For more on the mission trips, including the one in January that Susan Hayes took, go to www.lifetouchmemorymission.com.
Susan Hayes of Cumming knows a lot about schools but she had never built one — until now. Hayes, the chair of leadership and development for the Georgia PTA, recently returned from the Dominican Republic where she took part in a school-building mission trip. The weeklong trip was organized by Lifetouch Photography, sponsor of mission trips since 2000. On her trip to the small, mountainous farming community of Rio Grande, Hayes learned a lot about construction, she says, and a lot about hope. She was also reminded of something her 11-year-old could school her on. And that is, play is good for the soul.
Q: How did you get chosen to go on the trip?
A: There were 52 volunteers, about half of them employees of Lifetouch. The company partners with several educational agencies, including the National PTA, which can send four volunteers. I put my name in the hat to go three years in a row and didn't get chosen. I got a call in October that a spot opened up in the Southeast region. It was pure luck.
Q: Why did you want to go?
A: We live in a global society and we need to look beyond our borders. I am also a volunteer at heart. In addition to my work with the Georgia PTA, I volunteer as a court-appointed special advocate for children in Forsyth County. When I saw the videos of the Lifetouch mission trips, my initial instinct was, I want to help build that school. In hindsight, the trip was about bringing hope to this very small community that currently has a one-room schoolhouse that only serves first through fourth grades. Now the school goes up to eighth grade. That truly will change children's lives.
Q: Did you do physical labor?
A: There was a pile of blocks that we had to move to the build site. We created a human line and passed the blocks from person to person. That wasn't for the feint of heart. One block probably weighed 20 pounds. By about block 80, your shoulders started to burn, you were wincing in pain, and you were thinking, "I should have worked out before I came." But no one complained. The goal was much more important than our own physical discomfort.
Q: When you came home, did you look differently at our schools?
A: I appreciate our schools so much more. In Forsyth County, we have these beautiful schools with amazing amounts of technology and media centers full of books. We may complain about our schools but we don't know how good we have it. The library in the Dominican Republic was the size of a small broom closet. The children there are happy, inquisitive and want to learn. They appreciate what they have.
Q: What did you learn from the trip?
A: Being present in the moment. We had extremely limited access to Wi-Fi on the trip so we weren't on our devices, always checking email. We had recess every day and played ball with kids who would be learning in that school. I don't know the last time I did that with my own son. But I am going to intentionally play with my child and give him 100 percent of my attention. One of the other great takeaways for me is that kids are kids, no matter where they live. We may have had a language barrier but we still connected and created a strong bond through play and through the kids helping us build their school.
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