May 17, 1998
760 Southern Arizona high school seniors triumph
Teens plan careers in medicine, music, media
Service benefits AIDS patients, the environment, accident victims
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May 17, 1998 |
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OVERCOMING OBSTACLES 760 Southern Arizona high school seniors triumph |
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GOAL-ORIENTED Teens plan careers in medicine, music, media |
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HELPING HANDS Service benefits AIDS patients, the environment, accident victims |
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Chris Richards,
The Arizona Daily Star
Lahna Hileman receives satisfaction from helping others.
By Melanie Agtual
Special to The Arizona Daily Star
Lahna Hileman believes in volunteerism, as her list of community-service projects proves.
She has planted a vegetable garden on a Lakota Indian Reservation, near the Badlands in South Dakota. She has installed water pumps for families in the Sierra Madre Occidental, a mountain range on the west coast of Mexico.
The 18-year-old Kino School senior has also helped the Seri Indians of Punta Chueca, near Kino Bay, Sonora, on a project to create a breeding center for chuckwallas - an endangered iguana.
``I do it more for myself than I do it for anybody else,'' said Hileman, who said service projects make her feel that she is contributing to better society.
During the summer of 1995, Hileman traveled to the Lakota Reservation with 13 American Friends Service Committee volunteers. Hileman joined Quakers from across the nation and Canada in a project that led to a community vegetable garden on the reservation.
She toiled each morning in a field alongside children, teaching them how to plant and care for vegetables, including squash, peppers, carrots and potatoes.
``Families had little to no access to fresh fruits or vegetables,'' said Hileman. She said the project's goal is to curb malnutrition on the reservation.
Hileman said that during her stay there, she made a personal commitment to traveling and helping others.
In March, her work with the Quakers took her to the small village in the Sierra Madre Occidental. There, she dug and cleared a plot of land for a cistern.
The cistern provided water for eight families who before hauled water off the property of neighbors, or a nearby river, Hileman said.
On this trip, Hileman also assisted the Seri Indians near Kino Bay with the first phase of a project co-sponsored by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
The project, which is expected to enhance tourism, will create a breeding center for chuckwallas, said Hileman, who worked as a digger. She said the project is expected to be completed in several years.
When not traveling with the Quakers, Hileman has offered her services as a caregiver to the Tucson Interfaith HIV-AIDS Network.
In 1996, Hileman underwent training through the group and was educated about the AIDS virus. The training also covered issues surrounding death and the emotional roller coaster experienced by the family and friends of the ill.
Hileman helped a couple for five months by lending an ear during difficult periods. ``Sometimes, they just needed someone to talk to, just to listen. Other times, they needed help with cleaning and cooking,'' she said.
In another case, she befriended a man who was in the late stages of the illness. ``His condition made being around him more intimate. I became closer to him. I sat and just talked to him and wrote letters for him. He was living in a nursing home, and in his last days he was in a hospice,'' Hileman said.
Hileman said both men died. Their deaths were difficult, but in training she learned the importance of caring for herself and letting go.
``I was able to become a counselor and a friend. It was very satisfying. I was trained how to deal with death, but I probably learned more about living.
``Death makes you realize the things you take for granted,'' said Hileman, who plans to work for a year before enrolling in a college.
Melanie Agtual is a senior at Pueblo High Magnet School.