Students spend spring break in Guatemala

East County student Gavin Klein had something special in mind for this year’s spring break.

Klein, a student at Wakeland Elementary, wanted to visit some friends he’d made over the last year — in Guatemala.

“I would run up the mountain (to get to there faster),” Gavin said. “I really wanted to get back to the school. I wanted to see them.”

Since 2007, Wakeland has been a “sister school” with Chiquic Elementary School in Guatemala. Gavin visited the school in person last year and was eager to go back. East County resident Rebekah Spiegelman, a fourth-grader, went this year as well.

“We went and passed out supplies,” Gavin said. “We did home visits. We saw how they lived. They had dirt floors.

“These kids — they appreciated what they had, but they deserved a lot more,” he said, adding children will write with a small piece of lead if their pencil breaks or becomes too small.

Rebekah said seeing that made her appreciate things at home even more.

“(When I got home), I looked at my desk and there were a lot of pencils on it,” she said, shaking her head. “I only need two.”

The children, who were accompanied by Wakeland Spanish teacher Andrea Gonzalez, their mothers, Ashley Klein and Lisa Buonarosa, and Wakeland grandparents Eddie Robinette and Lindsay Peterson, also visited NUFED, the middle school to which students from Chiquic advance.

The sister school program began when Sal Brizuela invited Marvin Molina, director of Escuela de Chiquic de San Juan Chamelco; Alex Chavez, a teacher, and Wakeland grandparent Robinette, a visiting journalist, to lunch. Their discussion quickly focused on the school in nearby Chiquic and possibly forming a partnership with a school in the United States.

At the same time, Wakeland was applying to become an International Baccalaureate school. Robinette shared the sister school idea to Wakeland Principal Chuck Fradley, who quickly committed to the concept.
Throughout the year, students from Wakeland write letters to students at Chiquic, and they also do video conferencing through Skype. Through the efforts of Wakeland’s Parent-Teacher Organization, families have helped the school in Chiquic by paying for the replacement of the school’s roof and for a soccer and basketball court. The PTO also has plans to fund a library.

Fradley said the school’s partnership with the Chiquic has become a huge learning tool and a big focus of students of the school, who have the ability to adopt families in Chiquic and hold fundraisers.

“Action is the biggest part of (being an) International Baccalaureate (school),” Fradley said. “It’s teaching a child that no matter how old they are, they can take their learning and act on it to make the world a better place. It’s eye-opening for these kids. There’s all these learning pieces. There’s a bigger world than Bradenton.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].