40th Anniversary Stories
First Long-Term Volunter - Julie
"I started working with Esperanza through St. John Vianney in Kirkland, WA in 1992, and went each year until graduating high school in 1995. My friends and I started a college trek in 1996 and did that several years in a row. I also ended up arranging so that my first quarter of my senior year of college I would essentially work with Esperanza as an internship that I got credit from Western Washington University through the sociology department. I was there as the first long-term volunteer in summer/fall of 1998. I lived down there, and worked with all those guys for that time. I worked closely with Paolo, Victor, Toni and Graciella the social workers, Sergio, and Melissa Drollman the volunteer coordinator. Phillipe was the boss back then. I was there when Eduardo was interviewed for the job that fall and met him for the first time with that long hair. We had no idea that was history in the making.
I went again with St. John Vianney's adult group for two or three years as well. One of the things Esperanza instills in people is this sense of how you interact with people that you’re serving. There’s a level of mutual respect, and you are working with them, not for them. You are working side by side with the community.
The way I carry myself is due in large part to the culture of Esperanza and that it's not about doing things for other people, it is about doing things with people. The culture is very much a family culture. You’re being welcomed into a community and family, and that’s why I think over the years so many people have forged really strong connections with the folks that work at Esperanza.
Patty was a girl, a few years younger than me, and she was a neighbor a few doors down from the house we were building. She would come out and work with us everyday and we became friends. And every year I would come down after that I would see her. Her family actually hosted 6 of us. She is now this incredible chef in Queretaro, north of Mexico City. So my husband, son, and I actually went after Christmas in 2022 to visit her. She got to meet my son, and I got to meet her sons! We still keep in touch and I have seen her several times within these 30 years."
