and safety is achieved before we reopen.
We anticipate that the offices will reopen by March 1st and the food pantry shortly thereafter. Until that time, we are continuing to provide Township services. These services include transportation service, casework, processing general and emergency assistance, and voter services. The Assessor office is closed but services are available by phone at 847.945.3020 or via email at thealy@wdtassessor.org. Voter registration and other information can be found online at www.LakeVoterPower.info . Passport services are not available offsite.
We are so grateful to these community partners for helping us ensure uninterrupted service to people in need in our Township: Village of Deerfield, Deerfield Police Department, Deerfield Fire Department, Deerfield Library, school districts within the Township, First Presbyterian Church and the religious community throughout the northern suburbs, Townships throughout the state, and the local corporate community.
We cannot begin to describe how touched we are by the average citizens who offered their support, from the sweet preschoolers who shared their allowances to the seniors who have brought cases of food necessities to our temporary offsite food pantry at the First Presbyterian Church of Deerfield at 824 Waukegan Road.
If you want to take part in one of the many community food drives, please contact Food Pantry Board Member Janice Winter at 847-945-0614. People in need of food or emergency assistance may call me at this confidential phone number 847-977-3882 or email us at westdeerfield@sbcglobal.net, or wdtsupervisor@sbcglobal.net.
We feel very fortunate to be a part of this bighearted and generous community.
Alyson M. Feiger
West Deerfield Township Supervisor
“Embrace your passion. Jump into your passion with both feet and bring others along with you.” – Vince Lombardi
In front of the AASA logo on the Cecaini School
This is the seventh post I’m sharing about the LifeTouch Memory Mission Trip in which I participated in January 2016 as a representative of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).
Thanks to LifeTouch, AASA, and all of the amazing leaders with whom I worked, learned, shared, laughed, thought, reflected, and lived while in La Republica Dominicana! In my first blog post leading up to the actual trip I shared some questions and answers about what I hoped to learn and experience while on the trip.
Excerpts from that post:
Question: What do you hope to learn from the experience of building this school, interacting with the residents of Constanza and working as a team with your fellow Memory Mission volunteers?
Response: I expect a truly life changing experience in terms of culture, language, building, caring, and doing. I am hoping to see the world through the lens of the people of Constanza and through that lens better clarify my own lens. I hope to spread “public diplomacy” as well by showing the good side and caring side of our American people and of our school personnel. I look forward to making life long friendships and connections with my fellow volunteers. I want to make my wife and children proud of me by modeling a life of service.
Question: How do you think the Memory Mission will change you? Do you have personal goals for what you take away from this experience?
Response: I think this trip will change me in terms of the building experiences, the family/citizen interactions, the overall cultural exchange in the Dominican Republic. My goal is to listen, learn, embrace the culture and the people and aim to give as much as I can to these projects.
“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton
On this journey there were so many outstanding leaders and each and every one of them went out of their way to support our incredible accomplishments.
As I have written before, the Dominican engineer and skilled laborers were among the best teachers with whom I have ever worked. Among their many attributes, they were patient, they used multiple forms of communication, they assessed our strengths and weaknesses, they helped guide us to highly skilled work and they never lowered their standards. They took us (unskilled laborers) volunteers as we were, they accepted who we were and what we could do, and they turned us into skilled experts in a number of areas. Their standards of excellence never wavered, in fact they got higher as our skills and abilities increased under their direction.
Pastor Angel Moreta is the visionary leader who has set forth on the transformation of Constanza’s outskirts. He is seeing to it that the lives of the forgotten villagers will soon be better. He is the champion of education and social justice who we went to serve. He is the inspiring visionary leader who brings forth people from multiple walks of life in unity for a common good. He deserves tremendous credit for improving the lives of the young people in these areas. While we were there the Cecaini school was dedicated and authorized by the government – this was the first school project that LifeTouch embarked upon in the Dominican Republic. It was powerful for us to begin with the end in mind in terms of our school project. The pastor is seeing the power of his vision and his leadership in the work of so many.
The motto of our school district is Engage, Inspire, Empower. Those strong verbs were present in multiple forms during this memory mission trip. We were truly engaged in the work, in the relationship building and in reflection. We were truly inspired in service, personal growth, and social justice. We were truly empowered to build/construct, make relationships, and to learn from others. In our district we often talk about creating environments where we want our students to run to school every day. Well, in our Dominican construction school, we did run to school/work every day. As a result of our
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
Dominican workers patience, trust, communication (non-verbal, reassuring, in Spanish), respect, attention, and teaching, we ran to the construction site hoping to do better than we had done yesterday. While we were building walls of the school we were breaking down walls of language and culture. While we were building walls with physical force and skill, we were tearing down walls and barriers of emotion and relationship.
I’m not the most handy guy in the world … in fact I have hardly ever done any manual labor or physical construction work in my life. After this trip
and due to the teaching of some very patient workers and supervisors, I now know how to make concrete – I now know how to apply math in real life situations. Seriously, I knew intellectually that water, cement, rocks, and sand combine to form concrete, but I never had the opportunity to mix, make, and use concrete until this trip. I know know how to lay cinder blocks. The top and bottom sides and the right and left sides have significance in the engineering and physics of the building process. I may have known this in my head in the past, but now, as a direct result of project based learning with an emotional tie, I will NEVER forget how to apply my knowledge.
We had to engage in authentic learning on this trip. Our teachers had to guide us and help us and re-direct us as needed. We learned cultural and construction lessons. We were faced with real problems every day and we had to solve them. We were faced with real decisions every day and we had to use teamwork every step of the way. We developed friendships, care, concern, and trust and respect for one another each and every day. All of these 4C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking) were part of each and every lesson throughout each and every day.
We learned during our home visits, community walks, play and recreation, photography experiences, picture day, we learned from the minute we landed to the minute we took off.
This was truly a memory mission – memories here, there, and everywhere. Our international crew from the USA, Canada, Brazil and the Dominican Republic made a huge impact on the lives of the people we set sail to serve in Rio Grande as well as in each and every one of us as well as all of the people with whom we interacted along the way. We were not tourists we were members of the community!
A 5 minute video of some of us sharing how the trip impacted us is shown below:
Some people have asked me how can they help sustain the progress on these powerful projects … so I’m sharing information in the event you may be interested in contributing to the mission:
One way is to sponsor a child’s education at Cecaini School (Rio Grande, our school will have this option in the fall). The cost is $31/month with $25 going directly to the child’s education and $5 going to administrative costs). These dollars go to support uniform costs, school supplies, any overages would go to teacher training and medical outreach in the community.
In the Dominican Republic the government pays for most of the teacher salaries as well as breakfast and lunch and some appropriations go to supplies. But the government does not currently support administration, specialized teachers for the vocational education program, social work, nurse, etc. People interested in sponsoring a child or children should visit: For those of you interested in sponsoring a child I have attached the link. http://helpinghandsunlimited.org
FUNDRAISING FOR THE RETAINING WALL or BASKETBALL COURT
There will be a link on thewww.buildinglegaciesintl.org site for both the retaining wall and the basketball court. He will also be posting information about the “Friends of Cecaini” reunion trip, thta will take place December 26, 2016-January 2, 2017.
The FirstGiving site will remain open into June 2017. If you have other questions about donations via a check or First Giving – contact Jan Haegjhaeg@lifetouch.com
For more information contact If you have any questions about the December trip – please reach out to Tim Gibson at tgibson@buildinglegaciesintl.org
See below for the Storify Archive of Life Touch Memory Mission photos and social media!
“Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life’s blood. But everyone has something to give.”
– Barbara Bush
The beautiful children of Rio Grande, Constanza, Republica Dominicana hung out with us, watched us work, worked with us and played with us at “recess” and engaged with us on home visits. This is me, Eduardo, Alex, and my friend Nick, another supt. and rep. of AASA in the background.
We are all humans – it makes no difference to a child what your job title is, what your status economically is, where you live, etc. What matters to a child is that you care, love, respect, and take the time to understand. The children of Rio Grande, Constanza, Dominican Republic are beautiful and full of love, energy, spirit, and now, thanks in part to our mission, they are also full of hope! Our mission of hope and construction is for the entire community and especially for the children. During our time we played games, sports, etc. with the children. Often their parents were working the fields, tending their stores (colmados), and they could not play. The importance of play and socialization has impacted me and our new friends in many, many ways.
From Eduardo (pictured with me at the left) on my shoulders yelling “caballito” or little horse, to Alex (pictured in the red shirt) playing baseball every day and really connecting with us, the play was as meaningful as the physcial labor.
Their current educational options for the children in Rio Grande are quite limited. They can attend the one-room school that serves grades 1-4 or they can walk 5 miles round trip each day to an area called the Japanese Colony for grades 1 through 8.
For most educationally speaking, that’s it – 4th grade then work – or “other”! The Cecaini School in Constanza (shown below), is the one that previous LifeTouch memory mission trip workers helped construct under the guidance of their Dominican supervisors. This incredible school starts to fulfill Pastor Angel Moreta’s vision of transformation. The school serves children in
another part of Constanza in grades 1-8. In addition, in Cecaini a vocational school has just been created too, as part of the LifeTouch memory mission and commitment to the Dominican Republic. The vocational school at Cecaini is post 8th grade and it has coursework in computers (both science, engineering and repair), cosmetology (specifically as a way to help prevent teen pregnancy by providing other income earning opportunities for the girls and young women), culinary arts, artisan work (crafts, jewelry, etc) with other options in the works. The children in Rio Grande will have the opportunity to also attend the Cecaini vocational school after they complete the 8th grade in their neighborhood.This vocational school serves children after they complete 8th grade. With this new vocational school they will learn vocations and trades that will earn them an income and additional opportunities for life that currently do not exist in this part of the world.
School construction in process in Rio Grande
For many it is simply not practical to walk 5 mile round trip daily on an unpaved, rocky, potentially unsafe route. As stated, for many than it is no education post 4th grade. This mission trip is helping change this and bring hope for change to these forgotten people! Our school in Rio Grande- the one on which we made AMAZING progress in one week – is scheduled to open in August 2016 – this fall. There are two more groups of mission trips coming to continue and help complete the construction in April and June 2016.
Rio Grande (current project) and Cecaini (project just dedicated by the government) represent two of the six schools that local leader (and hero) Pastor Angel Moreta has in his vision to change the lives of his people.
Getting to Rio Grande
Prior to reaching the worksite and our new neighborhood we travelled for more than 12 hours. From our arrival at the airport in Atlanta at 7:30am, we flew to Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic, this 3.5 hour flight, with a one hour time zone reflects the first 4.5 hours of our travel day … Then at the airport we put all of our luggage – more than 100 suitcases – into a pickup truck as we
View from Altocerros Hotel where we stayed in Constanza outside of Rio Grande
boarded two small buses for a 4.5 hour journey north into the mountains. We left Santo Domingo’s international airport at 3:15pm. We went from sea level to nearly 4000 feet above sea level in our journey. We arrived at our new home, the hotel Altocerros in Constanza, around 7:30pm.
In the DR there are around 10 million people, 4 million of whom reside in or around the capital city. The capital city resembles any typical large city. There is a subway system, tons of businesses, a lot of traffic, well built and maintained bridges and roads and the appearance of multi-national investment. In the country the infrastructure is somewhat spotty.
There is the juxtaposition of highly developed engineering and irrigation through the mountains into the farms with the tin roofed small (300 sq. ft.) domiciles that dot the roads and the landscape. In terms of economy, Constanza is also a well stocked city – but a short distance away in the mountain area where we lived and worked, the economy is RURAL and remote. Specifically the economy is in the form of farms and storefronts (Colmados) as part of the homes. An interesting phenomenon is the presence of many unfinished structures, we were told that the people build what they can afford and as they accumulate more money they continue building until they ultimately complete the project (homes, stores, etc.).
We traveled on solid infrastructure and we traveled on treacherous (by USA standards) mountain passes on dirt and stone (boulder) roads with little to no passing space. The area of Constanza contains a mix of city and country, farm, and mountain, wealth and poverty. The 90 thousand residents reflect a variety of the faces of society. The folks with whom we spent the majority of our time were somewhat forgotten by
Video experts Donnie and Adam with some children at Cecaini School
the authorities, they did not live with highly advanced housing or infrastructure. But though their world has differences from ours, the similarities between us that we discovered on our journey far outweigh any differences. These folks love their families – just like us, these folks want a better life for their children – just like us, these folks work hard for their living – just like us, and these folks have pride, integrity, and now they have hope!
We came here to build a school and in doing so we accomplished a whole lot more. We did hard labor and manual construction and we’re quite proud of this! We also did life’s work and human work. What does this school represent? Among other things, it represents hope, possibility, change, diplomacy, love, compassion, opportunity, etc. The LifeTouch officials have done an incredible job of logistics, planning, training, execution of mission, safety, facilitating team building and reflection. Each day we worked, played and learned and each night we reflected, shared, and grew as humans.
El Jefe de translators! Translator-In-Chief Don Pedro
Our team of more than 50 had representatives from Brazil, Canada, the United States, and of course our amazing Dominican translators (some of whom are shown in the photos) and workers with whom we are now friends for life. The translators with whom we worked are forever bonded to us as friends. The love, care, humor, learning, explaining, laughing, and working side by side have impressed upon us for life. We hugged, shook hands, exchanged numbers and emails and connected on FaceBook. The workers first looked at us like a bunch of crazy North Americans (at least that is my thinking) and we left, after working really hard on many construction tasks, as friends sharing pictures, stories, laughs, and relationships. We earned their respect on the job and we earned their admiration and appreciation for really doing the work and trying so hard to do the work right.
We completed construction tasks like moving rocks (boulders), placing cinder blocks (more than 1000), making mortar and making concrete, placing mortar on the blocks, leveling the blocks, pouring cement in the blocks, using rebar (cutting, tying), stuccoing walls, framing stairs, framing a chasm for rain
Mixing concrete with water, cement, rocks and sand. Digging the trenches, building walls – making a difference.
water, digging trenches, sifting sand, shoveling dirt, rocks, sand, using pick axes, trawls, hammers, nails, a rebar cutter, we literally helped to build a school by hand! Our group bonded in a close, strong, and reflective manner.
We did not organize as superintendents, or principals, or teachers, or photographers, we organized as people. We did not distinguish tasks based on gender, age or station in life. Our group ranged in age from 29- late 60’s. We were a united team who developed a care and concern for one another that seems unusual in today’s “dog eat dog” world.
Day by day the people with whom we interacted became warmer, friendlier, more interested in us and our presence, caring, loving, and engaged. Daily we took at least two half hour “recess” breaks to walk up the road, across the river to a field. This field, on privately owned pasture land, was used as our play field. We were allowed to play with the children, teens, and young adults during our time. Each day more and more townspeople joined us as we played catch, soccer, baseball, cards, or just hung out learning about one another as people.
On the recess play field – the Force is strong with Junior!
Day by day they saw our sweat equity and our truly hard work on their behalf. Day by day the power of hope and diplomacy and mission and work became more evident. We came here to support the visionary dream of Pastor Angel and other community leaders to change the lives and future of the people who live in the forgotten outskirts of Constanza. We changed and grew as people each day and we reflected as people, team members and also we reflected on how this work and these experiences can and will be applied to our “day jobs”.
This January I will be a part of a team that will build an elementary school in Rio Grande, a small community in Constanza in the Dominican Republic. The team of volunteers will consist of superintendents, principals, educators, PTA members and others who all share a passion for serving children and families. This memory mission trip is sponsored by LifeTouch and supported by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the National School Boards Association (NSBA), and the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA). I am proud to be one of the superintendents representing the AASA on this mission!
As part of the process of participating in the mission, there are some volunteer questions which I was asked and answered and I want to share via the blog as an amplification as to the purpose of this upcoming leadership and life experience for me.
Question: Why did you volunteer for the Lifetouch Memory Mission?
Response: I view education as a calling and as a call to service. I have been blessed with guidance, mentorship, coaching, and opportunities from others, and I want to pay it forward and serve globally. Over the course of my career (23 years in public education so far) I have worked with students from various nationalities, economic stations, religions, and perspectives. I believe, and I know from experiences, that spending meaningful time in another country serving a local community will improve my life and my service. My aim is to also show via modeling for my own children and family and for the folks in the community where I serve that I am willing to “walk the walk” in multiple venues and situations.
Question: What do you hope to learn from the experience of building this school, interacting with the residents of Constanza and working as a team with your fellow Memory Mission volunteers?
Response: I expect a truly life changing experience in terms of culture, language, building, caring, and doing. I am hoping to see the world through the lens of the people of Constanza and through that lens better clarify my own lens. I hope to spread “public diplomacy” as well by showing the good side and caring side of our American people and of our school personnel. I look forward to making life long friendships and connections with my fellow volunteers. I want to make my wife and children proud of me by modeling a life of service.
Question: How do you think the Memory Mission will change you? Do you have personal goals for what you take away from this experience?
Response: I think this trip will change me in terms of the building experiences, the family/citizen interactions, the overall cultural exchange in the Dominican Republic. My goal is to listen, learn, embrace the culture and the people and aim to give as much as I can to these projects.
Question: Please tell us about any past experiences with international travel. Where have you visited? What experiences abroad have left the greatest impression on you?
Response: I have traveled to Germany, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Dominica, Barbados, St. Croix, and Puerto Rico. I lived with a family in Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1992 while attending coursework at a school. The homestay in Mexico gave me an appreciation and respect for the Mexican people, culture, and ways of life as well as the life long skills of biculturalism and bilingualism. My travels to Spain included recruiting Spanish teachers to work in the USA in a dual-language Spanish/English immersion education program. I learned about Germany in 1995 during the opening of the Berlin Wall and the wrapping of the Reichstag. In addition I visited schools, professional learning institutes and government facilities. The greatest impressions I have include the “sameness” that we all share regardless of language, heritage, country, etc. We are all citizens of the world with contributions and benefits to share and to serve. My Caribbean experiences broadened my appreciation for global history, economic interdependence and natural and cultural beauty.
My efforts to help support this project stretch beyond manual labor. There is still a great need to raise funds for the construction and furnishing of the school. Your donation of any size to the Lifetouch Memory Mission can help us continue to raise a village out of poverty. Let’s create a positive change for hundreds of children and their families in this community!
Each day Kids Risk Lives to Reach School
For most parents and kids, crossing the street to catch the school bus may be the riskiest part about getting to school. Could you imagine sending your child on a 2 ½ mile hike up a mountain in order to receive an education? Or what if you didn’t have the ability to send them in the first place?
Children in Constanza, Dominican Republic face these unfavorable conditions daily. Many choose not to take the long journey to school and stay home instead. With the lack of educational resources in this part of the world, children are being deprived of reaching their full potential.
The outpouring of concern and assistance following the plumbing mishaps that occurred January 28th is so appreciated. As you may know, the subsequent damage decimated our food pantry and forced our office to relocate our programs and services to the Deerfield Village Hall. We also thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we work together to ensure that the highest standard for community health and safety is achieved before we reopen.
service, casework, processing general and emergency assistance, and voter services. The Assessor office is closed but services are available by phone at 847.945.3020 or via email at thealy@wdtassessor.org. Voter registration and other information can be found online at www.LakeVoterPower.info . Passport services are not available offsite.
citizens who offered their support, from the sweet preschoolers who shared their allowances to the seniors who have brought cases of food necessities to our temporary offsite food pantry at the First Presbyterian Church of Deerfield at 824 Waukegan Road.
and due to the teaching of some very patient workers and supervisors, I now know how to make concrete – I now know how to apply math in real life situations. Seriously, I knew intellectually that water, cement, rocks, and sand combine to form concrete, but I never had the opportunity to mix, make, and use concrete until this trip. I know know how to lay cinder 
