Fri, Dec 05, 2008
 Stephanie Jackter, left, shows off her Ben's Bell, with her friend, Barbara Kosta, who nominated her for her years of volunteer work.
Courtesy of Jeannette Mare packard
Assessment Technology, Inc Social Studies Content Writer Health Care Rio Salado College PA's/Online Instructors General CORT WAREHOUSE/DRIVER Construction Komatsu Equipment Co Mechanic General CORT Warehouse Supervisor Tucson RegionCompassion for needy drives Tucsonan to aid Sonora areaArizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.05.2008
The recipient of this week's Ben's Bell is Stephanie Jackter, who has been involved in many causes through the years to improve her neighborhood, her community and her world.
Jackter was nominated by her friend, Barbara Kosta, who describes her as "extraordinary."
"Not very many people are able to give so much to their communities," Kosta said. "She has faith in grass-roots efforts. She sees that she's really helping people's lives."
The women met about seven years ago, when their daughters attended Khalsa Montessori School together. The girls quickly became friends, and so did they.
Kosta said she soon noticed her new friend's activism, when Jackter started collecting used clothing and blankets from other parents at the school to take to an impoverished neighborhood in Nogales, Sonora.
Jackter had begun the work a few years earlier, after she heard about a couple of children who died from cold weather.
On her first visit to the city, she asked people where the poorest neighborhood was and soon found herself in the hillside hovels of Colonia Colosio, where homes are made of tar paper and discarded palettes, with tires for foundations.
The area is named for PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, thought of as a man of the people, who was assassinated in 1994.
"It's so humble, literally shacks with no running water. They have to have every drop they drink trucked in," she said.
"Once I saw that neighborhood, I knew that there was poverty equal to anything you'd see in the streets of Calcutta just 60 miles away from Tucson and that I had to do something."
Numerous other trips followed through the years until she ran afoul of border agents, who enforced a law governing the import/export of the merchandise.
Since the incident, which resulted in a small fine, Jackter has been focused on improving water issues for the people of Colonia Colosio.
She learned she can buy water cisterns for about $150 and provide them to families who were using discarded industrial storage containers or other unsafe units.
"The people often rely for water storage on 50-gallon drums they've gotten from maquilladoras, which could have contained any kind of chemical on Earth before they became water storage," Jackter said.
Her son completed a service-learning project on the neighborhood for school, and the people he interviewed time and again said water was their most pressing need, she said.
"I thought they'd say the biggest need was money," Jackter said. "But the first thing out of the ladies' mouths was, 'Water. We have a hard time getting water. It costs so much, and we have nothing to keep it in.' "
Jackter's efforts stem partly from the teenage years she spent in Mexico with her father, but mostly from her overall philosophy: that because she can help, she should.
"The bottom line is, I've been blessed," she said. "I've had enough food on my table, healthy kids. I've had all the blessings in the world."
It's that same perspective that's led her to neighborhood activism, involvement in her children's schools and other good works through the years.
"She's a one-woman show," Kosta said. "It's incredible."
The folks with the Bells agreed and planned a surprise belling on Monday. Kosta had asked her friend to lunch, then arranged for Jackter's husband to bring their children for the small ceremony. Kosta's daughter also attended.
The belling was extra special because everyone there already knew one another through Khalsa, Ben's brother's school.
"It felt really good to be honored," Jackter said. "I've never been recognized in the 30 years I've done volunteer work, although if I'd been doing it for recognition, I would have quit 29 years ago! This was very sweet."
She takes joy, too, in the improvements she's seen in Colonia Colosio through the years, the tar paper replaced on some houses with real walls, the tires with solid foundations. The people she's helped are helping themselves, too, she said.
"The people have banded together, made their world a better place," she said. "Little by little, you see these things change."
● L. Anne Newell
|
|
