Woman seeks help so she can help poor kids Student spends breaks helping children in Central America BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer Wendy Chan is pictured with an orphan named Gerson, who lives in Honduras with his younger brother and two older sisters. The older children take care of the younger children in the absence of their parents. OLD BRIDGE - This year during spring break, while many girls and guys are going wild in places like Cancun and Daytona Beach, Wendy Chan will be helping those less fortunate. Along with other members of a service organization called Alpha Phi Omega (APO), 20-year-old Chan will travel to Guatemala to build a house with Habitat for Humanity International. "During other breaks, I get plenty of time to relax," said Chan, an accounting student at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. "I've always been into community service, and this is something really worthwhile. This is something you really don't get that many chances to experience." Chan, a 2004 Old Bridge High School graduate, has volunteered internationally before. Last May, she decided to go to Honduras after learning about an organization formed by a fellow APO member. Cosmo Fujiyama and her brother, Shin, discovered an orphanage called Copprome during their travels in Honduras, and decided to start an organization to provide help to the children there. When Cosmo invited Chan to go with her on one of her visits there, she jumped at the chance. "That trip made me cherish everything I have, because these kids have nothing," Chan said. "I hope to go back to Honduras this upcoming May to visit the kids again, because with an experience like that, you can't just go once and come back and forget about them. It's a lifelong relationship." It was hard returning to America after the 10 days there, Chan said, because it did not feel right to come back to a life of luxury after seeing the poverty the children in Honduras are forced to endure. There is no clean water there, and hot running water is unheard of. After meals, the older children, as well as Chan and her group members, would often give food to the smaller children who were still hungry after eating their scant portions. "Every day was tortillas and beans," Chan said. "You get sick of it, but ... it's either that, or nothing." Many of the children there are forced into the role of taking care of their younger siblings because their parents either could not afford to keep them, or have died of AIDS-related illnesses. During the group's time there, they also visited a detox center for street children with drug addictions, to talk and play with them, Chan said. Among their accomplishments at the orphanage were purchasing new backpacks for the children, installing ceiling fans and building a dinner table. After the trip, Chan felt even more of a dedication to helping others, she said. Over the summer, she sponsored a child in the Philippines. She was elected to the post of service vice president for APO, and she hopes to lead a service trip next year. Chan's trip to Guatemala will prove more physically demanding than the Honduras trip, but she is looking forward to it nonetheless. The hardest part may be raising the $27,000 necessary to finance the trip for the group of 15 students. Though they have been holding various fundraisers throughout the semester, with 14 other service trips to fund, reaching their goal is a difficult undertaking. "Any amount that can be donated, in the form of money or supplies - hats, water bottles, sunscreen, work gloves, etc. - is considered generous and is greatly appreciated by every member of the group," Chan said. To help APO in their volunteer efforts, donations can be sent to CSU 2236, College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 8793, Williamsburg, VA 23186. Checks can be made out to W&M Global Village Project.