A description of the 1998 Donor Seminar
Homecoming Week of 1998 coincided with the gathering of Ezra
Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute supporters on the
Brigham Young University campus. Every two years the Benson
Institute invites its primary donors to meet with the organization’s
administration and personnel in order for the donors to become
acquainted with the Institute’s latest activities. This donor
seminar affords an opportunity for the Institute’s financial
supporters to witness the success brought about by their contributions
and to offer input and suggestions for future activities.
At the request of the donors, selected members of the international
Benson Institute staff and some of those who have benefited
from Benson Institute programs attend the conference along
with the employees from the Utah headquarters. At a previous
conference, a Guatemalan farmer who had participated in a
Benson Institute program addressed the donors.
This year, Bolivian Benson Institute scholars provided reports
detailing their activities both in Latin America and in the
United States. Employees from Guatemala, Ecuador, and Bolivia
reported on Benson Institute programs as well.
The Brigham Young University administration demonstrated
its support of the Benson Institute by addressing the donors
as the conference opened. Dean R. Kent Crookston, head of
the College of Biology and Agriculture, welcomed the attendees
and offered introductions. The university’s president, Merrill
J. Bateman, spoke on the positive role of the Benson Institute
at Brigham Young University.
The seminar was replete with firsthand testimony of the mission
of the Benson Institute: “to raise the quality of life for
the people of the earth through improved nutrition and enlightened
agricultural practices.” Dr. N. Paul Johnston, director of
the Benson Institute, gave a general progress report of the
Benson Institute’s recent accomplishments. Malaquías Flores
and Luis V. Espinoza, coordinators of Benson Institute programs
in Latin America, gave an overview of each area in which programs
are currently active.
Maricruz Escobar, coordinator of the nutritional activities
of the Guatemalan project; Raquel Tustón, project supervisor
in Ecuador; and Elizabeth Garcia, project operations manager
for Bolivia, provided specific information about the accomplishments
of the Guatemalan, Ecuadorian, and Bolivian projects, respectively.
Two Bolivian Benson Institute scholars, Jenny Mamani and
Luis Iturry, gave a deeper view into the work of the Benson
Institute in Bolivia by describing their thesis projects of
vegetable and meat production in the Altiplano region. Thus
the donors were able to see both the panorama and the details
of the work that they support.
In addition to these employees and scholars, Susan Eldredge,
a BYU student who fulfilled an internship with the Benson
Institute during the spring of 1998, reported to the donors
about her positive experience in the communities near Chiquimula,
Guatemala. Jenni Skalla, the granddaughter of donor Judy Skalla,
spoke about her visit with her grandmother to the Guatemala
project. Altogether, donors received reliable and varied testimony
of the significance of their assistance to developmental efforts
in Latin America.
Blayne L. Hirsche, M.D., delivered the luncheon address.
As a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, he leads the Hirsche
Smiles Foundation, a self-funded organization that receives
logistical support from the Benson Institute. With the Benson
Institute’s assistance, Dr. Hirsche and his associates have
repaired physical deformities for more than 300 Latin American
children and adults. The work of Hirsche Smiles complements
the aims of the Benson Institute and Hirsche’s luncheon address
testified of the need for continued developmental help in
Latin America.
Additionally, Richard L. Brimhall, the Benson Institute’s
coordinator for development and curriculum, with Wayne Lewis
and Carl McLelland of LDS Foundation, addressed the Benson
Institute’s finances and charitable contributions in general.
Brimhall commented on the feelings of the donors toward the
seminar:
"They’ve been delighted with the donor conferences because
these conferences have given them a chance to talk and associate
firsthand with people who are carrying out the work in the
projects. Some of our donors cannot travel into third world
countries, so this gives them the opportunity to rub shoulders
with the people who are actually carrying out the projects,
who are utilizing the funds that they make available to help
people help themselves in third world countries."
The next donor seminar will be conducted in the year 2000.
The Benson Institute administration looks forward to presenting
progress reports to our donors once again. Brimhall confirms
that the associates of the Benson Institute are greatly indebted
to the donors for their concern and they appreciate their
generous support of the Institute’s programs.
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