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Teen's Life Of Service To Start In Weeks

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By KLINT LOWRY

The Suncoast News

Published: May 19, 2008

PORT RICHEY - Emily Burton doesn't know where she might go in this world, but she knows what she wants to do once she gets there.

"I want to be an advanced nurse practitioner because I know people are dying from simple things that one shot could save their lives," Emily said.

She wants to spend her life going around the world giving children the "one shot" they need.

The 13-year-old already has a game plan. When she starts at J.W. Mitchell High School next year, she will enter the Trinity-area school's health careers academy. From there, she plans to go to a college where she can study medicine in exchange for a couple years of post-graduate service working with the poor in Appalachia.

After that, she wants to join the Peace Corps. She may stick with that, or maybe join Doctors Without Borders, the independent international medical-humanitarian organization.

Emily just got her passport and looks forward to filling it with stamps from her travels.

That first stamp is just a few weeks away because - before she even takes the first step on her life plan - Emily will get a taste of working with the poor abroad. She's bound for the Dominican Republic to work with orphans through Kids International Inc.

Emily's great-great-aunt, Gayle Schultes, began the Tampa-based nonprofit after going to the Dominican Republic in 1992 to build a school. Kids International's mission was sending clothing, classroom supplies and other items to students at the school, said Emily's mother, Angela Boyd.

"In 2002, a sinkhole ate her house" in Dunedin, Boyd said. "She took it as a sign from God and moved down there permanently."

Since then, Schultes has stayed in touch with Emily and family, shocking them with accounts of the living conditions and inviting them to visit the island nation and see for themselves. In January, when Schultes was in this area for a birthday celebration, Emily became the first in her family to take Schultes up on her offer.

"I've never been out of the country, and she's always talked about it and how she enjoys working with the children," Emily said. "And it seemed like a good experience, like something I would enjoy, helping people."

It's In Her Nature To Help

It's no surprise to Boyd that Emily would want to go. Helping has always been part of her nature. When she was 3, she wanted to donate her stuffed animals to children who had to ride in police cars so they wouldn't be afraid.

When Emily was 9 and living in New Port Richey, she would complain about people having such big houses here when "children are dying of chicken pox all over the world," her mom said.

Emily said she's "expecting to be blown away" by how tough life is for the Dominican people. "She Schultes said that they're very poor. She's always asking for shoes and anything we can give. The children don't have any school supplies, like paper or pencils, anything.

"There's no AC. The power - there's power some parts of the day, then it just shuts off whenever it feels like it. We have to hand wash the laundry.

"The water is so dirty down there, you can't drink it. People get sick from it."

Full Support From Family

Despite those conditions, as well as the unrest in Haiti, with which the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola, Boyd and the rest of Emily's family fully support Emily's decision to go because of the learning experience. When she sees what real poverty is like, her mother said, Emily won't be so apt to complain about things like not being able to eat out as often as she'd like.

"I think what will hit her is when she sees the children who are the ages of her siblings," Boyd said.

Though the school there has grown in recent years, hundreds of families are on a waiting list because, with enrollment, the children get two meals a day. Many Dominican parents are forced to give up their children because they can't afford to feed them.

Emily has been saving to buy her plane tickets and a load of school supplies to take with her. She's made about $100 babysitting and has been going to local businesses looking for sponsors.

Plus, her relatives have contributed items for a yard sale all Memorial Day weekend at 8900 St. Regis Lane, Port Richey. Sponsors may contact Emily at Dominicansummer @yahoo.com.

Reporter Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com.

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