|
| Bryan Nurnberger of Simply Smiles |
NAUGATUCK (05/04/2010) -- At the Fall Session of the 2010 Annual Meeting in October, the Connecticut Conference will present the Living Waters Award to Bryan Nurnberger, President and Founder of Simply Smiles. The seven year old not-for-profit agency began its work with the Casa Hogar Benito Juarez Children's Home in Oaxaca City, Mexico, and has expanded with housing and community development projects in Oaxaca and on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
Congratulating him on his selection, Conference Minister the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree told Nurnberger, "Your vision of justice and equity for all has helped build housing for those without, schools for those in need and food and survival skills for those in transition."
"I'm thrilled and flattered to be recognized by the UCC in Connecticut with this award," said Nurnberger, who credited the congregations in Naugatuck, Bethlehem, Monroe, and Southport for their foundational support as he was establishing the charity in 2002. "To date, we have going on fifty UCC churches supporting us.
"It's exciting for me to have it come up from the people, and to have it make such a positive noise with thousands of UCC members traveling with us to Mexico and South Dakota."
|
"Bryan's greatest gift to our local community," wrote Lori Hale in nominating him for the award, "has been his ability to show us all that we can make a difference in the world." Nurnberger founded Simply Smiles after a 2002 trip to Oaxaca, where he encountered the grinding poverty that is the lot of so many in that state of southern Mexico. He left behind a career as a professional rock climber, committing himself entirely to the nascent organization and the children it sought to help.
"He's committed to social justice; he's committed to child welfare;" said the Rev. Gordon Rankin of the Naugatuck Congregational Church UCC, Nurnberger's pastor. "And he's committed to it all for the simple reason that seeing a child hurting makes his heart ache, and I think that's very close to what it does to God's heart as well."
Simply Smiles' newest "Village Project" responds to the shocking situation of one-time coffee farmers in southern Oaxaca. Globalization has destroyed the market for their produce and brought on starvation for the population. Young people on the third Silver Lake International Mission Trip recently returned, having distributed over ten tons of food to the nearly 3000 residents of the moutainous region.
Looking further ahead, Nurnberger has initiated a pilot project to purchase their coffee for sale in the United States, restoring their livelihoods and preserving their dignity. "One bag of coffee feeds a person for an entire month," he said. Simply Smiles looks to expand the program in the fall, making the coffee available to local churches to sell after worship.
On the Cheyenne River Reservation, Nurnberger found poverty comparable to what he'd seen in Mexico. "I never thought we'd do a domestic project," he said. "The needs are staggering." As always, Simply Smiles has established strong relationships with people of the area, in this case through Margie Uses The Knife of the local Boys and Girls Clubs. Among their creative approaches is the Stone Soup Reading Club, which provides free meals to families with one condition: that they read a book with their children, promoting literacy and meeting basic needs.
Simply Smiles' first project was a partnership with a unique agency. Casa Hogar Benito Juarez Children's Home is open to children of all ages, specializes in children with disabilities, and provides education at every level. With Nurnberger's aid, Casa Hogar has added a second home serving the children of incarcerated parents, who had literally been living in the local prison.
A number of Connecticut UCC churches have worked with Simply Smiles on international mission trips. One of their big projects has been the "Dump Project," building homes and hope for twenty-eight families living off what they can scrounge from an enormous garbage dump.
Nurnberger hopes that the Living Waters Award will help build connections with additional UCC churches in the state, developing future relationships and building support for the work. "I think the timing is perfect," he said. "It's going to have a tangible impact on children in our care thousands of miles away."
The Living Waters Award recognizes a lay member of the UCC who exemplifies the central values of the denomination in his or her daily life and work. The Fall Session of the Connecticut Conference Annual Meeting will be held October 22-23 at the Middletown High School in Middletown, Connecticut.
