The Expedition Blog

This afternoon a dear friend and great man entered eternity, where I trust he has already met our dear Eleanore – Don Dubuque.  The story goes, from our website:

“Eleanore’s Project began in the summer of 2003, when the principal of Colegio La Alegría en el Señor in Lima, Peru, wrote Don Dubuque of Polson, Montana about her students’ need for wheelchairs. The school serves approximately 100 students with disabilities ages 3 – 18, from the poorest parts of Lima. Don had already begun raising funds when he approached Tamara (an occupational therapist specializing in wheelchair mobility) for technical advice. Don christened the effort Eleanore’s Project, as a memorial to Tamara’s daughter.”

Eleanore  entered eternity in 2001 and Don had never even met her. I got to know Don through my work and we lived in different communities so there was never an opportunity. Yet over time he came to know her (so he told me) and he helped birth Eleanore’s Project in a very real way. I always told him he was the godfather of Eleanore’s Project and it was true. It was through his connections in Peru that we discovered an avenue for our desire to improve the lives of kids like Eleanore, and he created the name for our organization. He traveled to Peru as part of our team in 2004 and 2005, and afterward he continued steadfast and prayerful support behind the scenes. Each time I saw him Don told me that Eleanore and our family were part of his daily prayer life. On Palm Sunday 2009 we shared a wonderful brunch with Don and his lovely wife Ginny, in Polson. We dreamed a bit about whether Don might be able to return to Peru with us one more time – by then he had been living with cancer for 6 years. In his 2009 Christmas card Don wrote us that he felt he was on the last leg of his journey with cancer and he was right.

Less than a week after I returned from our 2010 Peru expedition, Ginny emailed me and I learned that Don was entering his final days here, with the support of his wonderful family and hospice. She asked me to write a bit about the beginning of  Eleanore’s Project for Don’s obituary, as it was so special to him.  It seems only fitting to honor our dear friend here in the blog as well.

Don with all of us and Milagros, the new owner of Eleanore's wheelchair in 2004