On Oct. 3, a spaghetti dinner fundraiser will be hosted at the Mountainside Community Church, with all funds raised going to support building homes in El Salvador.
The initiative, led by Duane Neufeld, will see 10 to 12 local volunteers travel to El Salvador in February to build homes for people in need. His daughter, Jordana Neufeld, is one of the main organizers behind the fundraiser and the mission.
“The way you get a house is you have to help build 10 houses before you get a house and a couple of houses after you get a house and it’s really cool to see women and children from families will go to help out,” said Jordana Neufeld. “It’s cool how you see the entire family helping to build a house.”
The local leaders choose who to award the house to, alleviating pressures on the Canadians to choose a family to give the house to.
Neufeld said that each house costs $2300 and they buy the pre-fabircated house packages from a local El Salvadorian company.
“We can usually get a house package built in 45 minutes to an hour,” she said. “There’s lots of El Salvadorians down there – we help them, it’s not like they are helping us. They’ve done it do many times that they put it together so fast.”
Her father has been leading the initiative for seven years, and this is Jordana’s second year joining him. She is hoping to raise enough funds to build multiple houses, saying that they will build as many as they have the funds for.
“Last year, I think we built 12, but we can build as many as we fundraise for. Guys have gone down and built over 20 houses,” she said. “All the money is going towards the house packages.”
The fundraiser will also feature live music and a silent auction. Tickets are by donation and can be purchased by emailing Jordana at jordineufeld@gmail.com.
“The tickets are just so I know how many people we have to make the supper for. They are by donation, so you can just donate at the door when you come,” she said. Last year, the effort raised roughly $4500, and Neufeld is hoping to exceed that this year.