Marcoux’s photos those of man on mission

The students and other volunteers going to Guatemala in July with the Morris Christian Youth Center are in need of medical supplies to help villagers there with some basic health care needs.

Problem is, they cannot accept donations here and fly them into Guatemala. They aren’t allowed to bring such things into the country, CYC Director Nick Marcoux explained.

The group can, however, purchase what they need in the cities in Guatemala after they arrive and take them to the villages from there. To raise money to purchase the items, the CYC is holding a fundraiser Saturday.

Marcoux has donated photographs he took during his two scouting trips to Guatemala. They will be on display and for sale at the French Country Market in downtown Morris. Held in CanalPort Park, along the I & M Canal, the market will run from 8 a.m. to  2 p.m.

The market is new to Morris and will be a monthly event held on Saturdays through October.

Marcoux’s photographs are of landscapes, the people of Guatemala and objects.
They are as rich as the mountains and clouds of the country.

Two of his favorites include one of a storm blowing across volcanoes and another of a young girl named Lupe, who is weaving in Zapote.

“I took a ton of pictures when we were there,” Marcoux said. “It’s just beautiful down there, and the people are just beautiful.”

Marcoux said some of the photos were put up at a silent auction recently and did really well. He hopes the fundraiser will bring in enough to enable purchase of the medical supplies the CYC needs for their trip.

All the plane tickets are already paid for, he said, and any additional donations will go directly to purchase the medical supplies.

Missions trips are not new to the CYC, but missions trips out of the country are. The group went to inner city Chicago its first and second years; New Orleans during its third and fourth years; inner city Aurora last year; and now Guatemala.

“We were planning on Thailand,” Marcoux said, “but the tickets were $1,500 apiece. These are only $200 or $300, and it’s just a four-hour plane trip.”

Marcoux said the savings might allow the group to go on several shorter missions trips, rather than just one large one.

There are 30 people going, including Marcoux and his wife, Amy; a board member, George Kresse; Dr. Peter Vienne; CYC staffer Nate Hainzinger; several of the CYC’s young men and women; some college students; and young men and women from a church in Aurora.

There will be three main foci of the missions trip to Guatemala.

The first week involves outreach to the community of San Lucas, about 30 minutes outside Guatemala City. Those going will put on dramas and skits in schools and will work with a local church combating drug abuse and teen pregnancy, which Marcoux said are rampant there.

The second week’s focus will be teaching orphans in a small village in the countryside. It’s a very poor area, Marcoux said, where families can barely feed their children. The students don’t go to school during planting and harvest so they can work in the fields helping their parents.

The children have very few aspirations there, he said. When asked what they want to do when they grow up, they will say either pick sugar cane and coffee or have babies.

CYC’s second week there will also involve helping Vienne with the clinic. Their goal is to have physicians rotate through the village several times through the year, and the CYC group will help set up a computer database so the various doctors will be able to pull up villager’s medical records.

The trip will be good for those who go, as well.

“One of our goals at CYC is to get our young people to not just be focused on themselves or just on Morris,” Marcoux said. “We would like them to have a regional, national, and a global view. We want them to realize they are part of a greater world than just themselves.”

Those going to Guatemala with the Morris CYC are Sarah Vienne, Peter Vienne Jr., Grace Harrington, Rebekah Haugen, Hannah Haugen, Kelli Larson,  Caitlin Geiger,  Austin Brackett, Kati Behrens,   Arielle Valentine, Jose Becerra Jr., Antonio  Perez, Benjamin Lawrence, Jonah Engel, Lee Ann Kingman, George Kresse, Nathaniel Hainzinger, Justin Shelton, Emily Marcoux, Kelly Korst, Morganne Friestad, Aaron Smith, Allison Smith, Jake Swanson, Mark Swanson, Matthew Jones, Nick Marcoux, Amy Marcoux, and Kanika Marcoux.

Donations for the trip may also be made by mailing them to Morris CYC, P.O. Box 164, Morris, IL 60450.