Pirates Promoting Community Wellness

By: Tori Chapman, Senior EC Scholar

Pirates Promoting Community Wellness (PPCW) is a student led organization with the mission to connect ECU students with volunteer and leadership opportunities for the promotion of wellness locally and globally.

Locally, we partner with AMEXCAN to host monthly fitness and nutrition classes open to the public. The aim of these classes is to share basic wellness information, and to foster a community focused on promoting healthy lifestyles. We also are involved in collecting can tabs for the Ronald McDonald House, chair fitness at Red Oak Retirement Center, and many other local outreaches.

Globally, we raise money and go on a service trip to a state in Honduras called Comayagua. The main focus of our philanthropy is the construction of a park and community center in a poor Honduran village, Carrizales. We work with Threads of Hope, which is a non-profit organization that strives to give poor communities in the Philippines steady employment. Threads of Hope profits go towards two causes. Half goes back to providing dignified work for families so they can stay together, avoid exploitation, and pursue education to set a new trajectory for their lives, and the other half goes towards PPCW’s goal of building a park! We also sell Honduran coffee.

Working with locals and the non-profit Honduras Fountain of Life, we have been able to jointly construct a community center with three classrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and a large congregating space. We have also installed a drainage ditch, which allows for the dangerous waters of the rainy season to be diverted. Compassion International has committed to finding sponsors for 150 children in the area because of the community center.

During Winter Break, we will take a team of 12 students to live in an orphanage and to run a free health-screening clinic. Within those 12 students, we have a diverse majors and ages ranging from Freshmen to Super Seniors. The goal of our service trip is to establish and continue the deep relationships that have been made between the Honduran community and ECU.

We will be having our trip this December 28th – January 7th and is planned as follows:

Dec. 28th- 31st: Talk to local health officials & government agencies and publicize free clinic to communities
Jan. 1st: Take a field trip with the orphan girls to the pool followed by an evening soccer USA vs HONDURAS
Jan 2nd, 4th, 6th: All day health screening & clinic and evening wellness classes
Jan 3rd: Install park equipment in Carrizales, do a community meal & park dedication
Jan 6th: Women’s education empowerment presentation in orphanage

We are grateful to be able to announce that this year the Student Government Association’s Appropriations Committee has provided t-shirts and 12 plane tickets. PPCW would also like to thank all of those who have supported our dreams of making a lasting impact as students for wellness advocacy, and all who will help in the future. For more information about PPCW please check us out at ecuppcw.com