Over Spring break, mostly junior and senior students, along with members of the Dads’ Club, traveled into Tijuana to build houses for four to five families. During the building of the houses, members of the community worked alongside the students and helped with the build. The timing of the trip carried extra significance as it occurred over Easter Sunday, where themes of rebirth and rebuilding were especially emphasized.
For many of the volunteers, the trip serves as an eye opening experience and also allows one to give back to the community. Ms Pellerin, one of the trips’ chaperones, called the trip “a wonderful experience in that it’s unique and that it’s a great equalizer, where teacher and student work together under the common goal to build this home for a well deserving family. It was incredibly eye opening to the poverty that exists in Tijuana, but it was also quite uplifting to work with the families who would live in the houses being built.”
Ms. Pellerin continued, further providing insight on the realization that the trip is not strictly volunteers helping those in poverty, but instead it is equally as much receiving and learning from those in the impoverished community. Ryan Kriegbaum ‘18 detailed that he “learned so many things on the trip like maintaining a positive attitude and always being humble and grateful. [He said that] It really put into focus for [him] the important issues impacting the world today.” Lessons like these allow Bellarmine students to embody the “men for others” mantra, that they strive to follow.
Overall, the trip was extremely successful and in Ms. Pellerin’s words “exceeded all expectations.”