Volunteer’s suggestion nets building for JBU

— After working side by side with students and professors from John Brown University building bathrooms in Guatemala for some of the country’s poorest residents, Little Rock contractor Dave Constien felt compelled to help the Siloam Springs university.

When Constien’s employer decided to dispose of a former grocery store building it owned on U.S. 412 in Siloam Springs, Constien suggested donating it to the university as a contribution to its $110 million capital campaign.

“I don’t know what impressed him,” said professor Joe Walenciak, who worked with Constien. “We are very grateful.”

Thomas F. James Realty Limited Partnership transferred ownership of the building, appraised at $2 million, to the university this month, and an anonymous donor pledged to match the proceeds from its sale. The funds will create endowed scholarships for business majors and children of missionaries, said Paul Eldridge, the university’s development director.

“This gift could affect hundreds of students,” he said.

The scholarships will require academic merit and financial need. They will be provided at amounts up to $3,000 at the discretion of financial-aid directors, Eldridge said.

Constien declined to comment Thursday.

“John Brown University has a great mission of educating and empowering young people to make a positive change in the world,” he said in a written statement. “TFJ Realty is proud to be a part of this important work.”

JBU’s Students in Free Enterprise team and graduate business students have several ongoing projects in Santa Cruz, a small city in Guatemala’s southern region.Constien, a volunteer, traveled with a group from Rogers’ Fellowship Bible Church, supervising plumbing on the bathroom project that John Brown students had already initiated, Walenciak said.

“We’ve tried to introduce other groups to the area,” he said. “The more folks the better.”

The bathrooms the team constructed replaced outdoor, open-air showers, which were unhygienic and created a safety hazard for women exposed to passers-by.

Students also constructed wood-burning stoves, replacing the open fires people typically use to cook in their homes, Walenciak said. The stoves use the same amount of fuel in two weeks that the previous fires used in two days, and they reduce burn hazards for children, he said.

Students also help women in the area develop business plans to produce and sell their textiles to support their families.

“I think we need to be sensitive to some of the needs in the world that we can do something about,” Walenciak said. “Students come back transformed. They come back challenged to think about the world around them.”

The university has collected about $90 million toward its $110 million Keeping the Faith capital campaign, which will fund endowed scholarships and building projects at the interdenominational Christian university. Most recently, an anonymous donor contributed $8 million for a new construction-management and engineering building.

Contributions to the campaign have made the fiscal year that ends Wednesday the most successful year for fundraising in the university’s history, spokesman Rachel Fiet said.

Arkansas, Pages 17 on 06/26/2010

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