There are Many Kinds of Wealth, Many Ways to Build it
By Mike TraskSt. Charles County Business Record
St. Charles, Mo.
October 2, 2006
This week's Biz Bites is different from the column I normally write, but there is a business angle somewhere in this piece, so I hope my readers will indulge me.As some of you already know, my family recently suffered a terrible loss when my 25-year-old daughter, Katie, drowned off the coast of Mexico. She and her husband, Adam Kralik, had just completed a two-year volunteer service in Guatemala. They were vacationing and a week away from coming home when it happened. While in Guatemala, Katie mostly taught hygiene and self-esteem classes to girls in the village, and when the school didn't have enough for her to do, she took it upon herself to teach English to youngsters in her home while they helped her with her Spanish.
Adam often was in the countryside working on various infrastructure projects, on which Katie would occasionally assist. Katie also became interested in entrepreneurship while inGuatemala. She wasn't so much interested in starting her own business as she was in helping some of the women she met become business owners. During some of our phone conversations, she would tell me of women and even girls who struggled to make a living by selling hand-crafted goods and other commodities. Katie would explain to me the possibilities that existed if only this group had a simple distribution system in place or that group had a small marketing plan in place to attract the tourists. She had to cook all their meals from scratch and gradually developed a healthy respect for the Guatemalan diet; so much so that she wanted to help a group of women open a restaurant. But that was outside the scope of her responsibilities. My son-in-law recently told me that they had talked about making enough money in the United States to return to Guatemala one day to invest in various startups there. I doubt that my daughter, the sociology major, ever thought of herself as a potential venture capitalist. She just looked at it as helping people. After the funeral, my family had the opportunity to visit with some of Katie's co-workers. During our conversations, I learned that there is a bit of a controversy about how much aid we should provide Guatemalans and how that aid should be directed. There is a concern on the part of some about contaminating a wonderful Mayan culture that exists there. Believe it or not, there are places in the world where people live happily without microwave ovens, refrigerators and televisions (except perhaps when the World Cup is being played). From the comments I heard, I got the sense that most of Katie's co-workers believe that efforts to provide more educational opportunities for children and work to create potable water systems and other infrastructure projects are definitely worthwhile ventures. However, I also got the sense many volunteers also believe that while providing this aid, we should take care not to impose our values on the people we help. There has been a great deal of discussion in St. Charles County in recent years about the quality of life we enjoy here. But quality of life is a relative term. In one of our last phone conversations, my daughter expressed some trepidation about returning to the rat race here. She had come to the realization that having possessions isn't the same as having happiness. She was truly happy helping Guatemalans for little pay. But, in a way, Katie was quite wealthy. During the past couple of years, I have written numerous stories about wealth creation in this county. But for some reason, I didn't look behind the numbers. I didn't really examine the meaning of it all. Since my daughter's death, I too have come to a realization: that money is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used for good or bad. As our expenses mounted, numerous people in this community came to our aid. Some we have known for a long time, others we hardly knew at all. Some were friends and family, others were business owners and employees. A nonprofit with the Spanish acronym PAVA (Programa de Ayuda a los Vecinos del Altiplano -- translated, Aid Program for Highland Communities) works in Guatemala on infrastructure projects. PAVA has started a fund to build a Guatemalan school that will be named after Katie. The generosity of many St. Charles Countians is helping to ensure the school one day will be a reality. It is reassuring and extremely comforting to know that while this county has grown richer, its wealth hasn't degraded our culture. Our values remain strong.
posted by Carin Robinson @ 10:52 AM
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