Welcome to the weac.org Share Your Photos page. Here we post photos that you send us. They can be photos of members participating in organizational activities or photos of "Great Educational Moments" from the classroom and beyond. Please send your digital or scanned photos as an e-mail attachment to Editor Bill Hurley at:
The preferred file format is jpg. Please include caption information. If you include identifiable photos of children, please check with the principal's office to verify that their parents have signed photo release forms, and let us know that you have checked.
We look forward to sharing your photos with other weac.org users.
All news
Three Wisconsin teachers work with orphans in Nicaragua
8/24/2009 3:18:19 PM
Rochelle Meylink (top), a 7th-8th grade social studies and language arts teacher at Bay View Middle School in the Howard-Suamico School District, and Berlin High School teacher Nicole Kurland (bottom) pose with children from the Cicrin Orphanage on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua.
By Rochelle Meylink
As many of our exhausted teachers in Wisconsin take a break over the summer to recuperate and prepare for the following school year; three of our Wisconsin teachers spent a portion of their summer teaming up with their churches to make a difference for children in Nicaragua. This July, Jairo Granados and Nicole Kurland, teachers at Berlin High School, and Rochelle Meylink, a teacher at Bay View Middle School in Howard-Suamico, spent 10 days working at the Cicrin Orphanage on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua.
The orphanage had an emergency project when the group arrived; the ground next to the cafeteria eroded away and made a huge sink hole the week before, so the first project was to build a retaining wall for the building.
The second project was to build a sidewalk from the girls’ room down to the front entrance. This required digging the road out, hauling rock, mixing cement by hand, and pouring the cement on the rocks. The group did get three-fourths of the way completed by the end of the week, and the orphanage boys and their maintenance man will get it completed.
The groups’ final project was at the local church, building a serving area to feed the people of Los Angeles, Nicaragua. On the first day they tore down two brick walls and had to chip off the mortar to save the bricks for future use, and the group cut down three huge trees to make room for the new building. After the first day, the Wisconsin group spent most of the time building rebar structures, digging trenches, and laying cinder blocks for the building.
The Wisconsin group was able to fully pay for all three projects with the money they raised, purchase some new tools for the orphanage, and bless Helen (orphanage director) with money for a trip to a conference. They also provided money to the kitchen staff, clothes for the children, sheets for the orphanage, money for the church project, and so much more.
"We realized that spending our summer and our family vacation money on a mission trip was much more impactful for both the children of Nicaragua and our families,” said Rochelle Meylink. “We look forward to going again next year to help the orphanage become more self-sufficient."
For more information about the Cicrin Orphanage visit its Web site at www.cicrinus.org, and if you would like to donate to future projects at the Cicrin Orphanage please send your tax deductible donation to Woodland Worship Center, 760 Airport Drive, Oneida, WI 54155.
