Active Senior Citizens: Help Children in El Salvador

May 15, 2003 - When Carolyn Payne and Dorothea Buckley, residents at Brooksby, a campus in Peabody, MA, for people over 62 years of age, heard about a humanitarian trip to El Salvador, they both immediately knew they wanted to go on the trip.

Their mission: to build a playground for children out of refuse materials and old items people were not using anymore in El Salvador.

“I had been on this trip two other times and it’s an amazing feeling to travel to El Salvador and work closely with the Salvadoran people,” said Nelda Quigley, Director of Resident Life at Brooksby. “All of us who went had a role, some were social workers, some were mid-wives, etc. We worked well with those from El Salvador who had similar strengths and we built strong friendships while we were there making it a wonderful experience.”

While everyone in the group took Spanish lessons, Payne spoke Spanish and was the groups Chief Interpreter. Buckley was a photographer and took photos of the group.

When the three returned to Brooksby, they played a video of their trip for the residents. In the video, there was a heart wrenching piece on 22 students in one classroom and how they all shared one stuffed animal.

"After watching the video, I felt I had to do something," said Marie Wakefield. "I sent letters to residents asking them to donate their stuffed animals and soon I had bags full!"

Wakefield has now collected over 100 stuffed animals and will soon send them to El Salvador.

Brooksby is developed and managed by Erickson.