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Community Corner

St. Theodore Fashion Show Will Benefit Upcoming Mission Trip

Forty volunteers will work building homes in impoverished LaGloria, Mexico.

In about a month, 40 members of in Flint Hill will participate in the church’s 14th mission trip to Mexico to build houses for the impoverished people living there.

"The communities and families we help are amazing, and it’s such a big thing for them," said parish member Kerry Heisserer, who, along with her husband Curt Heisserer, will be going on the mission trip for the fourth time.

Before the trip can happen, much fundraising takes place. Each mission member raises $200 to $250, and there are also car washes and taco dinners at the church, along with a golf tournament every July. Next weekend, the congregation will take another step closer to the mission trip by hosting a fashion show from noon-3 p.m. May 15 at the parish, 5059 Highway P.

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Three clothing stores have supplied clothing--Maurice’s for teens, Puddle Ducks for children and Christopher and C.J. Banks. Doors open at noon, and a lunch of chicken salad, fruit, a roll, cupcakes, with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich option for the kids, will be provided.

Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children age 10 and under.

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About 15 vendors have all paid a $25 fee to be part of the show. Pampered Chef and Avon will be there, as well as crafters with homemade jewelry, hair bows and more. Some of the vendors may also make additional donations based on sales.

"The first year we did (the show), it was a huge success," said parish priest Father Gary Vollmer, who organizes the mission trip.

Kerry Heisserer, who coordinates the fashion show along with Bonnie Rudden, said the show raised about $2,000 last year. Vollmer said Western Catholic Union will match up to $500. It’s all for a good cause, being able to make a difference in the lives of needy people in the town of LaGloria, which is near Tijuana, across the border south of San Diego.

This year’s trip will be June 12-18, with church members plus teachers and students from the church’s K-8 school all helping out.

Vollmer first learned about the need in LaGloria while serving as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas.

"The neat thing is we’ll go back and see the families we helped living in their houses," he said. "That, to me, is the miracle of going to Las Vegas--I discovered Mexico. It’s been a life-changing experience for me, and also everyone who has gone, especially our teenagers."

The mission trip is facilitated by the nonprofit Mexican group Esperanza, the Spanish word for "hope." Esperanza provides shuttles from the border and furnishes all the home-building tools, plus a Mexican foreman. Families in the community pay for the cement used to make the 12-foot by 25-foot, one-room concrete homes, provide a daily lunch for the church volunteers and help with the work.

"Some of them will jump right in, and they’re hard workers," Curt Heisserer said.

Volunteers can do skilled work like pouring cement, or they can pass the buckets of cement in a long line from where it is mixed to where it is poured into the foundation. It is all worthwhile, the Heisserers said, when you see people who had been living in substandard houses with dirt floors get their first real home.

"They’re extremely happy for what they have," Curt Heisserer said. "It really opens our eyes and makes us appreciate what we have here in the United States."

This year, the Heisserers will take their children, ages 17, 16, 14 and 11. The youngest is going for the first time, but her siblings who have gone in the past call it their "favorite vacation," Curt Heisserer said.

"We basically do this for our family vacation every year," he said.

Vollmer keeps everyone "busy the whole time we’re down there," Curt Heisserer said. "There is some activity he has set up for us virtually every night."

LaGloria is not without attractions. The mission members can dine out at a little taco joint where $100 pays for everyone’s meal. The kids like going to an ice cream stand for dessert. Last year, the younger members of the mission group played a lively game of basketball with the nuns from a nearby convent.

"As warm as it is there, the nuns were in full habit playing basketball," he said.

The Heisserers aren’t concerned about the risk. The Mexican military has checkpoints intended to find drug runners, and Vollmer keeps in regular contact with Esperanza to make sure conditions are still safe in the area.

"We’ve never had one single incident," Curt Heisserer said.

The Heisserers, who have been members of St. Theodore for 4.5 years, are gratified by the way the entire church family lends a hand to making the mission trip possible.

"The parish is extremely supportive of this trip," Curt Heisserer said. "Every single little fundraiser we do has a ton of support to it."

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