By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
![A group from St. Brendan High stands with a new latrine they helped build while on a BLUE Missions trip in March 2024 to La Pieza, Dominican Republic.](https://www.miamiarch.org/Atimo_s/articles_images/2024/05/BLUE_1w_1715790802.jpg)
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
A group from St. Brendan High stands with a new latrine they helped build while on a BLUE Missions trip in March 2024 to La Pieza, Dominican Republic.
MIAMI| A group from St. Brendan High School participated in a five-day BLUE Missions trip to the Dominican Republic in March 2024. Administrators, alumni, parents of alumnus, faculty, and Principal Ivette Alvarez traveled to the rural villages of La Pieza, known as "El Campo," where they assisted BLUE in a sanitation project for the community.
![Children from La Pieza, Dominican Republic, wear their new St. Brendan High School drawstring bags given to them as gifts by a group from St. Brendan's who participated in a BLUE Missions trip to their community.](https://www.miamiarch.org/Atimo_s/articles_images/2024/05/BLUE_2w_1715790802.jpg)
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Children from La Pieza, Dominican Republic, wear their new St. Brendan High School drawstring bags given to them as gifts by a group from St. Brendan's who participated in a BLUE Missions trip to their community.
Since 2010 BLUE has educated and empowered its participants to advocate for a world where there is water for all. Through service-driven trips volunteers help build water systems that achieve those goals.
During their time in La Pieza, St. Brendan's group built latrines for the poorest and most vulnerable of the community. The efforts of this sanitation project extended far beyond the physical structures that were built. The greatest realization was demonstrated in the mutual love and respect shared between the residents of La Pieza and St. Brendan participants.
To strive to be an agent of hope, charity, and human dignity is the noblest endeavor for anyone. St. Brendan High's motto challenges its community to allow Christ to lead them, and in doing so He will change their hearts and the world. The wisdom of this motto lies in the fact that once you recognize Christ's presence in your own heart, you recognize him in the hearts of others. It is exactly what the group from St. Brendan encountered in every moment and every person they worked alongside with in the Blue Mission trip.