By Sonya Hollins, editor
Andy Blodgett’s cell phone seems to constantly ring. The owner of Liners U.S.A. provides quality plants and scrubs to those wanting to make their home or business look more natural. In addition to his business, he travels throughout the country for trade shows where he sells even more of this greenery.
However, for more than 10 years he and his family and friends have dedicated themselves to helping others in what seems like a world away. It’s a world without cell phones, washing machines or even homes decorated with beautiful scrubs.
Since 1991, Blodgett has piled his nearly two-ton van with everything from toys to beans and rice for impoverished families in Mexico for his “Mission to the Poor.” In 2005 alone, his family and hundreds of volunteers have worked to provided more than 4,000 new toys to children and adults who never had a toy of their own; 40,000 pounds of beans, oats and brown sugar, nearly 4,000 new clothing items and other basic toiletries for families.
It was in the late 1960s when Blodgett, his wife and six kids were on their summer vacation when they passed through a Mexican village after boarding a train in El Paso, Texas. There they saw a woman washing clothes on a rock. Something in his heart led him and his family to remember her village.
In 1991, when his business began to thrive, they returned with the help of clergy in that area to learn that the people of Jacona, Michoacan in Mexico were Indian, spoke Spanish and were still washing clothes on a rock. When he first arrived, however he was met with apprehension.
“We learned that the Purhepcha Indians were rarely offered help without something being taken from them,” Blodgett said of the area 132 miles (five-hour drive) from Los Reyes, Mexico. “They thought we (Americans) wanted their children to sell their body parts in the United States.”
Blodgett said when they realized their children were not stolen, the next year the villagers were more receptive.
“My first message to them through an interpreter was that these were not gifts from the Gringo (Americans) it was from God,” Blodgett said.
Since then, he dedicates himself to a particular village for three years before moving on to help another village. Three times a year he travels to the innermost parts of Mexico where few dare to tread. He has provided goods to those in such places as Zamora (800 miles south of Larado, Texas.
With volunteers his three-week mission trips also allow them to provide any assistance to the area from replacing much-needed water pumps to replacing old asbestos water takns with new larger ones. He said crime is rampant in areas surrounding the village however they have never experienced any threatening situations.
The Blodgetts come armed with brand new clothing and toys they purchase from department stores, mainly on clearance sales. He said Dollar General provides them with excellent rates on their clearance toys, and the beans and staples they purchase in Mexico are purchased in large bulk.
Being able to provide to those truly in need is something Blodgett, his friends, volunteers and donors feel is part of a mission. As a child Blodgett grew up on Princeton Avenue, on the Northside of Kalamazoo. He said his mother was one of the first in the area to receive Aid for Dependent Children (AFDC), so donating was not something he grew up doing. As an adult however, he has been able to teach his children the importance of giving to others.
“There is a God who gives without taking,” Blodgett said of the message he wants to send to those he serves. “When we come to the (villages) I look at it as God’s gift to them. It’s like God’s birthday party.”
