A rewarding first mission experience

WHAT: Over the summer, a group of eight students and five adults from Cape Vincent, Chaumont, Watertown and Pulaski flew to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic for its first mission experience.

The group was led by the Rev. Pierre Aubin, a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, who is also pastor at churches in Cape Vincent, Rosiere and Chaumont and co-founder of the Sacred Heart Foundation. The eight students in the group: Amanda Donohue, Michael and Matthew Grunert, Jacob Pignone, Joseph Raville, Stephanie Peterson, and Elana and Sara Tontarski. The adults, besides Father Aubin, in the group: Susan Briggs, Elizabeth Rippe, Dr. Joseph Cannella and Beverly Hennigan.

Mrs. Hennigan, Pillar Point, was asked about the trip.

HOW DID IT ORIGINATE? "Father Aubin is a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, and Sister Lisa Valentini, based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is also a MSC sister who takes three or four groups of 15 each year to the Dominican Republic. We started planning a year before we left for this trip.

"The leader of our group was Father Aubin, who has wanted to take young people on this kind of experience for some time.

"It took us a year to plan and raise the funds we needed and prepare for our trip."

WHAT WAS THE GROUP'S MAIN TASK? "To help the poor and to learn from them, how they live, what they do, etc.

"We spent a day in a host family (two of us together) and we shopped for our food, cooked the food and shared the extra food with neighbors and family. One thing that we learned was that they take care of each other.

"We went to different schools each day and spent the mornings doing projects (that we brought with us) and singing and playing with children of all ages. We also collected and carried pounds of clothes and school supplies in our suitcases to be distributed to the poor. We painted shacks that they called 'homes' in the poorest part of the area in the hot sun. We did much in 10 days."

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE LESSONS BROUGHT BACK? "There were many. Families and friends take care of each other. We learned how precious water, sewers and garbage pickup is. There are no sewer systems in the Dominican Republic. Garbage lays in the streets and the rivers. The children are happy just having their pictures taken.

"We learned to appreciate what we have because we have so much and they have so little. We will always remember how they loved all of us even though they did not really know us and it did not matter to them.

"We felt that we would always remember their smiling faces and love that they showed us. It also made our group a family as we learned about each other and became a group that will always remember each other."

DOES THE GROUP PLAN TO RETURN? "Yes, we will return to the missions again, maybe not all of us and maybe not the Dominican Republic, but somewhere."

If interested in being profiled for such a Q&A feature, contact Times staff writer Chris Brock at cbrock@wdt.net. Or write to him at the Watertown Daily Times, 260 Washington St., Watertown, N.Y. 13601.