In Montevideo over 200 Sabre employees connected with over 200 public school students!
¡Que dia increible! It was an incredible day of teamwork, giving and improvisation. Of course, like all big projects, it all started with an employee vision and lots of planning.
For 2008, the Montevideo team wanted to focus on CONNECTING with students. Just how to do it was the big question. Thankfully, Juan Carlos Moreira, our Give Time Together coordinator, assembled a fantastic team of projects leaders. The first question the team faced was how to pick a school. We looked no further than our staff. Jose Farias (one of our security guards) and Gabriela (one of our cleaning professionals) both asked that we take on a project for school their children go to.
That was it … our first connection. From there, the project leads visited the school, met with the director, teachers and students and ultimately developed a list of projects. The planning began. Employees volunteered. Teams were built.
Four and Five years old Grades: Repair the Playground Equipment
Oh boy did the equipment needed work! Most of it was simply not usable. Concrete footers were missing or exposed; posing a risk of injury. The slides were in pieces. Swings were missing. Bars were bent. It was a mess.
We started by hiring a blacksmith to come in a few days early and weld. He straightened out and repaired broken beams as well as replaced wooden slides with metal ones. We thought the hard work was behind us …
Upon arriving, the team quickly got to work on a few separate tasks only to trip themselves up. In order to repaint the equipment, we needed to sand the old paint off. Who brought the sandpaper? Oops. Who wants to run to the hardware store?
While we were sorting out the sandpaper mess, another group began to build a play area out of tires. We worked with the local Uruguayan tire company to donate 10 tires. The plan was to bury some and cut others into an area for the kids to climb. We knew cutting tires wouldn’t be easy, but we had tools. Apparently cutting steel-belted radials isn’t just hard, it’s near impossible. We tried wood saws; hack saws; a reciprocating saw, sheers, even a hammer and chisel. Two hours later we had cut one tire in half; nine more to go. We need a new plan!!
Panic hit when our dump truck of pebbles arrived. The driver poured a mountain of pebbles in the middle of the parking lot. It took a dozen guys nearly an hour of back to back to back to back wheelbarrow trips to get it all in place. We ended up with much more than we needed for the play area so we took the excess pebbles and add them to the pathways in the greenhouse… and a few other spots. Thankfully, one of our more analytical employees had reviewed the original order the day before our event and realized we inicially ordered far too much. He decided to reduce the order by half. Could you imagine, we could have built a road with two dump trucks worth of pebbles?
All that was left was to manufacture some swings. The team really did an incredible job of making and decorating three swing for the kids. They put a lot of effort into each one and it showed. As we were connecting the last few bolts to secure the swings to the chains, we realized that one of them was warped and it was impossible to connect it. Ah! One bolt away from being done. We simply couldn’t stop. We looked around for options. How do you connect two pieces of metal? A welding torch; of course. Five minutes later (and a lot of sparks) the two pieces were connected – permanently!
First Grade: Repair the Chicken Cages and Rebuild the Rabbit Houses
The team hit the ground running from the very beginning, but it wasn’t long before they hit their first twist; or in this case water main. While digging a post hole, they managed to sever a plastic water pipe used to bring water to the house of the school caretaker. As water began to bubble out of the post hole, the team hit the cell phones and quickly found a plumber willing to bail us out.
Next up, how do you move a 500 kilo stone feeding trough? You go old school of course; or in the case back to ancient Egypt of inspiration. It took a few logs and a lot of labor, but we did it. The rest went smoothly. Cages were repaired, secured and painted. We even reworked scrap wood into benches.
To cap things off, the team built a pen to house a pair of deer which had been donated by the Presidential Ranch last year. The school had been unable to accept the deer as they lacked a pen to keep the deer safe at night.
Second Grade: Create a Place for Gardening
Who would have thought adding planters along the school parking lot would have required so much improvisation. The plan was simple … buy some flower boxes, add fill dirt, add potting soil, add flowers. Easy! And GREEN. Well apparently six 3 foot long, 50 pound flower boxes don’t fit in 1 Renault Clio. Solution; call in a few favors. To the shock of everyone a milk truck arrived and unloaded the planters.
When the fill dirt we ordered never materialized, the team grabbed shovels and requisitioned some dirt from around the greenhouse with Hugh Jones leading the way. From there it was all roses, including the color we used to paint the boxes.
Third Grade: Plant Native Trees and Add Identifying Plaques
Planting trees isn’t just about being Green. The slogan Uruguay uses for tourism is Uruguay Natural. As a small country, it’s critical that people understand and appreciate the natural resources in the country.
With that in mind, we set out to plant some trees … Espinillo, Jacaranda, Ibirapita, Anacahuita, Palmera Butia, Roble, Pitanga, Palta, Sauce, Paraiso, Cina Cina, Cipres, Tala, Ceibo, and Ombu.
And, in the spirit of educating the children, we felt it was important that they not just see the trees, but learn about them too. So, the team created stone plaques painted with the scientific and common name of each species of tree.
Everybody worked hard and was very organized. Part of the team was outdoors planting trees and other part of the group worked on the classroom painting the signs (with a lot of art in their designs I might say). Later on we mixed concrete and built bases for those signs. We finished our activities early and kept asking ”Ok, what’s next?”
Well, as with all our projects, this one too had a slight hiccup. After all the work was done and the team was getting ready to help other groups, the caretaker of the school said this looks fantastic, but there’s a big problem. We thought how could there be a big problem with planting trees! Apparently the sheep (one of the animals the school has for educational purposes) loves native tree salad and would likely eat all the leaves in no time. More improvisation. We had excess stakes and wire and used it to fence in the trees.
Fourth Grade: Add a Fountain and Paint the Classroom
The classroom needed repainting. No problem. The team got organized and started painting. Within a few hours, the room looked like new.
That was easy. Now on to the fountain. Easy right. Dig a hole, add some bricks and stones, assemble the fountain, connect water and electricity. And turn it on.
Well, not so easy. First, the water pump turned out to be larger than what we were quoted and didn’t fit in the fountain. It took a little engineering (and a hammer) but we got it in there.
Then we began to line the perimeter of the fountain area with bricks. We had ordered quite a few bricks and did our best to estimate the requirement. As it turns out, we had exactly the right number of bricks. Not one too few. Not one too many. We felt like geniuses.
Then the dump truck of rocks arrived. Wait. The driver does see those cars, right??? STOP. STOP. PARA!!! That was close. He nearly backed over two of our employee’s cars. A few dozen wheelbarrow trips later the stones where in place. We whipped up a batter of concrete and assembled the fountain.
All that was left was to connect the power. We plugged it in and waited for the water to start fountaining. Nothing. Does anybody know something about electricity … 220V that is? One of our employees stepped up the challenge. We’re not sure if it was knowledge or luck, but a few connections later and we had water flowing … with no sparks flying.
Fifth Grade: Repair the Greenhouse
From the onset, this looked like the biggest project. The greenhouse was is bad shape. The plastic insulation was completely torn and the greenhouse was overrun with grass and weeds. Nevertheless we committed to take on the project – before really looking into the details.
Realizing we didn’t know beans about greenhouses, we sought out an acquaintance who is a greenhouse professional (who proceeded to instill panic in us)!! Apparently the greenhouse was constructed poorly – the pitch of the roof was too flat and needed to be adjusted. Problema! Reengineering the roofline of a greenhouse goes well beyond the ability of this unskilled labor pool. Fortunately our greenhouse pro had a plan. He offered to send one his is crews (gauchos) over to help us. It sounded a bit sketchy at the time, but we didn’t have any other option, so we agreed. Viva los gauchos!!! Those guys were awesome. They arrived in a pickup truck loaded with chainsaws, plastic insulation and a 100 pound pitbull that looked like he could chew through iron. After a quick Mate to get the juices flowing, they fired up the chainsaws and the wood began to fly (or at least the roof began to fall). It only took an hour of sawing and nailing and the new roof was done. Then, with the agility of mice on rope, they hopped on the roof and began to lay the plastic insulation.
It all happened so fast, we began to think there was no work for us. We’ll that’s until we started tilling the soil in the greenhouse and realized it would have been much easier if the insulated roof hadn’t already been there. Oh well, we came expecting to sweat. It wasn’t long before we came across a big shrub in the middle of the greenhouse. It had to go. Wait, is that a lavender plant? Yep, it’s a keeper. It took some careful digging, but we managed to transplant the lavender from the greenhouse to the gardening area. We’ll sleep easy knowing we saved the lavender!
Sixth Grade: Paint the Class Room and Donate a Computer
Familiar with the OLPC Project (http://www.laptop.org/)? It’s One Laptop Per Child, a global initiative to provide laptops to children in developing countries. Uruguay is the first country to participate at the national level and is in the process of purchasing several hundred thousand laptops. However, schools in Montevideo will be the last to receive the laptops. As a result, these students really felt the need to have at least one dedicated computer for themselves in order to prepare for high school; just a year away. To help fill the need, Sabre donated a new computer to the class, which the students immediately began to use Monday morning.
In addition to donating the computer, their classroom was sorely in need repainting. The team rolled up their sleeves, dipped their brushes and gave it a complete classroom makeover.
At the school, we had a lot of fun giving our time. But we also felt it was important to connect with the children directly. So, throughout Give Time Together week each of the classes came to visit us at Sabre. It was just like Trading Spaces.
Each day we received about 60 children, plus parents and teachers. We organized for buses to pick up the kids at school and bring them to the office. While they were here, the students took a tour and drew pictures. Our employees spent time with each class talking about the importance of language, education, technology and the environment.
Each student walked away with a Sabre goodie-bag filled with color pencils, a notebook, some treats to eat – but most importantly a better sense of the opportunities that are available to them if they focus their future on education.
After this fantastic week we can really say that we were Building Bridges Together…
… because we have helped the kids build bridges to their future, by making them accountable for what was important for their development and making them choose what projects our volunteers worked on
… because they were really a part of what was done by helping our teams figure out what was needed in each class
…. because they learned the importance of education, of developing ourselves and where that can take you as a person and professional
… because teachers and the school principal participated in the activities, helping us during this week, seeing the value of what our employees did and that way being able to share with the students their impressions
… because we all worked as a big team, trying to accomplish a main goal: connect each student and teacher with every one of us, and through this way building together this awesome bridge to their adulthood, and worked in small teams to accomplish every and each one of the milestones we had to face
… because, at the end of the day, students can say that they know, and they understand, that everyone’s future is in everyone’s hand, and that we only need opportunities to make them happen and those opportunities are created in every step we take as we grow up.
Do you want to see the video of the event?? CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT!!!
The kids appreciated what our volunteers did for them. CLICK HERE AND SEE!!
We had a BIG time. Seeing the children faces was the BEST experience. The video is great. Congrats to all that helped putting this up.
And remember that we couldn’t finish painting the fence because and only because it was a very long fence. We had all the energy and will required!!!
Congratulations to everyone in MVD for such an amizing work! Great Give!
Amazing team effort! Congrtaulations everyone for such a beautiful Give together!
Excellent activity.
Congratulations to the team for outstanding work! Amazing work by all!
Let’s do it again!
Regards
It was a great activity !!! We definetely got back much more than we gave !
Great activity! The changes were amazing!
We not only proved that we are the BES team in travel, but the best welders, paintors, electritians in the travel industry!!! Great teamwork.
It was a great experience altogether. I am sure that in addition to helping the school have better facilities for the kids, we all got a lot in return. And I think it happens in all aspects of life…everytime you lend a helping hand, you get something in return.
Some examples are having a fun time with great colleagues, learning how to make swings, how to make concrete, and most of all, feel good about doing something for others.
Excellent initiative and thanks to those who organized it!
Thanks to everyone who helped to make this year the best Give Time Together I’ve participated in. The list of projects (and adventures) you pulled together are amazing. It really was an incredible day at the school. It was also wonderful to meet with the students and practice my Preterito with them.
Hey there, it was so cool!!!. I was incharge of transportation and FOODDDDDDDD I did not sleep the night before, nightmares about food not coming or not enough to feed all peers… But it was a great experience!!! Thanks all!
Building Bridges Together was a fantastic experience.
We were able to accomplish a huge number of incredible projects in just one day whilst having a lot of fun.
We had the chance to tell students that opportunities will be available for them if they focus their future on education.
Thanks to everyone who helped to organize this huge event.
Lot of hard work but this made everyone willing to keep doing things for these kids and their school.
This was a great opportunity to show our concern for the comunnity and do something about it by doing not only a completely makeover to this school but letting each kid know the importance of team work,the cooperation and education.
Impossible things were accomplished just by working as a team and helping each other.
It was an amazing experience that needs to be repeated!!!
Working together is giving to make changes in the lives of those inviting us to share the commitment. Our payment reflected in their bright lighted eyes and open mouth smiles …
The climate on the day was amazing we all had a lot of fun It was a huge challenge to repair a greenhouse, but we managed to pull it off thanks to a great display of teamwork and support from everyone who participated in Give Time Together.
It was great to see at the end of the day that we were able to accomplish everything we proposed and more. Awesome team work display, everybody having fun and putting everything into it. It feels wonderful to know that you are giving so little to make so many children happy. And of course it was very important to make them meet us and learn that everything is possible if you just want it with all your heart.
This experience was so rewarding that you only feel you want to give much more every time.