Packing a lunch for work day-in and day-out can be a pain, so when Jasper resident Donnelly Hart offered to deliver packed lunches to local businesses in town the response was immediate.
On July 9, Donnelly and a dozen volunteers delivered 300 hot dog lunches to 30 local businesses in town and the surrounding area.
For a minimum donation of $5, businesses had the opportunity to order a warm lunch for their employees, which included chips and a drink.
When everything was said and done she raised about $2,100 for her non-profit organization called Wisehart Charity.
“This money will go 100 per cent towards the completion of a small two-room school I’m having built down in Guatemala,” said Hart, who is the president of the organization.
For the past 10-years Hart has been helping hundreds of Guatemalan women and students learn essential vocational skills, like sewing and cooking, to break the cycle of poverty in the impoverished Central American country.
The program has become such a success Hart is in the process of fundraising $35,000 to build a new school. So far she has raised $2,500 and said phase one of construction is complete. Her family has also donated $10,000.
“The most receptive businesses by far, without a doubt, were the out of town chalets and cabins,” said Hart. “It was a win-win all around.”
The new school is located in the rural community of Alotenango, about an hour and a half drive from the capital. The program works closely with a not-for-profit school called Bendicion de Dios, which offers kindergarten to grade 6 education to poor families.
Part of the reason she decided it was time to build a new school was because they had to frequently move due to increasing rent payments.
With a permanent location Hart said the charity will now be able to offer vocation training to students from Bendicion de Dios as well as training to people in the community.
She said she intends to return to Guatemala in January just in time for the new building to open and the school year to start.
She will continue selling hot dogs on most Saturdays throughout the summer in the parking lot of TGP from noon to 2:30 p.m.
For more information or to donate to the cause contact Hart at [email protected].
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
