Mission Accomplished

July 19th, 2009

After almost eight months of working in Central Florida so the residents of El Talon, Colombia can have at least one day of enjoyment and a short break of their harsh routine, I can finally announce that the Beyond the Wall Colombia Campaign is officially complete. The distribution event went well and I completed my mission of donating to every single resident of the El Talon community. Below I will mention how I prepared myself the week before I travelled to Colombia on July 9th, how I prepared the event in Colombia, detailed information of the distribution event, and what plans I have in mind.

Preparation in the United States

As many might imagine, I was very busy the past eight months working on my campaign. When I began the campaign in January, I knew that it would consume a lot of my time. I was in charge of everything. I was the one that had to email the organizations, edit my three websites, pick up donations, present my documentary, contact the press, etc. I also had the extremely hard task of combining all these responsibilities with my school work and social life. I feel it is necessary to mention that a lot of teachers and students criticised me because of my campaign. One day I said that I wanted to have a non profit organization in the future and a teacher told me "yeah, like that's gonna happen. There are so many of those that don't do anything...". Some students would say that my campaign was "dumb". Some friends would get mad at me because I was working on my campaign and not hanging out with them. Those are things that I never forgot while working in the United States and it only made me want to complete my mission even faster. I was prepared to deal with many things that would try to get me down. When June arrived, I began to prepare my trip to Colombia. I stopped receiving donations and started packing all of them into 31 large U-Haul boxes. On July 7th, I rented a U-Haul truck and the next day delivered all the donations to the Tampa Cargo main US office in the Miami International Airport. I travelled to Colombia on July 9th.

Preparation in Colombia

The day after I arrived, I immediately began working on my campaign here in Colombia. I met with the President of the Miss Colombia Organization (Concurso Nacional de Belleza), Raimundo Angulo Pizarro, and he supported my campaign 100%. I also got a customed made banner for the distribution day, I did a census in El Talon, got interviewed on RCN Radio, got support from the Colombian Police, and the Colombian Civil Defense. The biggest issue I had during my campaign was three days prior to the event. The boxes did not arrive on time and they were not shipped for free. I had to pay $582 USD in order for them to be sent. I became extremely desperate because I did not have that money. Luckily, the Miss Colombia Organization paid for the shipping and the boxes arrived on Friday, July 17th (orginally scheduled distribution day). That day I had to go to Barranquilla (two hours away from Cartagena) to pick up the donations. In Barranquilla, I also had an issue: I had to pay $230 USD to customs. Of course, it was paid for and I got my boxes. I came back to Cartagena and began preparing for my event. I booked the sound system, camera men, and shopped for food that I wanted going to give to the Police and Civil Defense. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the musical performances due to lack of funds. Of course my family helped me throughout everything. That same night, my family and I began preparing all the clothes for the 600 residents in El Talon. The donations were put in black bags with the family´s name on it. We began putting the clothes in the bags at 8:30 pm and ended at 4 in the morning.

Distribution Day

I woke up at 5:30 am and the distribution event was scheduled to begin at 9:00 am.

The Police came at 7:30 am to take the donations to El Talon. I left at 8:15 am and found myself surprised to see everything almost ready. The place where I was going to distribute is a large kiosk and it had chairs and a table for me and the people that helped me. At 8:50 am, Miss Bolivar 2009, Natalia Navarro Galvis arrived. Then came the Colombian Civil Defense and the Civic Police.

At 9 am everything was ready and I sat in the middle of the table along with Miss Bolivar, Teofilo Del Rio (my cousin that helped me at all times in Colombia), the leader of El Talon, the Commanding Officer of the Colombian National Police in Turbaco, and the Squadron Leader of the Colombian Civil Defense. The event began with the presenter (my cousin Jenny Gonzalez) introducing everyone in the table to the residents of El Talon.

After the introduction, the Colombian national anthem played. Later, everyone in the table, including myself, spoke about the campaign. The kids of El Talon were very excited about the event and organized three folkloric dances for me. They also gave me and Miss Bolivar a souvenir. We finally began the distribution by calling the names of one person representing a whole family. The person picking up the donations for their family had to present their ID when I called them up. As I distributed the clothes, the Civil Defense gave free oral exams, took blood pressure, and healed small injuries to the children and the elderly of El Talon. The police also did a good job with the tight security. The event ended smoothly and everyone received their donations. I can´t describe how good it felt when so many people of El Talon gave me hugs and showed me their appreciation. I was very happy when we were taking our final pictures in El Talon because my campaign was a success. As I was walking into the van, about to leave El Talon, a girl approached me and gave me a hug and kiss and her family was behind her. She told me how much they appreciated the gift. In the distance I also saw something very interesting: a girl was already wearing clothes that I donated!

I realized at that moment that all my hard work had paid off. I got into the van and went to the home where I was staying. I arrived and two cousins had cooked rice and chicken for 60 people (for my family, Civil Defense, and Police). We all ate and I can finally announce that the Beyond the Wall Campaign Colombia 2009 is officially complete.

After Distribution Event

After the event, I recieved a letter from Miss Colombia 2009, Michelle Rouillard, congradulating me for my hard work. My interview on RCN Radio also went on the air. Samuel Alvarez from the Colombian newspaper El Universal interviewed me, as well. On July 20th, Colombia´s independence day, there was a parade here in Turbaco (where I´m staying at) and I was wearing a Civil Defense shirt. When the Civil Defense was approaching, the Squadron leader saw me from the distance and when they were finally about to pass by me, they stopped. The leader yelled out "a special greeting to our fellow member Hugo Fernando Nuñez!..." and I had to go in the middle of the street for a picture with them. Everywhere I go I receive compliments because of my campaign. Colombia has treated me very well and I cannot be any happier in this country.

What´s next?

I am who I am today because of Colombia because if I never would have came to this country, I probably would have never had the success I have today. This campaign has made me feel even more proud of being Colombian. I successfully helped an entire community in the native land of my parents. As far as plans go, I am still exploring what future project I am going to do. The possibilities are here in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, or Guatemala. I am also planning on making a documentary showing the distribution event and my preparation in Colombia. I want to thank everyone that helped during my campaign in the United States and Colombia. I am still in Colombia simply on a much deserved vacation and I plan to return to the United States on August 8th. To see pictures, here is a link on the campaign´s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beyond-the-Wall-Campaign-Colombia/80215210894?ref=ts#/pages/Beyond-the-Wall-Campaign-Colombia/80215210894?v=photos&viewas=668127953&ref=ts.

Thank you very much to everyone!