Brick by brick

By Mo Cranker on February 12, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

A Hatter’s recent journey to the Dominican Republic turned into a life-changing experience.

Southview Community School’s principal Todd Samuelson recently embarked on a 10-day missionary trip to the Dominican Republic, and was one of just a few Canadians on the trip.

“It all started with a company named Lifetouch Photography,” Samuelson said. “They made a callout for administrators to go to the Dominican to help build part of a school. I put my name out there, not really expecting anything to come of it, but I heard from them a few months later saying I had been selected to go. They take three people from Canada, and we joined about 40 other people and we flew out there and got started.”

Though he was free from Canada’s cold weather, Samuelson was not vacationing, spending much of his time in the Dominican working on various projects at a school site which is set to open in October.

“We spent a lot of time working — which is what we all wanted,” he said. “We spent a lot of time working on the school’s cafeteria and just getting the groundwork laid out. We also did some work on setting up the footings for what will be a large outdoor basketball court and playground. Everything we did was manual. A load of 1,000 bricks would come for us, and it would be placed brick-by-brick. The footing for the playground was done with a pick and a shovel. Our group was manual labour, and for the time we were there, the locals were supervising us and taught us how to use the tools. Some days I was digging trenches, others working with bricks, others with cement. It was great for us.”

The current school at Samuelson’s destination only holds about 20 students, while the new one is set to fit several hundred at its maximum capacity. He says the experience made a big impact on him.

“I think it was an amazing experience,” he said. “I tell people that I really took more than I gave. We went in there thinking we were going to go in and do the majority of the work and be a big help. I think we were a big help, and that we saved the local work crew there some work. I think the takeaways, the things we learned from the people there like, gratitude, joy, generosity and humility — those were lessons we learned every day. I will say it was a life-changing experience for me.”

Samuelson says his group of about 40 would spend each night reflecting on their day of work, their new environment and the people they spent their days interacting with.

As for what he is bringing back to his job at Southview Community School, Samuelson says he just wants to work with as many people as possible to make the school a great place.

“At Southview our community is very important to us. We work together and play together. Seeing it there really strengthened that resolve for me, to work harder and to interact with more students, and to just bring more community into the school,” he said. “I think that it’s really impossible to articulate what the experience is like. This is something people need to experience to understand.”

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