With newly minted college degrees in hand, a pair of newlyweds are forgoing two years of earning power and career building to help orphans.
Amy (Harrigan) Linck and her husband, Bryan, leave January 6 for a two-year sojourn at the Hope of a Child orphanage in the city of Monte Cristo, situated in the northwest corner of the Dominican Republic. A Dominican pastor and his wife founded the orphanage, which serves approximately 40 boys and girls ages 3-18. Residents are a mix of true orphans as well as children abandoned by their families due to poverty; many sibling groups reside at the facility.
"Most are elementary age kids,” said Amy, who with her husband will help run the orphanage. "The kids go to public schools and we'll tutor them and the English school that I'm going to run is a separate school.”
The 2000 Traverse City Central High School graduate completed her bachelor's degree in secondary education with majors in Spanish and English at Central Michigan University in May. In August, Amy married her husband, Bryan, a native of Hartland, who completed his bachelor's degree in education at Central Michigan University this month.
The pair decided that their early 20s were the perfect time to give back instead of jumping right into a traditional post-college trajectory.
"Friends and family especially kind of thought we were crazy for not getting a real job and making real money,” said Amy. "But there's not a better time and once I start my career I'll stick with it.”
The couple will not receive a salary during their stay although basic living expenses are covered as they live, work and eat on site. The organization Orphanage Outreach based in Arizona coordinates finances and volunteers for the orphanage. In fact, it was Orphanage Outreach's streamlined spring break volunteer program that first connected Amy and the orphanage. In addition to multiple spring break trips, Amy also spent a semester there, which boosted her fluency in Spanish tremendously.
While the Dominican Republic is a poor country in the Caribbean, the eastern half of an island that also includes Haiti, the people are hospitable and the climate beckoning to a Michigan native.
"The culture and language, that's the fun part for me,” said Amy, who also studied abroad in Spain during college. "Dominican people are so very friendly, so happy, relaxed and happy. Whenever you're walking by they're very friendly but I do stick out there with blond hair and blue eyes.”
Back at CMU after her first trip and intrigued with the Orphanage Outreach program, which has brought thousands of volunteer college students to the orphanage since the 1990s, Linck shared the opportunity with other students at the university. The next spring break she took 15 students down to volunteer at the facility, where they taught English and tutored orphanage residents in other academic subjects.
"The kids know when it's spring, the Americans come,” said Amy of the orphans. "Sometimes a church group will come.”
Acknowledging that it will be tough to be away from family for so long, the Lincks hope to spend Christmas in Michigan next year, a break halfway through their stay. They also have a web site and a blog and plan to regularly post pictures and a newsletter.
"The kids are like kids anywhere,” said Amy. "Just like the kids here, they want Nike shoes — Sammy Sosa [the baseball star who is a Dominican Republic native] has Nikes so they all want those shoes. And even thought they don't know English, they can sing any Backstreet Boys song all the way through in English.”
For more information on the Linck's two years in the Dominican Republic, see their web site www.dominicanlincks.org. For more information on the Orphan Outreach program, see their web site at www.orphanage-outreach.org.