Dallon Bitz and his mother, Maryanne (center), are surrounded by children and adults at the “Friends of Chimbote” mission wearing NDFU camp t-shirts from past years.
Camp T-shirts donated to Peru
BY MEGAN BERGER, NDFU
Dallon Bitz is starting his third year as summer staff at North Dakota Farmers Union camp. Each summer before starting his duties as a camp counselor, he has traveled over 4,000 miles from his home in Dickey, ND to Chimbote, Peru to work at the “Friends of Chimbote” mission. The mission was started 38 years ago by Father Jack Davis, originally of Devils Lake, N.D. Chimbote, with a population of over 400,000 people, is one of the most impoverished cities in the world. Bitz, along with the other volunteers, spent the first week of June delivering beds to families, building houses, playing with children at the mission, serving meals and performing many other tasks. With such a high poverty level, the people of Chimbote are not used to eating hearty meals 14
of beef as we are in the United States. “On the last night of the trip, our group purchased beef and threw a fiesta for the people in the parish. We had a lot of fun dancing and celebrating while serving a beef dinner to around 500 people,” Bitz commented. Bitz’s mother, Maryanne, has organized the trip for several years. It first began as a small group from their church and has now become a community wide effort. This year, 19 people from the community traveled to Peru. However, several people from the community worked to raise funds for the trip and gather donations to take to the people of Chimbote. “We took several suitcases filled with donated items such as toys, blankets, baby supplies and clothing for people of all ages,” said Bitz. The two weeks prior to the trip, Bitz attended leadership training with other summer staff at Farmers
Union Heart Butte Camp to prepare for the summer program. While the staff was cleaning and organizing camp sale items, they came upon some leftover camp t-shirts from previous years. It was decided that the shirts would be donated and Bitz would deliver them to Peru. “It was awesome to see the looks on the kids’ faces when they received the shirts. For many of them, it was probably the first time that they had ever gotten a new shirt that hadn’t been worn by somebody else first,” stated Bitz. In reference to the trip, Bitz said, “This trip truly is a blessing every year. It’s a great feeling to know that you have made a difference in the world; even if it was just making somebody’s day by giving him or her a t-shirt. If I was able to change one person’s life for the better down there, it was all worth it.” p Union Farmer • www.ndfu.org