Dean Hall, a sophomore in the school’s Electrical shop, dedicated himself to performing much needed community service when he worked at an orphanage and school outside of Juarez, Mexico, in October.
Hall, 16, worked at the Rivers of Mercy Children’s Home for a week with a group of 14 parishioners from his church, the North Leverett Baptist Church. The group included Hall’s parents James and Kelly, his brothers Caleb, 17, an FCTS senior Electrical student, Curtis, 19, and his cousin Kevin.
While other members of his church have gone on missions to the orphanage and school, this was the first time Hall and his whole family made the trip. The church group mostly performed electrical work, painting and plumbing. Despite being an Electrical program student, Hall did not do any electrical work and spent most of his time working on plumbing, painting and general clean-up.
“We did a lot of maintenance and upgrading,” Hall said. “We worked in both the orphanage and the school. It felt really cool to help people out. We got a lot done and we were really productive.”
Rivers of Mercy Children’s Home was founded by Kristen and Emmis Robles in 2007. It is home to 52 children, most of them under the age of 12 and who have physical and/or mental disabilities. The children at Rivers of Mercy were thrilled when Hall and his group arrived.
“All the kids are really happy because they’re in a good orphanage,” Hall said. “The kids were very friendly and happy to see us.”
The weather in northern Mexico was in the 80’s and 90’s but dry so the days stayed relatively comfortable. The town is about a half hour drive from El Paso, Texas. Hall said you could walk up to the top of a mesa and, on a clear day, see El Paso in the distance.
Hall said the daily work schedule for his church group was not ridged, but they kept busy. They woke up at 7 am, did devotions and went to breakfast around 8 am. After breakfast the group would work on the day’s projects.
“The specific work tasks varied,” Hall said. “One of the adults in the group would get a general idea of what was going to need to get done that day, like painting a room or replacing toilets. There wasn’t really a schedule during the day, just doing work until meal times. There were other things we did like going on a hike or going out to eat, but mostly just work. There wasn’t necessarily a lot of organized work, just basically asking what needed to be done or tagging along with other people working on a project. We were just trying to stay helpful.”
A highlight of each day was mealtime or free time because it gave Hall and his group a chance to interact with the kids from the orphanage. Putting a smile on the face of the children was a reward unto itself.
“It was fun hanging out and playing soccer with the kids,” he said. “It was really hard to leave them. We got really close to them.”