Sonoma students head to El Salvador for humanitarian work

More than a dozen Sonoma Valley middle and high school students will travel to El Salvador for two weeks in June with Sonoma Valley High School teacher Krista McAtee to do humanitarian work. Some of the students are going for their third and fourth consecutive years. 

The nonprofit ESNA Village Network (esnavillages.org) connects villages in rural El Salvador with communities in North America and builds the structures and infrastructures to support educational and economic health in poor, rural communities. 

McAtee will lead the group traveling from Sonoma again this year. The group will stay a few nights in homes of the people in Suchitoto and in San Jose Las Flores while they learn about the history, culture and community. Then they will stay the remainder of the two weeks in Sononate while working in a little town called Las Trincheras (the trenches) that was formed by people fleeing the hill to escape the war. 

“I have always looked for ways to improve my instruction, my school, district and education as a whole. In my 18 years of teaching, 15 in Sonoma Valley, I have found that the most impactful way to transform lives is to take youth out of the country to see the privileged lives they lead within their community, to understand how powerful they are in making the world a better place and to inspire them to do their part to better the world!”

McAtee is so eager to expand access to volunteer work travel experiences of this kind that she has founded a nonprofit called Transformative Travel, with the goal of raising money to provide low income students from Sonoma Valley with travel scholarships. “In addition to providing them with this life-changing experience, my expectation is that the youth who travel will be responsible for teaching younger students how they can make a difference in the lives of others.”

Currently, McAtee is trying to raise money for eight Sonoma Valley middle and high school students to join the June trip.

The students have been raising money in various ways, including car washes, bake sales and direct donations from family and friends.

The cost of the trip is $2,500 a person and McAtee is still $10,000 short of her goal of helping cover the $45,000 cost for the entire group to travel. 

The Sonoma Valley students traveling to El Salvador this summer include: freshman Dominic Tommasi (his third trip), sophomore Alanna Johnson (her second trip), junior Pablo Cruz (his third trip), freshman Tessa Baxter (her first trip), senior Daisy Valdivias (her first trip), seventh grader Jose Eduardo (his first trip), sophomore Crystal Rodriguez (her second trip), eighth grader Celeste Rodriguez (her second trip), freshman Jessie McAtee-Pierson (her fifth trip) and freshman Aron Corona (his second trip). The other adults on the trip include Flowery Elementary School teachers Dora-Aldina and Juan Carlos, and SVHS teacher Ana Martinez teacher.

McAtee has set up a Go Fund Me site at gofundme.com/maestrakrista where the community can donate and learn more.