BOSTON- The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Campbell helped the students at a schoolhouse near Cartenga, Colombia, by painting their classrooms May 16.
Twenty-five crewmembers from cutter Campbell, homeported in Kittery, Maine, spent four hours painting a mural and nine classrooms at the Instutito Skinner II School in Boquilla, Colombia, where more than 470 children attend school every day.
The Campbell crew completed the project with help of the Colombian Navy, Coast Guard Academy cadets and the Guardians of the Bay, a local volunteer organization.
“I was really glad to have the opportunity to go to a foreign country and work on a humanitarian project,” said Cadet Kevin Sorrell from the Coast Guard Academy. “It’s something which could make their lives just a little bit better.”
This community project marked the seventh activity in the last two years where the Coast Guard worked with the Colombian Navy, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Joe Hester, the Coast Guard liaison in Colombia.
“We are allied on the sea and on the land, but we are also involved in community service like this activity to develop a school,” said Hester.
The crew of Cutter Campbell pulled into Cartenga for a port call while engaged in a counter-narcotics patrol in the Caribbean.
