December 29th, 2009
Hard to believe, but on December 23rd, 2009, the Beyond the Campaign turned one year old.
To recall, one year ago, I was in my senior year of high school in Orlando, Florida, and an opportunity to record a needy town in Colombia for a school project came up. I took advantage of the fact that I was travelling to Cartagena, Colombia for my Christmas break to record the video. When I was in Colombia, I wanted to show all my classmates the high amount of poverty that the city of Cartagena has. I decided to record a documentary in the needy community of El Talon in Turbaco, Bolivar. I decided to record it there because it was a bit safer than other needy towns in Colombia, and extremely ignored by the local authorities. When I went to the small community, I was able to go inside a home made out of boxes for the first time in my life, speak to people who had not had food for more than five days, and listen to very unfortunate stories. That day, I promised the residents of El Talon that I would help them in the near future. Even though most of them didn't believe me, I wanted to keep my promise. I finished recording my documentary and I began to work on my campaign.
I returned to my home country and I didn't know what to do; how could I start an international campaign without even being an adult? I then decided to simply edit my video and prepare myself to present it at my school's service learning conference in February. When I finished editing it, I presented it, and I really liked the reaction everyone had with it.
A student, younger than me, approached and congradulated me, something that you don't see too much among teenagers. I believe that at that moment, I felt the urge to continue working for the residents of El Talon. After that event, my service learning council teacher awarded me with a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to present my documentary at a national conference
2009 National Service Learning Conference, Nashville). I presented it, and many professors from many universities, like from the University of Arizona, congradulated me and they assured me that I had a great idea to help the needy in a different country. I thought that my project was finally getting started.
After the trip to Nashville, it was the end of March, and I began speaking to different teachers in my high school so they could allow me to present my documentary in their classes. This would allow me to receive donations from students. While more and more students donated, the more packed my garage got. However, I still needed many more donations; I needed enough for a whole town. I decided to present my documentary in an official presentation in my school's performing arts center on May 6th.
To promote my presentation, I went to local channels like Telemundo, Univision, and Central Florida News 13. I also promoted it on 1030 AM, 1580 AM, and 98.1 FM. Due to all this promotion, a spanish website also interviewed me; the website is called "El Juglar de la Corte." I wanted to show that my interest was not to give Colombia a negative image, but a positive one; I managed to get help from students in my school to dance a Cumbia, to show my heritage from the coast of Colombia, and two other students to dance a Colombian salsa, to show my heritage from Cali, Valle. Before my event, I had wrote to the Miss Colombia Organization, and they responded by informing me their full support.
The day of my official presentation finally arrived and it was a complete success; more than 300 people showed up. Due to this, fui I was interviewed by La Prensa and El Sentinel of Orlando (Spanish newspapers).
My daily routine soon turned into something unusual for a student my age; after going to school, I would spend the whole day picking up donations, receiving and making calls, editing my three websites, and sending e-mails.
For the month of June, I had more than 4,000 donations, and I stopped receiving them. I began organizing the donations, and I travelled twice to Miami to speak with representatives from a cargo company called Tampa Cargo; the owners are Avianca. At first, they told me the donations would be shipped for free, so on July 7th, I took all the donations to the Miami International Airport on a U-Haul truck I rented; U-Haul also donated 31 new large boxes in order for me to ship all the donations.
The donations weighed more than 1,540 pounds(700 kilos), I left them, and I returned to Orlando. On July 9th, I travelled to Cartagena, Colombia to begin my preparation for the distribution.
As mentioned, the donations were supposed to be shipped for free, but Tampa Cargo later charged $582 USD. Thanks to the president of the Miss Colombia Organization, Raimundo Angulo Pizarro, the donations were shipped after he paid the $582 in order to maintain my campaign well. I had a meeting with him, and he gave me a brand new atlas of Colombia, a book on the history of the Miss Colombia Organization, a letter from Miss Colombia, Michelle Rouillard, the presence of Miss Bolivar, Natalia Navarro Galvis, at my distribution, and the contact with the Colombian press.
Also before my distribution, I managed to receive support from the Colombian Civil Defense, the Colombian National Police in Turbaco, I did a census of El Talon, and many more important things. The donations arrived to Barranquilla on July 17th, I picked them up, and began preparing the donations for the next day (distribution day).
The day of my distribution was July 18th, in the El Talon community. I received a lot of help from the community; when I went to El Talon the morning of my distribution, I found everything decorated for my distribution. The participation in the distribution included the Colombian Civil Defense, the Colombian National Police, the Civic Police, and Miss Bolivar, Natalia Navarro Galvis. The children of El Talon danced mapale, vallenato, and reggaeton to celebrate my distribution. Healthwise, the Civil Defense also helped the community:
Took the blood pressure of many residents
Examined the children's oral health, and taught them how to brush their teeth correctly
Cured small injuries
I managed to distribute more than 4,000 items of clothing and toys with the help of my family and everyone mentioned above. I was interviewed on RCN and the "El Universal" newspaper from Cartagena.
I returned to the United States on August 8th, and I took some time off from the campaign. After the break, Teofilo Del Rio, whom lives in Turbaco, Bolivar (Colombia), wanted to begin a project where actors from the University of Rafael Nuñez in Cartagena performed a skit in Turbaco with the price of entry for the public of one gift for a needy child in Turbaco. All the gifts received were to be distributed in December with the donations I picked up in Orlando, Florida. We received support from Natalia Navarro Galvis, who was crowned Miss Colombia during this project.
His part of the project was a success; he donated more than 80 gifts to the children of El Caminito and other needy communities in Turbaco on Christmas Eve. His distribution was also mentioned on the
"El Universal" newspaper. However, I could not travel to Colombia due to many inconveniences, and I decided to postpone my trip with the donations (more than 4,000 articles of clothing again) for the end of January 2010.
The Beyond the Wall Campaign had a very successful first year, and that is thanks to the support of my family, friends and organizations involved with my campaign. I want to really thank everyone for their support, and 2010 will be another successful year full of new projects.
