Honduran Mission Team of New Hampshire

The Honduran Mission Team of New Hampshire

Status of Organization:                           Non-Profit, currently seeking 501 (c) (3) status 

Sponsor:                                                 Mary Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church, Salem NH 

Established:                                            May, 1993 

Mission Founder:                                  Mary Roy, Pastoral Minister at MQP.  Ms. Roy established the Mission after returning from a 10 day service trip to Honduras in 1993

Dates of Mission:                                 Tentative Dates are February 21, 2008- March 2, 2008 

Location of Mission:                             Juticalpa, located 150 miles northeast of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. 

Background of Members:                     The all-volunteer team of 10-25 welcomes high school juniors and seniors, as well as many area professionals including teachers, health care        professionals, as well as others.  These caring individuals must be willing to sacrifice their vacation time in order to work with the Honduran poor.  Team members do not have to be Catholic, or even religious.

Expenses:                                             Approximately $1,000.00 per person, raised almost entirely through fundraising.  An initial deposit of $100.00 is requested to secure airline tickets.

Fundraising Events:                             Breakfasts, Car Washes, Can recycling, Bowl-A-Thon, Donation Drives, Individual donations, Printer cartridge recycling, Dinners, Yard Sales.

Mission Statement

To create an awareness of a third world culture and lifestyle among its volunteers and sponsors.

To provide an understanding of the culture of poverty among its volunteers and sponsors.

To stimulate the personal and spiritual growth of mission volunteers through providing services for those in need.

About Mary Roy

Mary Roy, Founder of the Honduras Mission Team of New Hampshire

“After one trip to Honduras I felt compelled to help my parish community to truly understand the reality of the poor of this region and to embrace a people and culture so far away.   I just knew that my trip would not be the end of my journey…”  -Mary Roy

Mary Roy went on her first mission trip in February of 1993, when an acquaintance who had been to Honduras needed a female chaperone at the last minute.  She traveled to Honduras, a country she knew nothing about, for the first time with a group of people she had never met and fell in love with the people and their culture. Mary returned home from that trip with a renewed sense of faith and a new feeling of obligation to the community around her.  With the support of her former employer, the priest at a local church, she started her own mission trip, based out of Nashua, NH in 1994. The first trip had 8 people, and currently about 18 to 25 people make the trip each year.  She has even brought two of her own daughters, a niece and her grandson.  What was a spur of the moment decision has truly become a calling; a devotion to the people and country of Honduras.