A dance student was inspired to organize a dancewear donation drive after returning from a mission trip to Belize.
Caroline Piper, dance senior, traveled with the university religious life mission team from Dec. 30 to Jan. 5 to Belize to teach a Vacation Bible School Camp. The students also helped repair houses in the area and volunteered to assist with activities, staying in Camp Camalote in Belmopan, Belize.
“We all split up between teaching, sports, games, music, arts, and reading, and every day had a Bible verse that the kids were really great at memorizing,” Piper said. “The theme was hope, love and joy, and the verse of the week was, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Piper said, for part of the trip, the group didn’t have running water, but she didn’t mind because it made her feel humbled.
“I fell in love with the country,” she said. “This is my first mission trip. It was eye-opening and breathtaking.”
During the trip, Piper met a dance instructor named Bethany who teaches five dance classes with up to 40 students in each class. Piper said she was inspired by the instructor, who started the class five years ago with neighborhood children and now has dance recitals for the students in the spring.
“She teaches ballet, contemporary and jazz, and she wants to start introducing hip-hop and music classes,” Piper said. “They don’t have a lot of technology or internet, so she does all the marketing by hand. She told me, ‘I just want to have this safe environment for them.’”
The students confide in Bethany about hardships or things they are upset about, Piper said.
“She tells them to put those feelings into a dance,” Piper said.
Kendal Willis, religion sophomore, attended the mission trip and described Bethany as an “incredible woman” who created the dance program after seeing the need in the community.
“Many of them can’t afford their own dance clothes, obviously, and it’s becoming a big ordeal for her to try to expand and make sure all her kids have the tools that they need,” Willis said.
The students can attend the dance classes because most of them receive sponsorships from the camp. It’s rare for children in Belize to get opportunities in the arts, let alone sponsorships, since the country is poor, Piper said.
Because of the limited resources in the camp, Piper said they always need more shoes and clothes for the dance classes. She decided to collect dancewear of all kinds to donate to the students in the dance classes after seeing posts on the OCU Buy Sell Trade Facebook group selling dance clothing.
“I thought, ‘why not give them to Belize where they really need it?,’” Piper said.
Piper said she is looking for leotards, tights, jazz and ballet shoes, and athletic wear such as leggings.
“A big thing also is boy’s jazz shoes or boy’s ballet shoes, because she is starting to have more boys come to the classes, and they don’t want to wear the girl’s ballet shoes,” she said.
Piper said she will collect throughout the semester, and anyone can message her on Facebook at any time if they want to donate. She said she hopes to return to Belize in the summer after graduation to help with the dance classes.
“All the kids are so happy and so willing to learn. I think that some of them understand that as they grow up, they get to learn, and it’s such a blessing,” she said.
Willis said she is empowered by Piper’s idea to start the drive.
“I think it is incredible that Caroline has this huge heart and is willing to do this for the kids and Bethany, and I hope it blows up and can turn into an annual thing,” Willis said.
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