By Sylvia

This weekend we had two opportunities to help this island and the people who live here. This is part one!

The first opportunity was to help out with an event that was giving away shoes, school uniforms and school supplies to kids here. December through February is the “summer break” for the public schools here so this was a big back to school event for those kids.  This event was very interesting to help out with because I got to learn a lot about Roatan’s public school system. One of the most interesting things that I learned was that even though the public school is free, the students have to buy their own uniforms, school supplies, backpacks and shoes. Some kids on the island cannot go to school because they can’t afford their own shoes. The kids of the other professor, Sophia, Elsa and Lawrence, went with us and we sized kids feet and then found shoes that were the right size for them. All of the shoes were TOMS, who donate one pair of shoes for every one pair sold. While we were handing out shoes, other people were helping kids try on shirts, pants and skirts, and some were handing out backpacks and school supplies. After that, we fed them all lunch and then we went swimming for a while. It was a really neat event and a really cool way to support the less fortunate.