Not just winning, but also a passion for helping others

By Adriana Danzilo | gargoyle@flagler.edu

My passion for helping others started in Tegucigalpa, Honduras where I served my community by helping elderly people, children and teens with cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, as well as foundling youngsters.

Moving to the United States for college made me abandon these people but I wanted to continue my journey of helping others. The Enactus team of Flagler College opened the doors for me and here I am doing what I’ve always wanted to do: help those in need.

I step out of my classroom and reach out to people who need it the most. It takes teamwork, effort and hard work to progress but the impact is priceless.

As I heard about all the different projects that were going on, many interested me. I was on board to help remove plastic bags and replacing them with reusable ones in the city of St. Augustine. Working with at-risk girls and making hand-made necklaces with sea glass from New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy sounded delightful.

Hearing one of my teammates talk about an all-natural soap business to help the foster boys of St. Augustine drew me in to help them too. I was fascinated with all the wonderful projects Flagler Enactus had created from scratch.

Weeks, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds went by and guess what? Regional competition was around the corner. Flagler Enactus was working harder than ever preparing for this huge competition in Charlotte, North Carolina.

One hundred hours were to be completed in order to attend the competition. I wasn’t even close to 50. One of the co-presidents pulled me to the side and told me: “If you want to go to Nationals you better start getting more involved.” I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it.

I worked day and night, weekdays, weekends and by the end I was ready and had my required hours completed. I waited for the list to be released and my name was there.

Charlotte, here we go! I woke up at 5 in the morning with my suit and bags packed up ready to catch the bus and leave. We presented, we were hopeful, grateful and proud of our amazing projects. Flagler Enactus was selected to attend to the National competition in Kansas City Missouri.

I was encouraged and had the desire to keep working harder. Helped my teammates fulfill any work that had to be done during summer before we had to leave again.

We arrived at Kansas City, we walked around and met so many amazing people from across the country. We presented, we had technical problems, our hearts were racing faster than ever but we never lost our hope.

Flagler College was announced as a top 3 finalist for the competition. The judges were ready to listen our last and final presentation. We stumbled throughout, but for the third time Flagler Enactus was announced winner of the National Championship.

We traveled to Cancun, Mexico where the World Cup was being held. Interacting and getting to know people from 36 different countries is an experience no one will ever forget, placing number 16 in the whole world made us proud and determined to keep working harder to achieve our goals.

My passion continues. Volunteering to help improve this world and helping those in need is and will be a devotion that will last a lifetime.