WATERLOO - Imagine being so poor that everyday living doesn't produce any garbage.

That was the reality that Eulaila Young and her companions observed when visiting Nicaragua last month.

Young joined several others from the Cedar Valley the week after Thanksgiving to distribute supplies to children, pregnant women and new mothers as part of the Waterloo Downtown Rotary Club's annual mission trip to Nicaragua.

For the past three years, Young has worked year-round to obtain supplies, but this was her first trip to the Central American country.

"There are so many things we take for granted, we use way too much, plastics and different things that are thrown away. There just isn't that much there. We saw people living in extreme poverty; there was a homeless city along the main thoroughfare. People would use large garbage bags strung over these ropes to make a shelter, there were a lot of them," said Young, a retired teacher. "In San Carlos, it was a real eye-opener. There was hardly any garbage - people were too poor to create garbage, but they are very happy people."

Sam Buck also made the trip for the first time.

"I wanted to see firsthand what (Dad) had been talking about," said Sam, whose father, Dave Buck, co-founded the mission project six years ago with Steve Thorpe. "You see something in a National Geographic and you don't comprehend the poverty until you see it yourself. Sixty percent of the people live under the poverty line."

Since 2002, the Waterloo Downtown Rotary Club and community members have traveled to Nicaragua. The club became involved in the project when Thorpe attended a convention and heard speakers Father Marco Dessy, an Italian missionary, and Frank Huezo, a native Nicaraguan living in Houston and member of the Rotary Club there.

They spoke of the plight of the people in Chinandega, a town in the northeastern corner of Nicaragua, which borders Honduras and the Pacific Ocean. A civil war and Hurricane Mitch in 1998 left 2,000 people homeless, scavenging for food in the town dump. Dessy built a school next to the dump and recruited children to attend, promising them a solid meal.

That was enough for Thorpe, of rural Denver, and Buck to organize the Shoebox Project. Rotarians from Iowa and other states volunteered, filling boxes with toys, clothing, toiletries and other items for needy children.

"The first trip, there were seven people from Iowa and three from the Rotary Club in Texas. This year there were 40 of us, 20 from the Cedar Valley," said Thorpe. "Since 2002, Rotarians from Iowa and other states have since shipped about 190 tons of items to Nicaragua. This year we also provided 600 layettes for pregnant and new mothers in the women's shelter. About 900 women a year go through the shelter. These women have nothing; many come from 200 to 300 miles away."

Each layette includes a dozen cloth diapers, washcloths, towels, shampoo, baby oil, receiving blankets and a number of other baby items.

The first year, Young made 500 receiving blankets. This year she also sewed 100 dozen diapers, maternity clothes for the women's shelter and obtained eight refurbished sewing machines to take to the village.

"We've already been promised several more. Kurt Dralle from Dralle Brothers has been wonderful; he is very community conscious. He refurbishes them, and they are really in good working order," Young said. "It's everybody working together and doing a little bit at a time. Everybody is so appreciative and uses everything we give them. We're trying to enrich their lives and help them to do better in life. It's very gratifying."

Patty Achey Cutts of Cedar Falls, also a first-timer, said the experience was "life-changing."

"It's hard to talk about; to see such poverty and come from a country of such wealth. Here, to see our Christmas trees all decorated and then go down there, with the sparseness. It was a humbling experience," said Achey Cutts, who traveled to Nicaragua with her husband, Ken Cutts, whose first trip was in 2006.

Achey Cutts and her husband were so touched by the experience that they're funding a Nicaraguan boy's college education.

The response from the Cedar Valley has been tremendous. Along with the nearly 3,000 shoe boxes, contributions included 60 bikes from Rotarians, Regions Bank and friends; two wheelchairs and walkers; a 25-horse outboard motor from Ken Cutts; two tons of fabric and 3,000 shorts and tops from Dodger Industries of Eldora; hundreds of hand tools from Rotarians and 3,000 packets of dehydrated food from Kids Against Hunger.

Drs. Craig Driver and Jim Raecker both donated dental chairs. Donating semis and transportation were Warren Transport, Bertch Cabinet Manufacturing, Gray Transport and Nathem Transport.

Providing the supplies is an important aspect of the project, but mission trips are critical to the project's success.

"We do the trips to expose more people to the plight of these people. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the world. This year we partnered with Self Help International, whose philosophy is similar to Habitat for Humanity, to help people help themselves," Buck said.

Self-Help International, based in Waverly, began a program to assist farmers in growing quality protein maize, QPM, which has twice as much protein as regular corn. The first year, only 17 Nicaraguan farmers were growing QPM, today 14,000 farmers are.

"Self Help has done so much to better their lives and show them how to plant crops so that the children benefit. I saw 'before' pictures of so malnourished (children). One of the people took a picture in January of a boy who wasn't expected to live. He was at one of the feeding centers. When I saw him he was still small, but he looks like a little boy," said Young. "They have two feeding centers; children up to 5 can eat there. It's made such a difference."

Other partners included the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, The Chinandega 2001 Foundation, The American Nicaraguan Foundation and Hope and Relief International Foundation.

Contact CJ Hines at newsroom@wcfcourier.com.