Leslie (‘15), Kelsey (‘17), Iliana Hunsberger (‘20) traveled to Aibonito, Puerto Rico, in December 2018 to visit and work with Uncle Dean (‘65) and Aunt Juanita Yoder. Dean and Juanita left in October to help with construction work on Academia Menonita Betania. The Mennonite School was severely damaged during Hurricane Maria on September 19, 2017. The sisters served by painting, hanging doors, grouting floor tile, and cleaning. While on a tour of the school, the music teacher explained that the music bells used in class were donated by their Grandma Ruth Hunsberger. This trip made Iliana “recognize and appreciate the small things we take for granted, like hot water and technology.”
Just a few weeks later, Lydia (Hunsberger) Shaffer (‘01) and daughter Amelia (‘24) along with a team from Kaufman Mennonite Church visited the same site to continue work. The team primed and painted the front of a three-story building of the school. Amelia was blessed to spend a day and a half attending classes with grade 7 students.
One week later, Alice (Yoder) DiGuardi (‘99) and son Isaiah (‘24) along with a few relatives traveled to Aibonito. They were able to do some traveling across Puerto Rico with her parents (Dean and Juanita) but also did work at the school, including scraping old paint, painting the outside of one of the newly finished buildings, grouting tile, clearing sidewalks, and planting a new flower bed in front of the kindergarten building.
