VICTORIA — Holy Family Catholic High School educators Melissa and Nick Livermore will be honored Sunday, April 14, with the “Leaving a Legacy Award” at the NPH Midwest Region’s Volunteer Appreciation Event in St. Anthony.
NPH stands for Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos — Spanish for “Our Little Brothers and Sisters.” NPH is an organization that provides housing and education to children in Central and South America. The Livermores have organized and taken Holy Family students on NPH mission trips to Guatemala since 2010.
The Livermores are receiving the award for their loyalty and impact as NPH volunteers. According to the news release, “The legacy these individuals leave behind will be felt for decades to come.”
And, in the case of the Livermores, their legacy has already changed young lives, both in Guatemala and at Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria.
Melissa and Nick Livermore are Victoria residents and have two sons; Ethan is a freshman at Holy Family, and Dominic, a sixth-grader at St. Hubert School in Chanhassen.
Melissa is Dean of Academic Support and Nick teaches robotics and engineering. The couple takes Holy Family students on biannual service trips to Guatemala.
They have one planned this July. Melissa has also taken student groups to Ethiopia and Nick has taken groups on Twin Cities homeless immersion experiences.
MISSION WORK
The Livermores first met as high schoolers, and later attended the same college, William Penn University in Oscaloosa, Iowa. Among the many things the couple had in common was a love for mission work. “We’ve always done mission trips,” Nick Livermore said. “In college we were in tutoring programs, spending four nights of the week with students living in shelters and in battered women’s shelters.
Later, at Holy Family, they began taking students on mission trips through NPH. The program provides housing for children from babies to teens, and teaches life skills, academics and courses in the trades.
The Holy Family trips take place every other year. Between 13 and 27 Holy Family students accompany the Livermores, depending on available accommodations.
The group stays between four to eight days, and the trips usually take place in July, a good time for students as it’s between summer school and sports.
CASA SAN ANDRES
Their destination, Casa San Andrés, is one hour from Guatemala City. It is situated next to a flower plantation.
The campus includes a school, a medical clinic, two large dorms, cafeteria, soccerfield and workshops for training student in trades like bakery, woodworking and metal working. It’s also opened up barista, a highlight for the visiting Americans for smoothies and coffee.
There are 150 kids on campus during the day; half of them stay in the dorms. In the last 10 years, there’s been a concerted effort to reunify children with their families, so more children have become day students.
Most importantly the campus offers a continuum of care, education and training, Melissa said. Children can live there from birth to adulthood. Most leave when they go to high school elsewhere. There is a home offsite for those high school children. Many also go on to attend universities or work in the trades.
“The only expectation is once the student grow up, they return and work at NPH for a year,” Melissa said. “There are a lot of success cases. For example, the current NPH director there was once a student.
And there is the story of how NPH was founded. The story goes that Father William B. Wasson caught a couple youngsters taking money out of the communion box. Rather than punishing them, he found housing for them and had them enroll in school. That was 1965. Since then, Wasson’s mission has grown to schools in Mexico and Central America, including Honduras and Haiti, and to Peru and Bolivia in South America.
Holy Family’s first student mission trip was in 2010. During their time in San Andrés, students divide their time between planned activities and free time to spend with the students.
During the day, students work in the kitchen, help with the gardening and mowing. The group usually has a work project or two. On the last trip, they painted murals in the boys and girls dorms and restrooms. They also built a foundation for a new church called, coincidentally, “Holy Family Church.”
“It was just a coincidence,” Melissa Livermore said. “It wasn’t intentional, but God works in mysterious ways. Holy Family students who don’t know Spanish find that there is much to learn and communicate without words.
IMMERSION
The Holy Family students who sign up for the mission trip pay their own way — approximately $2,000 per student. With the trips taking place every other year, it gives them an opportunity to raise money for the trip. there are also funds available for those with an economic need. “We find a way,” Melissa said.
Feedback from the students has always been positive, Melissa said.
“All of them love it. It’s a different culture for them and we don’t have any communication with anyone in the outside world. While we’re there, they have no cell phone, no internet. We want them to be immersed in the culture of Guatemala.”
Melissa said the students find the trips life-changing, and the positive feedback encourages a large number of siblings to go.
“It’s a great way to introduce students to missionary work,” she said.