Fredericksburg's Doris Buffett (left) and Walk-A-Thon for Hope 2007 organizer and UMW senior Shin Fujiyama (center) participate in yesterday's fundraiser. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

A helping hand for Hondurans

UMW holds Students Helping Honduras Walk-a-thon

By MEGHANN COTTER

Date published: 4/22/2007

By MEGHANN COTTER Hope travels.

Yesterday it came to the University of Mary Washington from as far away as Pennsylvania and Florida.

It took the form of college students, local residents and professors, who participated in a walk-a-thon to raise money for a Honduran refugee village.

And soon, the money raised in Fredericksburg will enable a student-led mission team to build homes for all 72 families in the town, Siete de Abril.

Participants raised $110,000 yesterday, and were still counting. That includes a $20,000 award from the Grab Life, Give Life Foundation, sponsored by Dodge. Doris Buffet of the Sunshine Lady Foundation plans to bring the total up to $200,000, since their own campaign brought in more than $100,000.

A number of UMW students have volunteered in Honduras over the years. But the effort blossomed into a movement, Students Helping Honduras, after senior Shin Fujiyama returned from his first trip wanting to do more.

Since 2004 he has encouraged his siblings, William & Mary senior Cosmo and Virginia Tech freshman Gaku, to get involved.

Together they've rallied support from colleges throughout Virginia and the country.

After six service trips, a total of 90 volunteers, many with the UMW Campus Christian Community, have built 23 roofs, a school and a public bathroom. The next group, a team of 15, leaves May 19.

Last year's walk-a-thon, also with the help of the Sunshine Lady Foundation, raised $148,000 to build a dormitory and retire debt at the Copprome orphanage in El Progreso.

Money from this year's walk will pay for supplies needed to build permanent 22- by 22-foot concrete-block homes, each of which carries a price tag of $2,800.

Villagers currently live in tin-roofed shacks with no electricity and parasite-infested water.

About 2,000 people, including delegations from many colleges, participated in the walk-a-thon yesterday. They walked, strolled or in some cases jogged from Lee Hall to the edge of campus and back at least five times. That's five miles.

More than a quarter of them walked an optional five extra laps to show their support for Virginia Tech students.

The Blacksburg campus is recovering after a gunman killed 32 students and himself in a rampage Monday. Buffet pledged to chip in an extra $5 for every person who completed the whole 10 miles.

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Date published: 4/22/2007