By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

BUFORD—Teenagers Sarah Bollinger and Jessica Kiefer from Prince of Peace Church have been awarded the 2000 Maryknoll Youth World Mission Award for their work establishing Amigos for Christ to aid the poor in Nicaragua.

The Suwanee residents, who are 17, received the national award given annually by Maryknoll of Ossining, N.Y., to an individual or youth group who has made an outstanding effort to improve the lives of others. The U.S.-based Catholic missionary movement, founded in 1911, has members serving in 37 countries overseas.

Maryknoll Father Peter Le Jacq and Sister Jeanne Houlihan presented each teen with a $1,000 scholarship during a ceremony May 2 at Collins Hill High School, where they will be seniors.

Amigos for Christ, a nonprofit run by president Jack Schiveree, has raised about $200,000 for Nicaraguans in northern Chinandega. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and over the past 30 years has suffered several natural disasters and a civil war.

Amigos has helped fund a feeding center, renovate a health center, build two elementary schools and purchase a mobile medical unit staffed by a doctor and dentist. Amigos has also helped collect musical instruments for Santa Lucia School for the Blind and has reconstructed more than 150 homes lost during Hurricane Mitch. The group has completed two Chinandega mission trips involving 90 participants.

The Maryknoll award rekindled their missionary spirit, Bollinger said.

“We couldn’t believe that we might actually win. It’s motivational. It’s kind of like that extra support that just helps push us along,” she said. “As I’ve grown with this program and this mission, my faith has also grown as a result of it ... The (Nicaraguan) people, they help to inspire my faith as well. Their faith is so strong and passionate.”

Kiefer never dreamed Amigos would grow so rapidly. “We started getting involved doing little things. Our first fund-raiser we got $500 and in a couple of years it’s grown to this. We have a nonprofit organization. You see the results building-wise” in Nicaragua, she said. “The little we do actually helps them a whole lot more just with money and everything. It’s great to show them that there is hope, that there are people willing to help.”

“We had hope and faith in God that we would be able to accomplish anything ... The people in Nicaragua look to us to help them out. They are strengthened by seeing us going there and helping them.”

Father Le Jacq, who helped judge more than 50 nominations, said, “These young women are extraordinary examples of Christian youth in action.”

“Not only did they generate thousands of dollars for vulnerable people living in Nicaragua, but they traveled to Central America twice bringing along adults and friends to invest that money in the community with their very own hands.”

The vision began when parishioner John Bland showed the youth group at Prince of Peace Church photos of an open-air school cafeteria in Nicaragua, next to a garbage dump, where flies and mosquitoes swarmed around children. They also learned of an Italian missionary, Father Marco Dessy, who aided the children through the Chinandega 2001 Foundation.

Bollinger recalled the tragic snapshots.

“Just the pictures, the faces of the children, their eyes could tell so many stories and yet they were so young ... It was the entire scenario ... the stories that he told us about the children having to eat not (in) a cafeteria (but) a hut with flies,” she recalled.

With the teens’ leadership, the parish youth group decided to raise funds to build a feeding center. Working with the nonprofit organization Food for the Poor, the group raised the money and built the center, which feeds 500 children daily. The two continued rallying the troops and in June 1999, following their first mission trip, they helped to found Amigos for Christ.

The two, who are friends, were particularly moved when Father Dessy’s boys choir sang here to raise funds for Nicaragua.

“When we helped them with their mission, we found ours,” Bollinger said.

They organized bake sales, auctions, baby-sitting and yard work and solicited donations.

“We kept saying there’s got to be something we can do. We kept coming up with all these ideas—the fund-raising activities and as a group effort it kind of accumulated to Amigos for Christ,” Bollinger said. “It started from the first night that it was presented to the youth group. Jessica and I, pretty much within the first five minutes, we decided in our minds we wanted to help. When Jessica and I started becoming more involved and helping we influenced other kids as well.”

Youth minister Gloria Whidby nominated the girls for the award.

“Jessica and Sarah are truly a witness to the love of Christ for the ‘least brothers of mine’ in the world,” she said. “Their dream, Amigos for Christ, fosters a partnership of love with the community in Chinandega and makes a substantial difference in the world.”

“The two of them initiated all this. They had seen what Father Marco had done and wanted to help out ... They were always coming up with ideas for projects,” she said.

Bollinger said she’s tasted the fruits of her labor. On the second mission trip, a ceremony was held inaugurating the school and cafeteria Amigos had funded.

“They baptized these children there. It was nice to be able to see what our money had gone towards and what our hard work had gone towards. They gave us all godchildren. It was right in the city and we walked over to the cafeteria. It was really beautiful.”

“They have so little. It’s overwhelming to us how much love they have and their good spirits,” she continued. “The trip, it’s kind of like a cleansing into reality. It’s like a cleansing of the world we live in that seems so fake ... They’re very real down there. They’re not fake. They’re just very beautiful people ... Here it seems that we live our lives at such a fast pace that we don’t see the world around us ... With this trip you gain a certain maturity that there’s no other way to acquire.”

One of Kiefer’s favorite accomplishments is the medical clinic Amigos funded.

“The medical center—that’s something important that they do need. Being able to fund that is really great ... We could see clearly that there was nothing—no medical (help) ... There wasn’t anybody the kids could go to. This is good that we got something local for them that they wouldn’t have to travel far to get a doctor.”

Kiefer has always had a heart for children.

“These kids don’t have any choice with their lives ... Just to help them out is wonderful because they’re so appreciative—just their smiles at the littlest thing.”

Kiefer said Amigos’ next task is to raise funds to build houses for over 300 families in an area known as El Limonal, moving them away from a garbage dump where they scavenge for food.

Quiet and reserved, Kiefer said the Nicaraguans have stirred her spirit. She hopes more youth will go on missions, support Amigos and spread the word of Third World poverty.

“It has brought out more of the leader in me ... Most of the time I’m more reserved, but I have a lot of good things to say. I’ve just got to not be afraid of people’s reactions ... I know what I want to accomplish, to see this grow and expand,” she said.

Both are in it for the long haul.

“A lot of adults have the preconceived notion that teenagers are bad, but we’re going out and showing others that we can make a difference,” Kiefer said. “I think there’s too much at stake (to quit). We’ve come so far. I can’t see myself graduating from high school and not being involved. I think there’s much more to come. I know I’ll definitely be involved.”