Community Service

In 1990, when Lovett Science teachers Connie and Bob Braddy passed through Santa Rosa, a village within the Andean cloudforest of Northwest Ecuador, they found the town's local school in desperate need of repair. The teachers pledged to assist the community with rebuilding the school. Within a year Lovett's Ecology Club raised funds, and the village fathers built the school, Escuela Rio Cenepa, establishing a bond between Santa Rosa and Lovett's Siempre Verde. In the 14 years since, students have continued to help provide for the school, offering supplies, uniforms, textbooks, and the like. Every Lovett-sponsored trip to Siempre Verde schedules time for visiting with the schoolchildren of Santa Rosa. Whether by planning carnivals, organizing sporting events, or teaching them about the environment, creating a relationship with the youth of the area is one of the most memorable lessons our students learn.   Getting to know the residents of these neighboring towns is a key component to a visit to Siempre Verde. Visitors to Siempre Verde are not trying to impose American values and ideas on the Ecuadorians, but rather to provide some vision and assistance to the Ecuadorians’ own goals.