Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Submitted photo Senior Sarah Holm sits with children in El Fortin, Nicaragua. Holm went to El Fortin last fall to complete her service-learning project. Currently Holm is helping to raise money for the community in El Fortin.

Recently, senior Joe Muellenberg said he received something exquisite. It's not anything extravagant - just a piece of paper, but he said the contents are precious.

Phrases such as "You are my evening star," written in jumbled Spanish and hand-drawn pictures fill the page.

"It's just so beautiful," he said of the letter he received from his friends in poverty-stricken El Fortín, Nicaragua.

Last fall, Muellenberg, along with several other UW-Eau Claire students, studied abroad in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and spent two weeks working on a service-learning project in El Fortín with CEIDEPRO, an international community development program.

They lived in the small village with local families and worked on several projects.

While there, Muellenberg said they realized how badly the village's people needed help, so they decided they could do more.

Saturday, the group will host a 5K charity run/walk to raise money for the children in the village.

All proceeds from the event will be given as scholarships to children in El Fortín, so they can purchase school uniforms, supplies and books.


While in the village, the group helped teach the children English, math and Spanish, since several couldn't even read or write.

"These kids need a lot of motivation to go to school. The simple things like not having a pencil and a notebook or shoes to go to school will keep a child home and not learning," he said.

Senior Christie Cleaves participated in the program with Muellenberg and said they used to joke when their truck rolled into El Fortín that they were entering a different time period.

"Basically, it was what you would imagine life to be like before technology," she said.

Cleaves said they hope to have more than 100 participants and raise at least $1,000.

In addition, the group held bake sales, which yielded about $600 so far.

Senior Sarah Holm, who traveled to the village in 2006, said raising awareness of the conditions in El Fortín is her primary goal so she can help her friends that write her letters of gratitude.

"We miss you. Please come back. Thank you so much for all your help."

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