Herotime-Anthony Capra

HERO- ANTHONY CAPRA, CREATOR OF ONE FOR ALL- ALL FOR ONE SHARES HOW IT ALL BEGAN

It had been two weeks since I officially created a non profit organization and now I found myself on a flight heading to Peru. For five years I had been thinking about starting my own organization, now I was on my way to collaborate on my first charity project. Immediately after creating 1.4.All.4.1 I emailed over a hundred different organizations/projects that were doing humanitarian work in hopes of teaming up together with them to help people in need. The following day I checked my email and I saw that I had received 50 automated responses and only one actual response. I didn?t know it at the time but the one person that did reply would go on to be a mentor to me. Someone who would be guiding me while I learned how to set the foundations of the work that I would be doing for the following years. His name is Jim Killon, he was the founder of Changes for New Hope, an organization that was created in 2009 with the aim of enhancing the lives of children living in destitution and extreme conditions in the Peruvian Andes. I was so eager to help that I simply asked Jim to tell me what I could do and when I could go. He explained to me that the children he was helping at the time were in need of basic necessities such as gloves and scarves for the weather but also board games, coloring books, crayons, toys and anything else that would help enrich their lives.

Over the next two weeks, I filled up 3 suitcases with donations that I?d received from over 30 family members and friends. On June 11th, 2016, I landed in Lima, Peru and hopped on a bus to start my 8 hour ride to Huaraz where I would be meeting with Jim. The ride was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. We drove through a different range of views from beautiful desert landscapes to scenic mountains, all while whipping around sharp turns that seemed to be hanging off steep drops that triggered my fear of heights. While everyone else was at ease with the ride, I was praying. During the drive my mind was racing through a range of emotions. ?Did I make the right decision??, ?people are counting on you.?, ?did Jim catfish me?!? I was in a state of being excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. When we finally arrived to Huaraz, I stepped off the bus and was greeted by Jim with a huge smile and an even bigger handshake. He led me to where I would be staying for the night. The following day we were up early to go visit a group of kids that lived on a mountain top who Jim had been contributing to. Everything had happened so quickly but now everything was starting to settle in.

The city of Huaraz lays in the Huaylas Valley, it has an elevation of 10,000 feet and is surrounded by mountains. The streets are filled with vendors selling food, souvenirs, and hand knit sweaters made of llama fur. We jumped in a combie which is a minivan taxi that is used as a means of public transportation throughout Peru. The boy that was working the door was no older than 12, the combi was packed with people, and by the way the driver was racing through the streets you would?ve thought it was grand theft auto. My mind was trying to process the culture shock I was experiencing. The combi left us in front of a tiny store outside of Huaraz where two elder women and two young girls greeted Jim with a warm smile. Adjacent to the store was a narrow path that led up the mountain, the path was fairly steep but quickly faded away and turned into a mixture of running water, dirt, mud and loose rocks that made it feel like it was a Spartan race. I did my best to hide that it was difficult for me knowing that 70 year old men and women walked up this mountain several times a day. After a thirty minute climb we reached our destination where we were rewarded with a stunning view. I took a minute to soak it all in. We were greeted by a young boy named John and before I could introduce myself he addressed me by my first name telling me how happy he was to meet me. He led Jim and I to the ?sala? classroom where we we were met by the echoes of 18 students singing a welcome song, a sign for me, and even a cake. One by one each child came up to me politely to introduce himself. They were ecstatic to see Jim! You would?ve thought he was like Mickey Mouse at Disney world. But it was when Jim started handing out the items we came to donate that they reached their peak excitement.

As Jim distributed the donations, they were filled with happiness and in that moment I felt the stress I experienced was all worth it. I was filled with a sense of purpose. The culmination of 5 years of thinking about doing charity work mixed with their joy was confirmation that this was everything that I wanted to do. We all shared the cake then circled around to listen to Jim speak. One of the main things Jim does is to plant seeds of doing good in the minds of the children. He stresses to them the importance of doing the right thing, to be honest, and to not steal. For the next five days, we went to different places and centers that Jim works directly with to impact and bring help to. I was soaking each and every moment in. Storing every bit of it as a learning experience that I could use for when the time would come to do my own projects. Jim had set the bar for me, showing me that through passion and love for the world you could have a real impact on peoples lives.

Learn more about Anthony's continuing humanitarian work at 14all41npo.org