Volunteer in Dominican Republic | Pico Duarte: Trek for Clean Water

I highly recommend sticking to the training schedule they provide; it will be tough, but worth it! I trained minimally but focused a lot on cardio and I was okay. Don’t be afraid! It doesn’t matter if you run marathons every weekend or are a beginner like me: the beauty of the hike is that you can go at your own pace. Feel the fear and do it anyways!

It depends on what part of the hike you’re on, but BLUE gives you a detailed outline on their site. During the hike, we would have an early start, hike throughout the trail with a local guide and your group, see the most breath taking views, pause for light lunch or snack, and end at a camp site where you can reflect, eat, and prepare for the next day to come.

We were encouraged to reflect during the hike, which enhanced the journey for me tremendously, and you have ample opportunity throughout the day. You also get to visit a community BLUE has brought clean water and/or sanitation to, so you can see how your contribution has come to life in a community. It’s incredible and by far one of my favorite days on the trip because I was able to meet community members and immerse myself in their lives, their culture.

My biggest fear going on Pico Duarte was the physical demand of the trip as well as the fundraising component. BLUE Missions has the most dedicated team that squashed those fears for me with their support and reassurance. I had never done a hike of this caliber or thought I’d ever be able to do one. With their training guide, as well as awesome leaders who motivated me, I was able to go on an incredible hike with an amazing group of women.

This programm opened my mind to the possibilities we have to serve others. I never thought something as simple as a hike could provide families with clean water and sanitation. If you love adventure and would seek out a trip like this anyways, I think it’s an incredible exercise in understanding what the walk for water looks like for so many people.

If you never thought you could do something like this, look into this hike. If I could do it so can you. It challenged me to think bigger than me and when I came back from the trip, I was motivated to see how other facets of my life could be fused with service and I obtained an service internship in Bologna Italy, where I studied abroad this past semester. Grab a friend and sign up; you won’t regret it.

I've worked with hundreds of participants throughout the years and their experiences and stories with our organization always give me goosebumps. BLUE Missions was started to create a generation of global citizens who will go out and tackle the problems that exist in our world. We have an intern who has volunteered with us every year since 2013. She will be graduating this May from college and, before entering law school, she decided that she wanted to take a gap year and work with us in the field.

As an organization, you know you are doing something right when your volunteers return back year after year. We are excited to work with her and see what new ideas she can bring to our team to make our projects and trip experiences better.

I believe that everyone, at least once in their lifetime, needs to go on an immersion service trip. Although I have been on all of the programs we offer multiple times, I would still choose to participate on one of our water or sanitation service trips. When you live with a community for 8 days and you wake up with the roosters, work alongside of the community members to construct their project, and spend evenings playing dominos and listening to bachata, you really get a new perspective on life.

You quickly learn that the things that you have been stressing out about back at home shouldn't be your main priority, and happiness doesn't come from having everything. Also, working together with the locals to assist in the construction of a community-led project is a great thing to be a part of. By the end of the trip, you are no longer a stranger. You are apart of the community and their families.

I would also recommend our Pico Duarte Trek. If you are an adventure junkie, love hiking or just being outdoors, this trek up Pico Duarte is the program for you.

BLUE Missions is unique in that as part of our dual mission to connect rural communities to clean water and sanitation is also our mission to cultivate a generation of global citizens through serve-driven travel. We are not just immersing our volunteers into a community for a few hours to learn from the locals. We are living and working hand in hand with these communities and our employees on the ground to make clean water and sanitation a reality in just 8 days. Our volunteers do not get bused in from hotels in the city: they sleep in the local schools or churches on cots and are part of the everyday hustle and bustle within the community.

At the end of every year, we gather all of our employees from the US and the Dominican Republic for a nice little vacation after a full year of hard work and success. Watching everyone spend time together and enjoy each others company is always one of my favorite moments of the trip. Even though we may not live in the same city or country and we may not see each other every day, when we are united, it's a big family reunion that exudes so much love and passion for each other and for our organization.

The biggest factor is always staying true to yourself and being authentic. When everything you do is with the right intentions, transparent, sustainable, organized and purpose driven, you will succeed. You must be authentic and follow your mission every single day. The day that you get side tracked or do something that goes against your mission, is the day you are not being true to yourself and could cause rifts within your organization.