When Acton resident Jill Dales first set foot in Honduras earlier this year, the culture shock was immediate.
That didn’t stop her from falling in love with the country. She also grew to love the kids she was teaching English at Superior Glove’s camp in Búfalo, Honduras.
She speaks of trying locally cultivated cocoa and coffee beans, but that experience pales in comparison to the hugs of children she worked with.
“It was the best way to start the day. It was better than coffee,” she said.
“Leaving those kids is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I just didn't want to come back.”
Superior Glove started the Children’s English Camp in 2023 to educate the kids of local Honduran employees in the language. The classes run for four weeks during their holidays and the volunteers each do two weeks in the country.
The curriculum, created by a Canadian teacher, balances structured lessons with engaging activities that reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure, art projects where children express themselves in English, music and movement activities to make learning more dynamic, and cultural exchange discussions to help students connect globally.
Much like many other Superior Glove volunteers who go to the Central American nation to teach English, Dales was taken by the enthusiasm and warmth of the children.
"The way that they embrace you, bring you things, give you things, write you notes, draw you pictures; I have 32 new kids as far as I'm concerned," Dales reminisced. "That bond that was built, that was pretty special."
Her routine switched between moments of serious study and learning through play. Soccer, hopscotch and jump rope are all integrated into the day’s lessons. Immersion was the name of the game, where teachers recreated the world for them in English, although some translation was used where needed.
Superior Glove HR manager Iveth Fiallos, a Honduran, describes the program as “more of a show and tell.”
“Of course, the teacher will give a classroom [lesson] but not necessarily that formal,” she explained. “The curriculum has activities that will make the kids draw, cut, paste with the themes and topics that are being taught. So it's a hands-on environment for them.”
A local elementary school lends them space to do their lessons. Roughly 30 of the students are the children of employees, but a handful who don’t have parents working for Superior Glove are specially selected to attend as well.
“The benefit for the kids is learning a second language in a Spanish-speaking society or culture. It gives them a competitive advantage,” said Heather Larsen, the company's global Human resources partner.
For her, this spirit of adding value to the lives of their employees, both Canadian and Honduran, “connects people.”
“We know it works well because we're getting repeat students coming back year over year,” Larsen said. “Our teachers come back with amazing stories. They connect and bond with the kids. They make friendships there. They stay connected quite often with the kids after the school is over.”
To further foster connections, Superior Glove introduced a new program this year called Development Day, where the volunteer teachers get a tour of Superior Glove’s plant in Honduras.
Dales, who recently welcomed new twin grandchildren into her family, says she loves kids and wanted to walk away with a memento from her time in the country. She bought a white T-shirt with a parrot on it. She gave it to the kids to sign and it now hangs on the chair in her office at Superior Glove.
“I would have loved to be there for the graduation,” she said. “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
