In El Paraiso, Honduras, a family watches as their home made of metal scraps slides into the river. Heavy rains have devastated the village leaving many families without a home. Gaby Geiger, senior and president of the Spanish Club, heard about these floods through her grandmother who lives in the town. “My mom told me and my brother to give our own money, and I figured since I was in Spanish Club that we could do that as a fundraiser,” Geiger said.

Homes for Honduras, a fundraiser through the Spanish Club, was completed for the second year in a row this winter. This year, the money was raised to provide basic necessities for impoverished families in the community of El Paraiso, Honduras.

Geiger, whose mother is from this village, and whose grandparents still live there, was the initiative behind this project. “I go down there every other summer and I have a real connection with the people there. There’s a special place in my heart for the people that live there. It was just me wanting to do something for them because that village and that country have taught me so many things about myself that I felt like I had to give back. This was the best way to do that,” Geiger said.

So, the first year of the fundraiser began. Eventually, through hard work and the support of students, $1000 was in the hands of the Spanish Club. To many, this may seem like a small amount, but it was enough to build a simple concrete block house for this family of seven. “The village donated all of the labor so all our money went to materials, which is wonderful because our money goes a long way,” Sra. Helen Caldwell, Spanish teacher and advisor for the Spanish Club, said.

Although it was a start, it still wasn’t enough. Without furniture or electricity, the family would need to make sacrifices in order to get these simple necessities. “The mom told her kids that they would have to skip meals every week for however long to be able to afford beds,” Sra. Caldwell said.

So, yet again, the Spanish Club stepped in. With a pizza party for the class who raised the most money as an incentive, the project was restarted. Instead of a singular house focus, the funds this year were distributed throughout the village to provide furniture and basic utilities for multiple families.

The response was incredible with a final total of $1,324.98 collected in this year alone. The multimedia class was the winner of the pizza party, raising over $200 among the 17 students. “They’re just a really good group of kids. They were willing to step out of their comfort zone and ask people for money. We set a goal and the kids pushed themselves to raise more,” Mrs. Kathleen Connelly, multimedia teacher, said.

Sra. Caldwell, expressing her thanks, said, “I’m just so grateful to everyone who donated. It’s really great to reach out not just as a Spanish Club fundraiser but a schoolwide effort. It just makes you feel like there’s a world out there, even if we don’t have a lot of contact with them.”

And now, along with many others, this family has a place to call home thanks to the efforts of the Spanish Club, and the generosity of the school community as a whole.