FALMOUTH — A five-mile run on June 12 will raise money for medical and construction supplies for Honduran villages, which a local group will visit next year.

A team of volunteers, doctors and nurses from southern Maine communities will visit El Triunfo, Honduras, in February 2011, where they will work with local people in the medical field through the Christian Commission for Development. They will provide infrastructure and medical services that might otherwise not be available to the residents.

The group saw more than 600 patients in El Triunfo and Las Chacaras during a similar trip in 2008, and members helped build a bridge between El Triunfo and Las Uvas.

The group is comprised of members of the Foreside Community Church in Falmouth and the Falmouth Congregational Church, as well as other people.

The partnership between this area and the Honduran villages reaches back to Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the relief effort that followed.

Marilyn Sinnett of Westbrook, one of the 16 people to visit Honduras in 2008 and among those returning next year, is the director of the June 12 race. She said that as of mid-May, 25 people had signed up for next year’s trip.

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“This is probably the biggest fundraising venture that we’ve ever had in 10 years for this cause,” Sinnett said. “So it’s really exciting.”

She said her group donated more than $5,000 for the last trip. She would like to see $2,500 raised in the road race.

“We were going to go again in 2010, but the political situation there forced us to postpone that trip, so we were able to wire money down, instead of us personally going this year, to the clinics that we went to in 2008,” Sinnett said. “We were able to wire them $1,000 just to keep up their supplies.”

Sinnett, a mechanical engineer, described the work during the 2008 trip as “physically very exhausting but also so rewarding. … I was just in awe of how hard the people in the community worked, and how hard we all worked. It was just a wonderful experience; a very tangible work product, too.”

The five-mile race, which starts and finishes at Falmouth High School, will begin at 9 a.m. June 12. A kids’ fun run will precede the race at 8:30 a.m., and a complimentary Honduran-style breakfast will be held afterward.

All proceeds from the race will go toward the purchase of supplies for the Hondurans. A family fun day will be held in Falmouth this fall to raise more funds.

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Log onto hondurasmission.us or e-mail Sinnett at marilynsinnett@gmail.com for more information. People can register or donate at the Honduras Web site.

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net.

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Marilyn Sinnett, foreground, was one of a local group of doctors, nurses and volunteers who visited and worked in Honduran villages two years ago after raising money for medical and construction supplies. A road race will be held in Falmouth June 12 to help raise funds for a trip next year.


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