Heartwalk Foundation efforts will headline DSU meeting

ST. GEORGE — The Heart Walk Foundation founders, Tim and Penelope Eicher, will share their continuing efforts to provide humanitarian support to the Q’ero people of Peru at the Dixie State University President’s Colleagues noontime meeting on Mar 3. The colleagues meet monthly in Room 156 of the DSU Russell C. Taylor Health Science Center, located on the Dixie Regional Medical Center’s River Road campus at 1526 Medical Center Drive and the public is welcome to attend the meetings at no cost.

Tim Eicher, an associate professor of family consumer science at DSU, founded Heart Walk in 2004, and have successfully garnered considerable support and participation in their cause from the St. George area community.

One year into Heart Walk Foundation’s Grow a Mountain Garden campaign, 21 families are realizing their dreams to eat leafy green vegetables, carrots, onions, and beets. Andes Mountains, Peru, date not provided | Photo courtesy of the Heart Walk Foundation, St. George News
One year into Heart Walk Foundation’s Grow a Mountain Garden campaign, 21 families are realizing their dreams to eat leafy green vegetables, carrots, onions, and beets. Andes Mountains, Peru, date not provided | Photo courtesy of the Heart Walk Foundation, St. George News

“We are thrilled at the wonderful support we received this year,” Penelope Eicher said of the Feb. 22 annual fundraising dinner, at which $37,762 was raised in three hours. “Our central effort is to help the Q’ero gain nourishment, education and services to help increase quality of life for a people once desperate to survive.”

The Eichers were hiking in the mountains of Peru years ago when they discovered some small native tribal communities hidden in the mountains. Moved by the needs they witnessed, they “adopted” the communities and formed Heart Walk to provide funding and materials for the Q’ero people’s agriculture, farming, schools and water, health and other improvements.

This year, Heart Walk has forcused its fundraising towards providing greenhouses and solar lanterns for the Q’ero families who live in dark, stone-wall huts.

“They are very excited about the idea of having light in their homes that will allow their children to do homework,” Penelope Eicher said of the Q’ero people. “We sold enough lanterns Saturday to fulfill our promise to provide a rechargeable light for 200 Q’ero families with our buy-one-give-one campaign.”

In addition to monetary support, the Eichers have engaged supports in other ways. They lead a group to Peru every year to provide humanitarian service, for example, and their presentation to the President’s Colleagues on March 3 will include pictures from those trips.

Resources

Event details for DSU President’s Colleagues Meeting

  • When: March 3, noon
  • Where: DSU Russell C. Taylor Health Science Center Room 156, Dixie Regional Medical Center, 1380 S. Medical Center Dr., St. George
  • Admission: Free
  • Contact: Dixie State University – 435-652-7500

Related posts

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

heartwalk FEB 28 COMBO WITH OTHER MELYNDA ONE Heartwalk Foundation Efforts In Peru the Focus of the Next DSU President¹s Colleagues Meeting March 7 -- 02_24_14

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.