ZELIENOPLE - Rotarians David "Skip" Kennedy and Don Ridgley first traveled to Honduras two years ago. Their trip included visiting a school and its 704 students at the Escuela Republica De Honduras, Colonia Reynel Funez near Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

But this was no ordinary grade school. It barely had books for the children, its sanitary conditions were unsafe and its educational facility was inadequate.

In the two years since the two Rotarians visited the school, the Zelienople Rotary Club, which recently celebrated its 80th anniversary, adopted the Central American school as its international project.

"Some of the classes are very overcrowded," said Ridgley, who first learned of the school three years ago through missionary work. "There may be 50 people in a classroom."

He thought it would be a good project for the Rotary club to undertake.

"They have very few classroom books," said Kennedy. "They may have two books for 50 kids in a single classroom. The school's enrollment has increased from 567 to 704 students in two years. Grades one through six are taught at the school."

The school year at the Honduran school runs from mid-February through the summer and into November.

For some children, the sixth grade is their final year of education and others don't get any formal education.

Malnutrition is also a problem for many children at the school.

"One teacher told us that she goes outside the classroom to eat her lunch because she knows that many of her students are hungry," said Ridgley, "and she does not want to eat in front of them."

He added that teachers in Honduras hardly make enough money to feed their own families. Teachers typically make between $41 and $55 per week.

Honduras is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, according to Ridgley, and almost 40 percent of the population are children 18 years or younger. More than 50,000 Honduran children die each year from waterborne illnesses and parasites, he said.

The elderly suffer and have little or no access to quality health care when they are sick, and unemployment and underemployment are also very high. The average wage for an uneducated Honduran is the equivalent of 25 cents an hour, said Ridgley.

During the last trip to Honduras, the Rotary Club was able to donate 400 Spanish textbooks purchased in town and more than 700 toothbrushes donated by local dentists.

"They treat you like gold," said Kennedy. "You know they appreciate it."

They were also able to provide a sewing machine, a typewriter, a piano keyboard, toothpaste, dental hygiene pamphlets in Spanish, teaching and first aid supplies and four meals for all of the students last year."They just treated us so well down there, you just want to help," said Kennedy.Providing clean potable water, improving the latrines and constructing additional classrooms and a security wall are all needed at the school. Those are now the goals for the international service project.Ridgley said the improvement project will be done in phases over the course of at least several years. However, the club would like to get clean, drinkable water to the facility and improve the latrines at the school as soon as possible. That project is estimated to cost around $9,000.Water is currently bought and hauled in by truck or is collected from the rooftops when it rains. The latrines were also nearly full when Ridgley and Kennedy visited in March.The Zelienople Rotary Club most recently has been able to team up with the Club Rotario Tegucigalpa SUR and Schools for the Children of the World, a non-profit organization of architects, to supervise a proposed construction project at the school.The Zelienople club will seek matching grants from Rotary International for the qualifying phases of construction such as the water supply and latrine improvements.Kennedy said the Zelienople members will be visiting other local Rotary clubs in hopes of gaining support for their international service project and, hopefully, to help speed up the construction projects, estimated to cost more than $70,000.The improvement projects will be done in phases and the speed of the completion of the projects will depend on how quickly the funding is raised."The Zelienople Rotary Club welcomes the participation of other Rotary clubs and non-Rotarians who wish to help with this very worthwhile project," said Ridgley.

The Zelienople Rotary Club is raising money for its international service project to help improve an elementary school in Honduras. To donate, mail checks to the Zelienople Rotary Club, c/o Honduras School Project, P.O. Box 245, Zelienople, PA 16063.