Nicole Robinson

Typically, American families fit football, the Macy’s parade and pumpkin pie into their Thanksgiving days.

Serving dinner at a food pantry sometimes seems uncommon, but not for senior Trisha Timmerman’s family.

“We always go to the food pantry and serve Thanksgiving dinner,” she said. “I don’t remember one Thanksgiving that we missed that.”

This year after Thanksgiving, Timmerman will add something else to her list.

On Nov. 25, she and 11 Outreach for World Hope volunteers will fly to Guatemala to deliver items such as medical supplies and food, she said.

This is the first of many more trips, she said, as the nonprofit organization plans to go two or three times a year.

“Being a social work major, I guess it’s just in you to volunteer,” Timmerman said.

According to Knight Ridder News Service, Guatemala ranks among the poorest Latin American countries, the others being Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay.

OWH will provide vitamins and medical care for each family, as well as improve education in the Guatemalan village of Arada Abajo in the Jocotan region, according to its Web site.

While the recently-established organization’s purpose wasn’t to help with hurricane relief, Timmerman said it will.

According to Knight Ridder News Service, Hurricane Stan hit Central America hard last month, One thousand three hundred people died, and more than 1,000 people died in Guatemala.

Two months ago, Spanish professor Fabiola Varela-Garcia moved from Guatemala, her home of five years, to Eau Claire.

“The worst is still to come,” she said, “because now, of course, there is a lot of relief efforts and help and everything. Right now, people . need drinking water, they need food, of course, they need medicines . they need covers and clothes, of course, but then you talk about the infrastructure.

“They have no homes. Their jobs are gone.”

That’s why Varela-Garcia has asked the students in her Spanish phonetics class to help fundraise.

Varela-Garcia’s students are writing letters to area elementary schools and businesses asking for donations. Also, the Latin American Studies Club, as well as SOL, is sponsoring bake sales and donated scarf sales every Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Hibbard Hall. On Nov. 15, there will be a Food Night for Guatemala in a location that is to be announced. Also, there will be a run For Guatemala the weekend before Thanksgiving, and students are fundraising door-to-door.

Varela-Garcia said she’ll return to Guatemala around Christmas, where she plans to go to Panabaj in Santiago Atitlan, a city that “just disappeared by a mudslide that covered the whole village and killed everyone there,” she said.

She’ll also go to Tectan, where an indigenous organization is asking for donations to buy indigenous clothing.

“People are donating clothes, but they don’t understand indigenous people don’t wear those. One hundred thousand people were displaced. It’s very important for them to wear their own clothes to keep their tradition, their culture.”

In both cities, Varela-Garcia said she’ll look for how to meet their long-term needs.

Students interested in donating may contact Varela-Garcia at [email protected], and Timmerman is accepting donations and may be contacted at [email protected]. She is selling T-shirts for $10 to fund her trip.