Category: Hope’s In

 If you’ve been reading our posts here at 365Barrington.com for a while, you know we love to write about upcoming events and the people behind the many things to do in Barrington.  Today, we’re taking a new approach.  In a new series called Good Works, we’ll be inviting guest writers to share posts about people helping others and ways we can get involved.
Our first guest post is from a Barrington High School Junior named Courtney Quigley.  We asked Courtney to share, in her own words, the experience that motivated her to organize a fashion show fundraiser in Barrington this weekend.  The purpose of the event is to help build a home for a Guatemalan family living, among rats, in a shack surrounded by garbage.
The student fashion show is called Hope’s in Style, it’s happening at The Garlands Center for The Performing Arts from 1 to 4 p.m. this Sunday, February 24th, and we’re all invited.  All proceeds from the event will go to Pottter’s House Association to build a house for 8-year-old Monica Morales and her seven family members who currently call a Guatemala City garbage dump their home.
And that’s where I’ll let Courtney Quigley herself pick things up.  I hope you will be moved, as I was, by her story…
Hope’s in Style
by Courtney Quigley, Barrington High School Junior
When I was younger, I really thought I knew exactly where my life was going. At seven years old, I wanted to be a world famous actress.  Later, I decided that I wanted to be a chef. The third ambition was to become a doctor. But things change in your mind when they change in your heart.
Things changed for me when my family went on our first trip to Guatemala. I was eight years old and my younger sister was only five.  On that trip, we worked with an organization called Kids Around The World that builds playgrounds in places affected by war, poverty, illness and natural disasters.  At this time in my life I spoke no Spanish, so I thought I would not be able to communicate with all the children that we met. But I was so wrong.
My mom threw my siblings and me a soccer ball and the kids slowly but surely came over to us. We played soccer for the next three days. By the time the playground was ready I had made friendships, learned how bad I was at soccer and, most importantly, I found a place in my heart that was especially dedicated to Guatemala.
Guatemala City has about 1 million people living in it. These million people produce a lot of trash. All their trash is dumped in a 40-acre ravine.
As you can imagine, homeless people in Guatemala City have naturally migrated there. In fact, three generations of human beings, fathers, brothers, sisters and mothers have lived in that trash and built whole communities out of it.
That is where Potter’s House comes into play.…