All the foundations are working in harmony!

All doing great things! — with Louise Webster ZoBell, Luis Miguel Gutierrez, Angela Hughes, Kelly Strongitharm and Kristy D.

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By LORETTA JACKSON
Staff Writer

Families living in rustic Puerto Plata, a town in the Dominican Republic, shared smiles when 17 volunteers from New Hampshire, Maine and New Mexico arrived, sweaty and thirsty, in the 90-degree, tropical weather.

The group of 17 volunteers was there to complete building projects and render other assistance to the villagers on the Caribbean island.

February break was put to good use by locals from Bedford and elsewhere who traveled to the island. The trip, held Feb. 22 through March 1, was deemed an eye-opener by some students in the group. They decided to spend their vacation in an impoverished town where a good deed is greatly appreciated.

The Bedford-based Color My World had team members in the Dominican Republic and included more than a dozen participants from three states – New Hampshire, New Mexico and Maine.

Bedford’s contingent included Angela Hughes and her husband, Brian, along with their children, Chase Hughes, Noah Hughes and Elizabeth Hughes. Bedford’s Brenda Devroe, an emergency room nurse at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, joined them, along with Dillon Wright, a high school senior at the Derryfield School in Manchester.

The Hughes family founded Color My World. Angela Hughes, and her daughter, Elizabeth Hughes, 10, made the trip before the others arrived. They completed a scouting mission and determined the level of help needed in the village and in nearby towns.

The group from Color My World, an organization that annually offers volunteer trips with a hands-on twist, met Amarilis Urena, a director for the Puerto Plata venture, when they arrived. Urena welcomed the group and extended her family’s hospitality.

Hughes said the U.S. volunteers also teamed up with a local grassroots organization, Dominican Starfish. The group, led by Louisa ZoBell, has previously collaborated with Color My World in raising funds for the construction of a local library.

“On our initial visit, we selected two families that would receive new homes,” Hughes said. “Then, we brought the team down to help tear down and rebuild the new homes.”

She said Color My World raised $10,000 to build the two homes. The volunteers ripped down old sheets of corrugated tin and clumps of powdering stones. Hughes said an 84-year-old woman and her grandchildren were near to tears as they realized they would be blessed with a new abode, one that was a far cry from the crumbling shanty in which they lived.

Hughes said the second home, one belonging to the Rosario family – a young family with three children – took a major effort, as the 90-degree temperatures and the ascending incline of the path to the work site took its toll in perspiration.

“One day, our team hauled over 300 buckets of dirt up the steep hill to start the floors of the home,” Hughes said. “Each bucket of dirt was chipped out of the roadside and loaded into a bucket.”

Noah Hughes, of Bedford, assisted by a child from the village, hauls a bucket of dirt up a slope to reach the home of the Rosario family, one of the recipients of a new home provided by Color My World. Each home, a cinder-block construction, cost roughly $5,000 to $7,000 to build. Funds for the project were raised prior to the trip.

Other services were rendered during the trip. Students at the Maggiolo School received a cooked lunch for more than 100 guests. The school is a haven for many Haitian refugee children whose own homes were ravaged by storms or earthquakes. Haiti occupies the west coast of the island of Hispaniola. The east coast is occupied by the Dominican Republic. Cuba is the nearest island, to the northwest.

The youngsters at the school indulged in more than lunch. They engaged in some artwork – painting with brushes upon canvas boards donated by Bedford business owner Debbie Ellis, owner of the Canvas Road Show, an enterprise offering socializing and painting among friends.

The group from Color My World also offered the youngsters a wellness and exercise class led by Dr. J. Andrew Reinfurt, of Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries, and his wife, Sherri Reinfurt. Brenda Devroe, a Bedford emergency nurse at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, distributed gifts of hygiene supplies – toothbrushes, toothpaste and bars of soap.

“I didn’t realize that many families there share one toothbrush, used by all the family members,” Devroe said. “They tend to use their money for food. Toothpaste is somewhat of a luxury. The children are instructed in tooth care at school but a teacher remarked that many families only have one toothbrush at home.”

The time progressed quickly for the volunteers. They visited an abandoned chocolate production factory, where around 100 families, squatters without access to better accommodations, live in makeshift quarters. Hughes said the visit was well received.

“We delivered food to more than 70 families,” Hughes said. “Our bags were filled with flour, sugar and basic cooking necessities. We also took a lot of time playing sports and games.”

The group of volunteers took time out to hike alongside some of the 27 waterfalls in Puerto Plata. Hughes, who with her husband, Brian, spent some of their early years as missionaries in Japan. They found satisfaction in helping people there on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The couple later formed Color My World as a way of extending their commitment to help others.

The Color My World organization is a nonprofit focused on relieving human suffering by providing emergency response relief items and humanitarian services to those in need. It was established in 2000 by the Hughes family as a way of helping young people, college students and families become involved in service-related activities.

The son of Angela and Brian, Chase Hughes, 16, who attends Bishop Guertin High School, said that it was apparent to him that people living in poverty find ways to be happy. He also said he enjoyed the physicality of loading so many buckets of dirt.

“We had to bring dirt up a hill that was super steep,” Chase said. “It was hot and physically exhausting but we helped that family accomplish more in four hours than they could have done in four months.”

His sister, Elizabeth Hughes, 10, a fourth-grader at Peter Woodbury School, does not often encounter a reason to tear down a house.

“One of my favorite parts of the trip was actually tearing down the house and playing with the kids who were watching,” Elizabeth said. “We played soccer and taught the kids how to make bracelets on a rainbow loom.”

Noah Hughes, 13, a student who is home-schooled, said he most enjoyed visiting the school.

“Kids would just climb up our backs,” Noah said. “We would carry them around, all morning.”

The combination of work and play also was appreciated by Dillon Wright, of Bedford. The 16-year-old senior at the Derryfield School at one time played baseball with one of the Hughes boys. He’s been a family friend ever since. He said the trip to the Dominican Republic presented him with a chance to give back to a community in need.

“Throughout the streets, there were all these little shanties,” Wright said. “People will move out and whenever others see a house is getting torn down, the entire neighborhood will gather and pull out things to use in their own house. It was very sad.”

Wright intends to go on other trips sponsored by Color My World, before he heads to college to study mechanical engineering. He already has been a project manager for his school’s robotics challenge program.

“I would highly recommend going on a trip to anyone willing to get their hands dirty,” Wright said. “It’s a way to help make someone’s life better.”

Color My World is expanding its scope with increasingly frequent schedules of trips. An upcoming Nicaragua trip is scheduled for two sessions, July 7-14 and July 14-21. A Costa Rican trip is on tap from Aug. 3-10. Next year, a Dominican Republic trip is on the schedule from Feb. 14-21 and from Feb. 21-28.

Angela Hughes, director and co-founder of Color My World, said that some of the people who go on the trips have never been exposed to the level of poverty they see at the destination.

“It’s amazing to watch the transition the volunteers go through during the first week,” she said. “Service is addictive and you can’t help but feel complete joy doing this type of service work.”

Her husband, Brian Hughes, the other co-founder, said that traveling to help people provides a chance to put life’s priorities in their proper order.

“Spending our time together with our family, serving together, is a great way to spend a holiday,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to help those less fortunate.”

For more information on Color My World, visit www.colormyworldkids.org.

– See more at: http://www.cabinet.com/bedfordjournal/bedfordnews/1031323-308/bedford-folks-volunteer-with-color-my-world.html#sthash.hfPoP5o3.dpuf

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Brotherly love in abundance was extended by 13 local residents that visited Central America as a part of a 29-person group that recently undertook a goodwill tour to rural Nicaragua. Twelve were from Bedford. One was from Amherst.

The tour, from Aug. 5-12, was presented by Color My World, a Bedford nonprofit with the mission of “leading a global effort to relieve human suffering by providing emergency response relief items and humanitarian services to those in need.” The CMW foundation was formed in 2000 by the Hughes family, of Bedford. It’s aim is to help young people experience service related activities.

The locals who went on the Nicaragua trip included Ella Garvey, 17, of Amherst, and Bedford residents McKenzie Willis, 15, Mattie Soghikian, 17, Lauren Grocott, 15, Maddie Grocott, 17, Griffin Lyons, 15, Will Toon, 17, and members of the Hughes family – Chase, 16, Elizabeth, 9, Noah, 13, and Hillary, 19, participants whose mom, Angela Hughes, and dad, Brian Hughes, led the group.

Those who signed up with Color My World through ColorMyWorldKids.org, visited places in Nicaragua where poverty is the norm. They accomplished a lot, including the removal of 32 bags of fish carcasses, plastic trash, rain-soaked scrap, rotten wood and other detritus from a town beach.

They tended a community garden. They went to the Los Zorros elementary school and served free lunches; meals prepared in advance and sponsored by Color My World. The school had no cooking facility, so the volunteers built a concrete-block kitchen. Then, they painted the building blue and white, the colors of the Nicaraguan flag.

There followed a giveaway of 50 donated solar cookers to local families. The volunteers, sustained on fish, rice, beans, chicken and fruit, also led workshops on how to use solar cooking to make healthy meals. Inhaled smoke from cook fires is of no concern when cooking with the pure heat from the tropical sun.

A stop at Casa Hogar orphanage, home to more than 20 children, led to a festive sing-a-long. Later, an emotional visit to the garbage dump at Chinandega jolted the volunteers. The visitors from New Hampshire observed people of all ages, elders to babies, living in and around the dump. In 1988, families were relocated there after Hurricane Mitch ravaged Central America. Two million homes were destroyed. Reports of 11,000 deaths – 9,000 of them in Nicaragua – were broadcast. The volunteers fed the people living at the dump. They played with children whose toys too often are filthy discards scavenged from the trash.

Chase Hughes, 16, a sophomore at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, said the deprivations are not met with anger but with gratitude for life. He said he was proud of the assistance the group provided. An additional conservation project entailed the release of newly hatched baby turtles into the sea. Every kid around watched, delighted, as the tiny turtles loped toward the churning foam.

“I felt the people were humble,” Chase said. “They were grateful for what they have and not upset about what they don’t have. They were happy for every day.”

Chase, who intends to be a dentist, said some people were ashamed to smile at photo time. Few earn more than $5 a day and funds rarely go toward toothpaste. The volunteers eventually gave away nearly 100 pounds of hygiene kits, each comprised of four toothbrushes, two bars of soap, two combs and two hand towels.

Chase noted that visiting the tropics offers many challenges. Mosquitoes are relentless. Bats fly everywhere. He said that, daily, hundreds of crabs the size of his hand hunted morsels on the beach. Seeing the crabs was “cool,” Chase admitted. A sand dollar washed ashore is one of his cherished souvenirs.

“The ocean was very warm like bath water but everyone went into the ocean to cool off,” Chase said. “That was a big thing – to go to the ocean. The trip was a life-changing experience with all the service you do and the joy you find.”

Angela Hughes, Chase’s mother, said that a CMW group is returning to Nicaragua, and also to Guatemala, in 2014. In the past 10 years, Color My World has brought solace to the victims of many U.S. disasters, including Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. It has sent relief kits to Chile, Haiti and Indonesia after earthquakes there. Hygiene kits by the score went to communities scoured by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Two years ago, participants extended their range. They took solar cookers and hygiene kits to Costa Rica.

“The perception that people in Central America are lazy is not the case,” Angela said. “They leave at night to go fishing and if you see them during the day, taking naps on their hammocks, it’s because they’ve been working all night. It’s 24 hours to eat and live.”

She said the group’s immersion into a third world environment where there was no clean water for bathing, only salt-water showers, no technology, no social media and no convenience store less than an hour away was “an eye-opening experience.” The volunteers witnessed people living their lives in shacks. Hammocks were beds. The bathroom? Go in the woods.

“The kids who went on this trip were forced to interact with people,” Angela said. “It’s poverty at the lowest level you can ever reach. The kids were nervous there. They pushed through it. It went from, ‘Can I do this?’ to ‘Can I come back, next time?’ I just saw confidence grow every day.”

For more information, visit www.colormyworldkids.org. The Color My World motto is “Search inward, Look upward, Reach outward.”

Friday, September 6, 2013

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Angela Hughes photo

Color My World’s Bedford and Amherst participants in the trip to Nicaragua are seen here, front row, from left, Griffin Lyons, 15, of Bedford, Lauren Grocott, 15, of Bedford, Hillary Hughes, 19, of Bedford, McKenzie Willis, 15, of Bedford, Mattie Soghikian, 15, of Bedford, Ella Garvey, 17, of Amherst, Elizabeth Hughes, 9, of Bedford, and Maddie Grocott, 17, of Bedford, who traveled along with, back row from left, Will Toon, 17, of Bedford, Brian Hughes, Chase Hughes, 16, Noah Hughes, 13, and Angela Hughes, all of Bedford.

Enlarge-
By LORETTA JACKSON

– See more at: http://www.cabinet.com/bedfordjournal/bedfordnews/1015119-308/bedford-youth-visit-nicaragua-to-help-the.html#sthash.WetwJHCH.dpuf

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By IRENE LABOMBARDE

Staff Writer

Imagine living in a shack without electricity, appliances or running water, where food is cooked indoors over an open fire. Most of your time and energy is spent cutting and gathering enough wood to fuel the fires just to feed your family. There is no time to learn a trade, run a business or engage in leisurely pursuits. Now, imagine how different life could be if there were an easier, safer way to cook that freed up your time and resources.

Angela and Brian Hughes, of Bedford, along with three of their four children, spent school vacation in February in Nicaragua doing just that. By providing solar cookers and water pasteurizers and teaching people how to use them, the family was able to change lives.

Established by the Hughes family in 2000, Color My World: Kids Who Care is a nonprofit organization leading a global effort to relieve human suffering by providing emergency response relief items and humanitarian services to those in need. Color My World is about helping young people get involved in service-related activities. Past projects have included providing hurricane and tsunami victims with hygiene kits and backpacks stocked with school supplies.

The organization was founded by the four siblings, Hillary, 18, currently in China and teaching English while learning Chinese; Chase, 15 a freshman at Trinity High School in Manchester; Noah, 12, who is homeschooled, and Elizabeth, 9, a third-grader at Peter Woodbury School.

How does solar cooking work?

Solar cookers have a reflective surface and use energy from sunlight. Within a few minutes, temperatures reach 100 degrees, and can get as hot as 300 degrees. Bread and eggs are easy to cook, and you can bake or roast foods for longer periods of time, like you would in a crockpot.

Color My World’s first humanitarian mission was two years ago, when Chase taught a solar cooking workshop to villagers in San Ramon, Costa Rica. The Hughes spent their 2012 Christmas break in Mexico, where they noticed, again, families pedaling bikes with carts of wood and cooking over open fires. At this point they decided to take action.

Why Nicaragua?

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind Haiti. The climate sees temperatures and humidity both in the 90s. More than one hectare (1,200) of trees are cut down every week just for cooking fires, with very little replanting. Color My World ran a social media campaign to collect funds to pay for solar cookers at $25 each, and water pasteurizers at $10 each, with many people in southern New Hampshire contributing to the project. The family stayed in a fishing village on the northwest coast of Nicaragua, at their own expense.

Challenges

“Cooking over an open fire indoors in shacks not only causes health and lung problems, but people spend all day looking for trees,” said Angela Hughes, Color My World director. “Women often get raped or abused when they are in the forest looking for trees. They spend so much time cooking they can’t focus on building the economy, they can’t look for a job. Then there is the environmental issue. By cutting so many mangrove trees, the whole ecosystem is incomplete.”

Color My World enlisted the help of Gerry Caseres, president of a citizens’ conservation committee and co-owner of the lodge where the Hughes family stayed. Among other things, Caseres made arrangements for their audience and provided Spanish translation services.

“This project is more of a conservation effort than any health or medical project,” Caseres told Hughes. “This is clean energy 12 hours a day.”

Color My World delivered solar cookers and water pasteurizers to 40 families in Jiquillio. Hughes said there was a learning curve in getting the villagers to accept the solar cookers, because they had been accustomed to cooking over an open fire, and this is a radically different method. They also taught them how to make additional solar cookers using aluminum foil and cardboard.

Immediate benefits

“I was surprised how intense the sun was down there,” Chase Hughes said. “In the first five minutes of using the solar cooker, the pot we were cooking with burned my hand. They heat up to nearly 300 degrees and within two hours we had cooked rice. All of the women were super excited to take a solar cooker home.”

Within a few days of their training, several women made baked goods on the solar cooker and sold their brownies and cakes for a $1 each to the tourists at the lodge. They were able to earn $20 in one night, compared to the $1-4 a day a family usually makes in the work force.

“Solar cookers empower women,” Angela Hughes said. “They provide opportunities to improve not only their family finances but their entire family unit, providing them with a smarter, healthier environment to live in.”

Other projects

In addition to solar cookers, the Hughes family also helped establish a sustainable community garden. The land was cultivated and prepared for the upcoming planting season, with crops expected to include tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers and mangoes.

“Working in the community garden was some of the hardest work we did,” Noah said. “The ground was so dry because it hadn’t rained for months. We had to move cement blocks and weed ground that was hard as a rock.”

They also hosted a lunch at the garbage dump community of Chinandega, Nicaragua.

“There are people who live on the fringe of the dump to find food,” Hughes said. “Hurricane Mitch displaced many of them, and it’s a shanty town. There is free-flowing sewage, broken glass, and kids running around naked with no shoes, potbellied from malnutrition.”

The Hughes family also played baseball with local children, and provided them with hygiene kits containing basic items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, a comb, soap, and a hand towel. They hosted a lunch at the local elementary school.

“The kids have to walk to school from miles away in the heat and they don’t have a kitchen at school,” Elizabeth said. “We cut up potatoes, fish and rice and made them lunch, and then we sang songs and played musical instruments with them. I couldn’t understand Spanish, but we played a lot. It was really fun playing hula hoop with them and teaching them jump rope tricks.”

Long-term goal

Color My World is doing a case study to see what takes place with the new cookers and the knowledge presented. They are committed to bringing more than 2000 additional solar cookers to families in Jiquillio in the next few years, and would like to raise $5,000 to build a kitchen at the Los Zorros School.

Toward that end, Color My World hopes to invite local clubs such as Kiwanis Club and Lions Club to partner to strengthen the program to create a sister city in Nicaragua with Bedford. Community members would be invited to work and serve alongside Color My World in Nicaragua.

“Part of our goal is to help people move towards developmental travel,” Hughes said. “You can go places and have an impact.”

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]]> 527 https://colormyworldkids.org/girl-scouts-receive-honors-help-storm-victims/ Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:18:56 +0000 http://colormyworldkids.org/?p=1781 Read original article here in the Manchester Journal ARLINGTON – St. James Episcopal Church in Arlington hosted the awards ceremony for the Arlington Girl Scout troops on Sept. 16. Claire Grupe and Emma Sheldon were bridged from Daisies to Brownies, and Audrianna Ennis flew up from Brownies to become a Junior Girl Scout. The Juniors...

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]]> Read original article here in the Manchester Journal

ARLINGTON – St. James Episcopal Church in Arlington hosted the awards ceremony for the Arlington Girl Scout troops on Sept. 16.

Claire Grupe and Emma Sheldon were bridged from Daisies to Brownies, and Audrianna Ennis flew up from Brownies to become a Junior Girl Scout.

The Juniors who were bridged to Cadettes were Angela Caggiano, Anna Freebern, Florrie Hynds, Kierstyn Hess and Alyssa Harrington. They were welcomed by current Cadettes, Sofie Pedemonti, Katheryn Berger and Kaleigh Ward. The girls were presented with badges by troop leaders Janne Pedemonti, Elizabeth Berger, and Amanda Harrington, that they had earned over the past year. A special recognition was also given to parent volunteers; Elizabeth Berger, Kim Baker, Rose Caggiano, Julie Freebern, Stephanie Hynds-Moffett, and Janinie Moscarelllo.

The Arlington Girl Scouts recently organized a collection of hygiene kits for victims of Hurricane Sandy in conjunction with "Color My World" of
The Arlington Girl Scouts recently organized a collection of hygiene kits for victims of Hurricane Sandy in conjunction with “Color My World” of Bedford, N.H. More than 50 kits were collected and shipped to hard hit areas on the East Coast. (Courtesy Photo)
Cynthia Browning, a local state representative, was also recognized for her work with the Girl Scouts growing vegetables in the community garden in Arlington over the summer that were harvested for the food shelf and local schools.

The girls who bridged to Cadettes were each presented with the Bronze Award, the highest award given to a Junior. This distinction required that the girls develop an ambitious leadership project that would impact their community. Florrie Hynds and Angela Caggiano focused their efforts on pollution and recycling.

They did a workshop with Don Knaak of Junkmusic to use bottles caps and other objects to create musical instruments. They also made a wind chime, played games, created refrigerator magnets and stamps using bottle caps.

Florrie and Angela were also able to get the children at Happy Days Daycare in Arlington involved with playing games while learning about recycling. A petition of 75 signatures were collected and sent to the three top bottling companies; Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle, asking them to consider making their caps out of compostable material. The girls were able to raise the awareness of the importance of recycling in their community and were able learn a lot about it themselves.

Alyssa Harrington, Kierstyn Hess and Anna Freebern chose to create a gardening project at the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation (CLR) in Bennington. The girls worked with the local Garden Club gaining knowledge about planting for their project. At CLR, they cleaned and prepared garden beds, planted bushes and herbs. A butterfly and hummingbird garden was created for the enjoyment of the residents.

The girls gave a presentation on nutrition and explained the different parts of a flower. They created garden themed projects and celebrated the end of summer harvest with a garden party complete with a garden themed food, music, games and decorations. They were able to make a connection with the residents of CLR, fostered a relationship with the Garden Club and gained a great amount of knowledge about gardening.

The Arlington Girls Scouts also recently organized a collection of hygiene kits containing basic hygiene items. The girls coordinated their efforts with an organization by the name of Color My World in Bedford, N.H. more than 50 plus kits were collected and shipped to the hard hit areas on the East Coast that were effected by Hurricane Sandy.

The Girl Scouts would like to thank all that donated to this important cause.

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]]> 1781 https://colormyworldkids.org/bedford-boy-scout-achieves-top-rank-of-eagle-scout/ Sat, 04 Aug 2012 02:20:00 +0000 http://colormyworldkids.org/?p=533 Bedford Boy Scout achieves top rank of Eagle Scout By SIMON RIOS Union Leader Correspondent BEDFORD — Not many Boy Scouts achieve the honor of being an Eagle Scout. When Chase Hughes traveled to San Ramon, Costa Rica, to deliver hygiene kits to a Mormon mission there, he was on his way to achieving that...

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]]> Bedford Boy Scout achieves top rank of Eagle Scout

By SIMON RIOS
Union Leader Correspondent

BEDFORD — Not many Boy Scouts achieve the honor of being an Eagle Scout. When Chase Hughes traveled to San Ramon, Costa Rica, to deliver hygiene kits to a Mormon mission there, he was on his way to achieving that lifelong goal.

“I want to be remembered as a hard worker and a good student and citizen,” said Hughes, 15, who will celebrate his new rank at the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Manchester on Sunday.

Hughes, who will enter Trinity High School as a freshman this fall, said his favorite part of being a Scout was learning preparedness, wilderness survival and first aid.

A member of Bedford Boy Scout Troop 388, Hughes earned 38 merit badges — though just 21 are required — in addition to his service project. An Eagle Scout must pass through the six ranks and serve six months in a troop leadership position before being approved by the Eagle Scout review board.

Hughes plans to attend the Boy Scout National Jamboree in West Virginia next year, and aspires to advance to senior patrol leader. “I will continue to earn merit badges because they teach you life skills and help you become fluent in many areas of life,” he wrote in an email.

Humanitarian work will be central to Hughes’ future, he said. In 2000, the Hughes family started Color My World, a Bedford nonprofit organization centered around helping young people get involved in service work. He plans to remain active with the group, and encourage his friends to do the same.

“The pinnacle of Scouting for me is not really being an Eagle Scout, but what you do with your life after as a result of the program,” he said. In addition, he wants to work in aeronautics.

For Hughes, the hardest experience in Scouting came in the form of the yearly Klondike Derby, a camping trip in the middle of winter in the woods.

“It takes a lot of effort and time,” he said. “You have to be mentally prepared because you are freezing and usually wet. I know now I could probably really survive in an emergency situation.”

Hughes’ Eagle Scout project consisted of collecting and packing 150 hygiene kits, which he delivered to Faithful Servants Mission in Bajo Tejares, San Ramon, Costa Rica. The town is populated by impoverished Nicaraguan immigrants, largely marginalized by Costa Rican society. He worked with various local organizations — from the Bedford Little League to the Bedford Women’s Club to the Mormon church.

In June 2011, he traveled to Costa Rica, where he enjoyed bonding with the children on the basketball court.

With the money left over from his fundraising, Hughes bought sports equipment for the children in Bajo Tejares.

The Eagle Scout is proud to share the designation with such figures as President Gerald Ford, Neil Armstrong, Steven Spielberg and former FBI Director William Sessions — just a few of the more than 2 million Eagle badge recipients since 1912.

“Now, I feel a little more responsibility to give to others and make a difference in the life of someone,” Hughes wrote, offering a bit of wisdom to younger Scouts. “Go on as many campouts as you can and learn all of the advance skills taught to you — most of all have fun.”

According to the Boy Scouts of America, in 2011, 51,473 Scouts earned the rank of Eagle Scout, or about 5 percent of Scouts.

Chase’s father, Brian Hughes, said he’s happy his son finished his Eagle early.

“We are encouraging him now to spend the next several years working on merit badges that will expose him to career opportunities, continue to work with his troop and develop leadership skills by working with younger Scouts.”

Hughes will be recognized in Court of Honor ceremonies on Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Manchester.

srios@newstote.com

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]]> 533 https://colormyworldkids.org/bedford-vfw-post-awards-scholarships-to-local-students/ Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:44:53 +0000 http://colormyworldkids.org/?p=1515 Bedford VFW post awards scholarships to local students Friday, July 20, 2012 2012 Bedford VFW Scholarship recipients (l to r) Hannah Zeltner, Jennifer Hilchey, Linnea Hilchey, Robert Young Jr., Hillary Hughes, Sean Van Anglen, Stephanie Lamy, Alexa Pervanas. The Richard K. Harvell Post 8401 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars recently awarded scholarships to 12...

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]]> Bedford VFW post awards scholarships to local students

Friday, July 20, 2012

2012 Bedford VFW Scholarship recipients (l to r) Hannah Zeltner, Jennifer Hilchey, Linnea Hilchey, Robert Young Jr., Hillary Hughes, Sean Van Anglen, Stephanie Lamy, Alexa Pervanas.

The Richard K. Harvell Post 8401 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars recently awarded scholarships to 12 local students. Post Commander Gary Backus noted the academic and community service achievements, as well as the courses of study and future plans of the students, during the July 9 ceremony at the Bedford Old Town Hall.

The award recipients were Vanessa Rodanas, Linnea Hilchey, Jennifer Hilchey, Sean Van Anglen, Robert Young Jr., Robyn Keriazes, Kristina Pervanas, Alexa Pervanas, Stephanie Lamy, David Cummings, Hillary Hughes and Hannah Zeltner. More than 40 family members and post members gathered to honor the awardees.

The scholarship program was initiated in 1992 to honor the memory of past All State Post Commander George T. Wiggin and expanded in 2005 to also honor the memory of past All State Post Commander Margaret “Peggy” Rice, the first woman so honored in the New Hampshire VFW.

The scholarships are awarded to a child or grandchild of a post member, a veteran, or a Bedford resident. Since the program’s inception, the Bedford post has awarded nearly $30,000 in scholarships and educational grants.

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]]> 1515 https://colormyworldkids.org/lions-club-awards-scholarships/ Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:40:57 +0000 http://colormyworldkids.org/?p=1512 Lions Club awards scholarships Friday, July 6, 2012 img Courtesy photo. The Bedford Lions Club’s 42nd annual memorial scholarship program awarded two $1500 tuition scholarships to college-bound high school seniors who are Bedford residents. The awards are funded by a donation from former scholarship recipient and current businessman Gary Chartrand. Left to right: program co-chairman...

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]]> Lions Club awards scholarships

Friday, July 6, 2012

img Courtesy photo. The Bedford Lions Club’s 42nd annual memorial scholarship program awarded two $1500 tuition scholarships to college-bound high school seniors who are Bedford residents. The awards are funded by a donation from former scholarship recipient and current businessman Gary Chartrand. Left to right: program co-chairman Ernie Henrichon, scholarship recipients Hannah Zeltner and Hillary Hughes, program co-chairman Tony Juliano.

The Bedford Lions Club’s 42nd annual memorial scholarship program awarded two $1500 tuition scholarships to college-bound high school seniors who are Bedford residents. The awards are funded by a donation from former scholarship recipient and current businessman Gary Chartrand. In photo, left to right, program co-Chairman Ernie Henrichon, scholarship recipients Hannah Zeltner and Hillary Hughes, and program co-Chairman Tony Juliano.

– See more at: http://www.cabinet.com/bedfordjournal/bedfordnews/966976-308/lions-club-awards-scholarships.html#sthash.9xc5d2gS.dpuf

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]]> 1512 https://colormyworldkids.org/bedford-high-schooler-awarded-scholarship-from-distinguished-young-women-program/ Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:34:37 +0000 http://colormyworldkids.org/?p=1506 Bedford high schooler awarded scholarship from Distinguished Young Women program Friday, December 2, 2011 Bedford High School senior Hillary Hughes plays the harp as part of the Distinguished Young Women of New Hampshire program Nov. 25 at Southern New Hampshire University. Hughes took away $400 in scholarship money for winning the talent and fitness portions...

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]]> Bedford high schooler awarded scholarship from Distinguished Young Women program

Friday, December 2, 2011

Bedford High School senior Hillary Hughes plays the harp as part of the Distinguished Young Women of New Hampshire program Nov. 25 at Southern New Hampshire University. Hughes took away $400 in scholarship money for winning the talent and fitness portions of the competition.
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Special to the Journal

On Nov. 25, Hillary Hughes, 17, of Bedford, competed in the Distinguished Young Women of New Hampshire program and was awarded $400 in cash scholarships, winning the talent and fitness competitions during the statewide scholarship program for high school girls held at Southern New Hampshire University.

Hughes played an instrumental piece on the harp titled “The Secret Life of Daydreams” by Dario Marianelli.

Hughes competed against other high school senior girls from across the state to represent the state as the Distinguished Young Woman of New Hampshire 2012. Participants were evaluated in the categories of scholastics (20 percent), interview (25 percent), fitness (15 percent), self-expression (15 percent) and talent (25 percent).

For more information about Distinguished Young Women, contact Stephanie Bradford, national headquarters communications director, at 1-251-622-5335 or stephanie@distinguishedyw.org or visit www.distinguishedyw.org.

– See more at: http://www.cabinet.com/bedfordjournalbedfordreadersubmitted/941900-308/bedford-high-schooler-awarded-scholarship-from-distinguished.html#sthash.ONYW78dV.dpuf

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