Many Hands, Light Work: Alliance's Merrilee Harrigan in Tijuana, Mexico

This past summer Alliance Vice President of Education Merrilee Harrigan traveled to Tijuana, Mexico for an out-of-the-ordinary vacation. Far from the clichés of margaritas and siestas, Merrilee was one of four chaperones to accompany a group of 13 American youths (including her 17-year old son, Ian MacMillan) who rolled up their sleeves and got to work building houses for disadvantaged community members with the volunteer program Esperanza International. A non-profit, non-sectarian, charitable corporation, Esperanza partners with communities to affect long-term solutions to their problems. And because stable, efficient housing is a priority in this community, Merrilee and her fellow travelers spent four days mixing and pouring cement, and carrying and laying the blocks that formed the shell of a future home for a Tijuana family. On the fifth day, they put a roof on a nearby school.

It sounds like hard work – and it was. “But it was all about the people,” says Merrilee, who enjoys the community projects and youth involvement that are characteristic of the Green Schools and Green Campus programs she oversees at the Alliance. “We were working together: the family was working with us, the kids and the mother were in the line with us. The grandmother was cooking our meals. It really was about the people.”

Before heading back home, the group stopped in a border town to engage in a cross-cultural dialogue with Americans and Mexicans living on either side of the border. Despite the controversial subject and the disparate opinions that were aired, it was a civil discussion. “People talked and aired their differences in a respectful way that we don’t see very often in our culture. There was effort by all to be understanding.”

Would she do it again? “Definitely.”