When Lopezians Pat Torpie and Nancy Bingham built their second home in a small town in Guatemala, they never imagined their involvement with the local community would grow to what it has become.

Torpie and Bingham have been spending their winters down south for 12 years, and in 1998 they co-founded Amigos de Santa Cruz, a non-profit aimed at supporting education, better health care, a cleaner environment and sustainable economic development for the remote village of Santa Cruz la Laguna, Guatemala and other outlying areas. The organization has grown every year and now serves the 5000 residents of Santa Cruz in many capacities.

The couple will be sharing the highlights of their time in Guatemala and the evolution of their non-profit on Sunday, Oct. 19, 7-9 p.m. at Lopez Center. They will present slides and stories of their 10 years working in the Guatemalan town. Admission is by donation, although money may be donated to Amigos de Santa Cruz.

Torpie and Bingham started out buying books for the local schools. Now the organization has a board of directors and a full-time staff, serves 750 nutritious meals to students every day, provides school supplies, scholarships, teacher training, a teacher exchange with a school in Michigan, created and operates a computer lab, offers women’s programs in nutrition and hygiene, and distributes permanent water filters for homes (so far they’ve given 300) and stoves that burn 70 percent less fuel and divert smoke out through a chimney for 477 homes and counting. Torpie is the director of the organization and spends six months out of the year in Santa Cruz la Laguna. Bingham goes down for three or four months each year.

Santa Cruz encompasses six villages, with three around the region’s lake and three very remote settlements up in the mountains. Amigos has just begun reaching out to the remote locales, providing nutrition programs, working with the schools, and offering women’s programs.

Scholarships from Amigos have allowed six students to become teachers, who then came back to their hometown. “We’re working on sending a student to nursing school right now,” said Torpie. “It’s been so rewarding personally to have been living in a place long enough to see changes. I’ve seen kids grow up, become teenagers, go away to school, and then come back as teachers.”

On August 1, they broke ground on their biggest project to date: a vocational education center called Centro de Capacitacion (CECAP). Amigos had been working in partnership with the community to help find a solution to lack of jobs and meaningful work in their town. Many students who graduate from secondary school are unable to make a living locally, and there are so few businesses in the area that residents have to take a boat to a larger town for access to goods and services. Torpie worked with a committee of concerned citizens to survey the community and come up with a list of subjects to be taught. Carpentry, welding, weaving on large looms, electronics, and cooking all made the final cut.

Amigos de Santa Cruz then bought a piece of land, met with an engineer, finalized architecture plans, and partnered with the local government, who is providing some funding. Amigos has raised $88,000 of the $150,000 needed to complete the 18-month project.

The vocational school will run a small restaurant operated by its cooking students, open a store to sell goods created by students, and enable it graduates to open their own business in a variety of areas. Over the last year or two, Torpie has seen young men leave Santa Cruz because of zero job opportunities. They often enter the U.S. illegally, which is very expensive. “They go into debt and then they get stuck in the U.S. They want to be at home, but they can’t. In the last 10 years I have seen a lot of great changes. I’ve seen kids stay in school and become much better educated than their parents. But the town doesn’t have an economy of its own or jobs to offer.”

During the ground-breaking ceremony, dignitaries and community members old and young alike gathered to lay a stone on the property to signify the beginning of construction. “The town is having a voice. They came together and are seeing results from their work.” Torpie said it was a moving moment, which they will share during the slide show.

In addition to raising money for the vocational school, the presentation on Oct. 19 is a way to say thank you to the many islanders who have helped Amigos de Santa Cruz. “We have received so much support from the Lopez community. So if they can’t come to Santa Cruz, we’ll bring Santa Cruz to them,” said Torpie.

For more information about Amigos de Santa Cruz, visit www.amigosdesantacruz.org.