Holy Trinity Raises $10K for Guatemala Mission School

Despite hard economic times, the community raised $10,000 in one week to support the Kateri Center, in Guatemala.

The Kateri Center is a mission school that began in 1995 as a school and a Catholic Christian residential community for 42 Mayan indigenous teens. These teens live in the surrounding villages in eastern Guatemala, most without electricity or running water.

The Center has provided Mayan teens with an education and an improved standard of living. The average life expectancy for the Mayan is about 25 years less than that of their counterparts in Guatemala.

Since 2003, Holy Trinity has been one of three organizations around the world supporting the school and has donated over $70,000. In the past five years the school has grown dramatically and now includes more than 125 students.

Every summer, Mr. Anthony Marinelli, a Religion teacher at Holy Trinity, visits the school and has seen the results of the donations: a new building and five new classrooms, a computer room, new girl’s dorms and new athletic fields. This past summer, he was accompanied by 2011 graduate, Meaghan Flatley of Levittown.

The yearly fund raising campaign is promoted through Religion classes. This year there were over 50 students recognized as “MVP fund-raisers”, each bringing in at least $50.

Mr. Marinelli reflected on this year’s campaign, “This year I was able to show students ‘before and after’ pictures and the incredible difference that they have made over the years.  It has always been my experience that if you challenge young people to find their best, most generous selves, they will never disappoint. They are making a big impact on the lives of young people that they have never even met. I am deeply touched by their generosity.”

Holy Trinity High School is a private, co-educational Catholic high school founded in 1966 drawing students from Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties. For more information, visit www.holytrinityhs.org.