Wednesday, 8 October 2008

Former student speaks about importance of aid work

The Exponent, IN

By Mikel Livingston
Assistant Campus Editor
Publication Date: 10/07/2008

Purdue alumna Sally Brown spends time with children in Cambodia as part of Ambassadors for Children.

Thanks to a six-month stretch of rheumatic fever, Purdue alumna Sally Brown is now CEO of an organization that has touched thousands of lives.

Brown, the founder of the nonprofit Ambassadors For Children, was on campus Monday night to speak to the organization's Purdue chapter. The University is a special place for Brown, who graduated from Purdue with a hotel and tourism management doctorate in 2005.

But before that, in third grade, a case of rheumatic fever left Brown bedridden for more than six months. She began collecting postcards from around the world, dreaming of either joining the Peace Corps as a teacher or becoming a flight attendant.

She decided to do both, pursuing a teaching degree while working as a flight attendant part time. After receiving her bachelor's degree, Brown worked full time in the flight industry, eventually becoming president and CEO of Ambassadair Travel Club.

But something was missing.

"In 1998, I reflected on my favorite trips and I realized they were in the late '70s when I was taking trips to Honduras and Haiti when I got to do some humanitarian work," Brown said. "On one flight to Haiti, medical doctors were on the plane to Haiti and during the trip they asked us to come over and work. We put eyeglasses on people who wouldn't have had eyeglasses. Hundred and hundreds showed up to see these doctors."

The impact resulted in the formation of Ambassadors for Children, and Brown was surprised by the turnout of volunteers.

"When we offered our first trip, I thought we'd get maybe 30 volunteers," Brown said. "We ended up filling a jet."

Now Ambassadors for Children has more than 30 branches and has helped more than 50,000 children across the globe.

"It brings out the selflessness in people," said Lance Nelson, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and president of the Purdue chapter. "We, as students of a prestigious university, are fortunate to have the opportunities that we have. These children that we help do not have these opportunities, but they should."

The Purdue chapter of Ambassadors for Children offers trips to El Salvador every spring break, and there is talk of further expansion, including a trip to Africa in summer 2009.

Brown is proud of her alma mater but knows there is more work to be done.

In March 2008, Brown went to Cambodia where she met Scott Neeson, the former president of 20th Century Fox, who has now dedicated his time to meeting the needs of Cambodia's people.

"The first question he asked me was, 'Sally, have you seen extreme poverty?' I thought I had until he took me to one of the largest toxic landfills in the world. And here are children living and working in this dump for pennies a day," Brown said. "I will be forever touched by that experience and hopefully students who experience Ambassador for Children trips will have that same effect."

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