Directors and Coordinator of the Guatemala Stove Project
Our Coordinator
Tom Clarke
Tom first traveled to Guatemala in 1985 as a volunteer for Peace Brigades International. In 1999, Tom founded the GSP after two weeks of building stoves for CEDEC (an Indigenous NGO, still the GSP's major stove building partner). During these last ten years, Tom has devoted most of his time and energy to helping the GSP become what it is today. Since 1999, Tom has spent a month each winter in Guatemala. Xela has become Tom's second home. Tom is deeply grateful for the strong support so many people have given the GSP, this has made so much good work possible in Guatemala.
Tom's other jobs are being a carpenter, stone builder, father of four, and grandfather of two. Tom especially wishes to thank his partner Rita Redner for her support and wisdom that has contributed so much.
The GSP reaches out and challenges people to become directly involved in improving the lives of impoverished Maya.
Our Board of Directors
Our board comprises three members, who each serve a three-year term. At the annual general meeting each year, one member's term concludes and a new member is elected by the general membership.
Fiscal year 2008/2009
Ron Powers, Liz Ballantyne-Jackson, Regan Lee
Regan
Being raised as the eleventh child in a family of twelve, Regan Lee knew what it was like to do without, to share, and to live within the family's means - however he was not prepared for his first volunteer trip to Guatemala. The experience changed him for life. Although his day job is in real estate development and sales, his real passion aside from his dedication to his two young daughters and wife of 19 years is the Guatemala Stove Project. Hearing of the project through the local papers and friends, Regan first travelled to Guatemala as a volunteer in 2007. In 2008 he joined fellow volunteer Paul Hauraney in driving the mobile medical bus through the U.S. and Mexico to its destination in Guatemala. Regan then had the pleasure of seeing the country of Guatemala through the eyes of his twelve-year-old daughter who joined him on the 2009 volunteer trip.
Regan plans to use his experience as a entrepeneur and developer to raise funds and promote the benefits of the GSP both locally and nationally. He is looking forward to serving on the Board of Directors, and believes that with the help of all the dedicated volunteers, many families will enjoy the great benefits of having a new stove in their home. Regan encourages anyone with the passion to help others to get involved with the Guatemala Stove Project, and make a difference now.
Regan was elected to the board in 2008.
Liz
Liz is currently an elementary school teacher with the Ottawa Carleton Board of Education. She has been teaching for close to 30 years. Some of the highlights of her teaching career are working with Native Canadian children on a reserve in Northwestern Ontario, working as a teacher librarian in Nepean, and teaching computer studies and English to French Immersion students.
Prior to her teaching career Liz completed a degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Queen's University. As part of that degree program, she spent a year at the School for Foreign Students (UNAM) in Mexico City. During that time she travelled extensively in Mexico and developed a great appreciation for the indigenous people and culture. Though her career path lead her in other directions, she retained her interest in Latin America in general, and the Mayan people in particular. The Guatemala Stove Project will be a wonderful opportunity for Liz to renew those past interests.
Liz was elected to the board in 2007.
Ron
Ron has volunteered for the GSP since late 2002 in various capacities and very much enjoyed the 2005 field trip to Guatemala to build stoves and to work on speaking Spanish (si senor).. He has also done volunteer work in Africa (Ethiopian famine in 1983), while working for the International Red Cross.
He took an early retirement from Bell Canada marketing in 2002 to pursue his interest in education / recreation and since then has been teaching at Algonquin College, School of Business, as well as facilitating business courses to all Ontario college students via the internet (i.e. Ontario Learn). In his home town of Perth he is a program coordinator for aquatic leadership training courses at the Perth & District indoor pool.
Ron enjoys swimming regularly (masters), sea kayaking during the spring, summer and fall, and travelling during the winter.
Ron was elected to the board in 2005.
Fiscal year 2007/2008
Liz Ballantyne-Jackson, Samantha Evans, Ron Powers
Sam Evans
Sam has been a volunteer for the GSP since 2005 and became a Director in June 2006. She is originally from the UK, but is now a permanent resident of Canada, having fallen in love with the country while undertaking some research here.
In a professional capacity Sam is a senior policy analyst and researcher with a breadth of experience in charity regulation, management and policy development. She is currently completing a PhD in Organizational Behavior related to charity regulation. Volunteering for the GSP, at a practical grass roots level, balances the more theoretical and policy driven perspectives she encounters in the other areas of her life.
Sam was drawn to the work of the GSP because of the many ways in which its work has an impact on those it helps in terms of health, poverty, employment and environmental impact. Sam's affinity for Guatemala comes for an extensive period of travel she undertook around South and Central America in 1999.
Sam was elected to the board in 2006.
Fiscal year 2006/2007
Jim Wallace, Samantha Evans, Ron Powers
Jim Wallace
Jim works in Ottawa in the high tech industry. He heard of the project in the summer of 2000, and made his first trip to Guatemala in February 2001. He went again in 2002 and 2003 with the GSP, and in 2005 helped deliver four used school buses by joining the Caravan of Hope in Toronto and driving them to Central America. In February 2007 he travelled again to Guatemala as a team leader with the GSP, and in 2009 made his sixth trip, focusing on initiating a data-gathering project to support carbon offset credit accreditation for the stoves.
He continues to be drawn to the project due to the very direct nature of the help it provides. He also appreciates that there is minimal imposition of North American values on the Guatemalan culture.
Jim was elected to the board in 2004.
Hans Sinn
Hans served on the board of the GSP from 2001 through 2006, where he contributed insight and advice drawn from some 50 years of experience working with volunteer organizations. He was a founding member of the Brooke Valley Rural Cooperative, Peace Brigades International, and Nonviolent Peace Force Canada, and over the years has focused much of his time on unarmed resistance, gender equality, peacekeeping, peace making, and peace building.
Hans has also written extensively, for International Humanist, Peace Magazine, International Perspectives, Peace News (London), and Geopolotik (Bad Godesburg), as well as giving talks at many conferences.
He is presently a board member of PBI Canada, a member of the Israel Palestine Working Group, the Federal Department of Peace Working Group, the Coordinating Committee of the Canadian Afghan Peace Partnership, and the Chair of the Civilian Peace Service Canada Development Committee.
Hans has been married 44 years, has four children, and lives in the house he built in 1970 in Brooke Valley, 20 km west of Perth, Ontario.
Maureen McGahey
Maureen worked extensively with youth in the last 15 years and now works as a freelance writer. She sees the great positive impact the GSP has on the lives of the recipients and the volunteers. Through the Stove Project, she continued her commitment to working for peace and justice and for the integrity of the environment. Maureen is the mother of five sons and lives in rural Perth, Ontario.
Doug Black
Glenn Gangnier