The following excerpt is from an April 29, 2010 article published by PR.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Glen Ridge, NJ, April 29, 2010 –(PR.com)– The village of Santa Maria de Jesus is 20 minutes outside of Antigua, Guatemala, and a world away from Glen Ridge, NJ. But in February 2010, the two communities became closer as volunteers from both towns mixed cement and lugged cinder blocks to build a house for a poor Mayan family. In the just published book, “Old Enough to do Good in the World,” Samantha Cordero, a 3rd grader at the Ridgewood Avenue School in Glen Ridge, NJ, tells the story of the trip that changed her life, and her view of the world around her.
Like many New Jersey families, Samantha’s parents were keen to get away for the President’s Day break in February 2010, and had their sights set on a beach holiday. Those plans were thrown out the window and a firm decision made when 8-year-old Samantha asked, “Can’t we go somewhere and do good in the world?” With the help of a New Jersey non-profit, From Houses to Homes, the family traveled to Guatemala. Putting together the journal she kept during the trip with photographs her mother took, Samantha tells a touching story about how she and her parents built a home for a family who had been living in a small, one-room shack with a dirt floor, walls of dried cornstalks ‘waterproofed’ with black plastic on the inside, and no windows and no running water…
Editor’s Note: All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to From Houses to Homes. Click here for purchasing information.
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