Celebrating 10 years of the Bucknell Nicaragua Brigade

This year marks the 10^th Anniversary of the Bucknell Nicaragua Brigade. In the past decade, Bucknell University in Lewisberg, PA has brought over 25 groups down to volunteer with the CDCA. With its special focus on health care, each year the Bucknell Brigades raise a huge portion of the Nueva Vida Clinic budget, and brings hundreds of thousands of dollars in donated medicine. On top of the huge positive impact the Bucknell Brigades have had on the work of the CDCA, they have also changed Bucknell – the university now has Brigades in several countries and is becoming known for its focus in Service Learning. The Bucknell Brigade does an excellent job of preparing students for coming to Nicaragua, and when other groups ask us how they should ready their delegates, we put them in contact with the Bucknell Brigades.

To mark this ten year anniversary, Bucknell recently held a celebration unveiling a commemorative mural, painted by Gerardo Arias of the Batahola Cultural Center in Managua. For the occasion, Bucknell flew our own Pat and Kathy from their location in Minnesota on the CDCA fall speaking tour out to Bucknell – they (and all of the CDCA vicariously) were honored to be involved in the festivities. The university has also made a 10^th Anniversary Bucknell Brigade webpage that features a series of profiles of key people involved in the Brigades: Bucknell students, alumni, staff and faculty, plus stories about the Brigade’s work with the Nueva Vida Clinic and the El Porvenir water project. We encourage you all to take a few moments to watch this great short video about the Brigades at: http://www.bucknell.edu/x47182.xml