April 1, 2015
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
The scene — one of many that played out that unforgettable week in December — warmed the heart of Marcello Hernandez-Blanco.
He looked out and saw much more than children receiving new pairs of shoes. He heard uncontrollable laughter — from beaming Costa Rican children and caring American students. He saw lines of kids waiting to receive temporary washable tattoos. He saw seven-year-olds coloring shark pictures with 20-year-olds and not letting a language barrier get in the way.
Hernandez-Blanco was born and raised in Costa Rica. He went to college here, is a consultant for the government in sustainable development and climate change. His mother-in-law, Lillian Solt, an American missionary, began a clinic in the community Los Lagos three decades ago designed to meet the economic needs of patients in addition to working with rural and poor communities to help develop micro-enterprises.
So when he watched more than a dozen Vanderbilt student-athletes spend more than a week of their Christmas break in his native country of Costa Rica to help less fortunate people in areas that are miles away from the tourist rich parts of the beautiful country, he beamed with pride.
“This fills my heart tank. This part really fills you as a human being emotionally,” he said. “It is really nice to see how young people are engaging. This is a way you can empower yourselves to do greater things in the states with this new perspective you have from Costa Rica, from poverty, from development. I think your reaction has been amazing. The shoes are one part. The time you took to share with them, to be able to clean their feet, to draw with them, to write a smile on their faces, I think those are the most powerful things. The shoes, for me, it is not the end. It is just the means.”
Hernandez-Blanco served as a guide for the 13 Vanderbilt student-athletes who enjoyed a life-changing experience in December. Along with two support staff members of the athletic department, the crew of 13 spent eight days in Costa Rica delivering 1,263 pairs of shoes with Soles4Souls, Inc., a Nashville-based non-profit organization that delivers shoes and clothes to children and people in need all over the world. Soles4Souls, led by Travel Manager Kelly Hoskins, and Vanderbilt partnered with Solt and CEDCAS, staying in the three-story clinic for the trip.
The student-athletes included Skyler Carpenter (track), Matthew Cleveland (cross country), Jill Doherty (lacrosse), Taylor Hudson (football), Megan Huebner (cross country/track), Hannah Jumper (cross country/track), Shannon Morrish (soccer), Baker Newman (tennis), Gabby Nesi (lacrosse), Christiana Ogunsami (soccer), Mallory Schonk (lacrosse), Vanessa Valentine (cross country/track) and Jake Van Geffen (cross country).
All 13 were chosen through a selection process by athletic administrators as each student-athlete had to apply — submitting an essay and letters of recommendation.
It marked the second straight year the Vanderbilt athletics department sent student-athletes on an international service trip, which is funded by the NCAA Opportunity Fund. Twenty-one student-athletes traveled to Tanzania with Soles4Souls in the summer of 2013.
And like that initial trip to Africa, the Costa Rican adventure left a lasting impact.
“It changed my life,” Taylor Hudson said. “I think (it changed) our lives even maybe more than the kids.”
Over four days, the group delivered shoes at seven sites.
These all differed in location — churches, schools, day cares and community center — and landscape — urban, rural, impoverished, working class. It was an eye-opening experience for all on the trip.
In some areas, trash littered the streets. Many of the shoes children came in wearing were dirty, tattered, torn, some with huge holes in the soles. The homes around CEDCAS were gated and cars were parked in backyards instead of on the street, to avoid theft. The houses varied but many were modest, one-floor homes. In one neighborhood, where Nicaraguan refugees lived, tin roofs and walls formed one-bedroom homes. Hernandez-Blanco said in that neighborhood, many children share one bed with their parents and siblings and they bathe in a nearby creek with sewage runoff.
“My expectation of Costa Rica is probably everyone’s — pretty beaches, rainforest, which is great,” Hannah Jumper said. “But there is a huge part the world probably forgets about. I know I have before. I didn’t know the gravity or extent that people are living in poverty. It is so different from our poverty level we have in America. It is a different type. I don’t think it is something you can full understand until you experience it firsthand.”
Still, Costa Ricans are some of the happiest people in the world, living by the mantra of pura vida or pure life. They exude eternal optimism, happy with what they have.
“Even the parents, seeing how happy they are and how grateful they are for what they have is definitely a humbling experience,” Christiana Ogunsami said. “Just to appreciate what we have and see what we can give them definitely leaves impact on me. It definitely makes me more grateful for what I have back home.”
Before the first day of distributions, Solt asked the group how many knew how to speak Spanish. A couple of hands hesitantly went up. Then she asked another question: How many know how to smile in Spanish?
Smiles — or sonrisas in Spanish — trickled throughout the room.
“We were told on the first day to make sure we played with the kids and hung out with them because some of them don’t just need shoes,” Hudson said. “They’re starving for love.”
At each site, the distributions were broken into three stations — sizing, washing/fitting and decorating/drawing. A couple of students would use a Skecher’s shoe sizing mat to find the best fit for the children and then mark their hands with the size. The children would then have their feet washed and handed a pair of black Skecher BOBS shoes. Finally, they would head over to the drawing station, where the student-athletes would decorate their shoes with their names, a soccer ball, a butterfly, a shark and add warmth to the shoe.
“You hand them these shoes and they just beam,” Vanessa Valentine said. “They are just so happy to have them. And you tell them they can color on them and they can get even happier. It is really touching to see their joy when they get their pair of shoes.”
“The distributions have been some of the greatest experiences of my life,” Jake Van Geffen said. “Just getting to serve and be humbled by washing these kids’ feet. It has been great to be a small part of fulfilling that need and seeing the kids light up when you hand them the shoes.”
On the last day of distributions, the group headed to a town called Guapiles, about two hours from the clinic in Los Lagos. At the second site, the bus pulled up to a school and a long line outside the fence that snaked around the block. The distribution wasn’t scheduled to begin until 10:30 a.m. but many children and parents began lining up at 7 a.m.
“Many of them had never received free shoes,” Solt said. “They are very interested. They are very needy and that’s why they were here early. They have time. They don’t have shoes.”
In Costa Rica, Solt set up the shoe distributions as CEDCAS has left their footprint on communities throughout the country, through offering health care and jobs, donating shoes and even helping kick start several micro-enterprises.
“They are literally helping people’s lives in terms of health and wellness,” Jumper said. “Connecting people educationally. It is really inspiring to see all these amazing other people. They don’t have to be here helping us but they love their country.”
Hoskins, travel manager for Soles4Souls, anchored the group with her positive attitude, smile and selfless leadership.
“Kelly did a great job leading us,” Valentine said. “She is funny and she is inspiring and it is really neat to see how she has such a good relationship with Lilian too. I’m so thankful for Soles4Souls, for Vanderbilt athletics, for Lilian and just this opportunity in general. It was truly, truly life-changing and I mean that in the most genuine way possible.”
The connections between the student-athletes and children were incredible to see unfold. Despite broken Spanish, the students bonded with the children.
There was a 10-year-old boy Hector on the first day who ran home to get his yellow plastic soccer ball so everyone could play soccer on a nearby gravel parking lot with old shoes serving as goal posts. Hector’s smile and curiosity impacted everyone. He had everyone in the group’s name written down and wanted to know when the group would return.
“He was a ball of energy and wanted to know everything about us,” Hudson said.
Little girls and boys brought flowers. Hugs were commonplace. Jill Doherty remembers a little boy who surprised her when he said hello.
“To have him speak English to me really brightened my day,” she said. “He came back about an hour after with his mom and they were just so excited. He brought me a piece of candy and I kept hugging him. It was really so sweet to see that and know that I made a difference at least for his day.”
There were the two young brothers who couldn’t stop giggling and tossing around a bouncy ball well after the distribution had ended. Coloring books sprawled across tables and floors. Bubbles were blown. The temporary tattoo station, manned by assistant athletic director of marketing Allison Frazee, always had a long line as Star Vs sprinkled on faces, arms, hands and shoes. The student-athletes and children played tic tac toe, Frisbee, and of course, soccer — in basketball gyms, on asphalt, in ankle-high grass with regular soccer balls along with plastic bottles and tin foil.
“It has been great to play with the kids, even some of the adults too,” Van Geffen said. “Just how good they are and how passionate they are for games where we are playing with a couple of cans or tin foil balls. Just seeing how much joy they take out of that.”
The trip also brought different members of different sports closer together.
“It has been indescribable,” Hudson said. “I’ve gotten to know these guys on a whole new level. We get to broaden and deepen our relationship because of this whole experience.”
With busy class, practice and game schedules, it can be hard for Commodore student-athletes to really get to know all their peers outside of their teammates. Spending a week in a foreign country on a service trip changes that, though.
“This is the kind of thing that makes Vanderbilt such a great community,” Van Geffen said. “We can take people from many different lifestyles, many different social groups and come together and all gel so quickly. Within a few hours probably we were already all making jokes and getting along.”
Eight teams were represented on the trip. By the end of the week, the 13 students were easily one team. Every night in the dining hall of the clinic, the group played games varying from charades to telephone Pictionary to obscure card games. Hudson, Ogunsami and Nesi broke out their dance moves as Hudson led the way as an expert swing-dancing teacher.
Everyone showed off their soccer skills, playing daily pickup games community park. Running every morning was routine for the members of the cross country and track teams but Hudson, who just finished his playing career on the football team, also went out and kept pace with the distance runners.
The group also experienced new things together. One morning, they ventured high into a cloud forest and went flying through the trees and past water falls on a memorable and fun zip lining trip. They also hiked up to Volcán Poás, a picturesque volcano at 9,000 feet high. On that day, once the steam and clouds blew away, one could see a sparkling blue pool of water in the crater. Afterwards, the group went to a waterfall garden and animal reserve, where they held toucans, petted oxen and were sprayed by one of many waterfalls.
Then there was the singing. Spontaneous karaoke broke out on the bus rides around town thanks to Hudson’s endless collection of music and Newman’s speakers. Taylor Swift, Disney songs and the Beatles blasted throughout the bus. Of course, there was uncontrollable laughter — laughter that Doherty said was so much at times she felt she couldn’t breathe.
“That was honestly one of my favorite parts,” Doherty said of the camaraderie. “Every time I see someone that was on the trip you have this flood of happiness and emotions that run through you. I love that. It is like I have 13 new best friends, which is awesome.
“I don’t think that I could have picked a more perfect group or place or anything that would have been as meaningful and so fun. I’m really happy that I did it and honestly I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
