Jake Arnolds Memorial Build - Guatemala 2018

Everyone who knew Jake knows he loved working in developing countries to improve the lives of others. Still grieving six months after his passing, a group of Jake’s close friends and family started wondering how we could honor Jake’s memory and spirit and decided to travel Guatemala to build a home with Habitat for Humanity.

Why Guatemala?

In 1994 Jake’s soccer team the Club Denver Warriors traveled to Guatemala to participate in a soccer tournament, organized by our assistant coach Carlos Miron Senior who grew up in Guatemala, and head coach Pepe Cornejo. Far from being a typical soccer tournament, it was a true adventure for 13-year old Jake. In addition to the soccer games, we stayed with families from the “rival” teams and cruised around the country in a big old school bus. One of our journeys took us to Lake Atitlan, a huge lake surrounded by misty volcanos and small towns, inhabited mostly by small scale subsistence and coffee farmers.

I’m convinced that like many of us, it was on this trip to Lake Atitlan that Jake caught the travel bug, a life long “affliction” that enriched his life in many ways. After the eye-opening trip to Guatemala, Jake spent a year in Chile as an exchange student, where he learned the value of global citizenry and the importance of expanding one’s worldview. Jake then served as an election observer for the 2000 Mexican presidential elections while studying sustainable development and Inter-American Relations in Southwestern Mexico. He studied in Northeast Brazil examining issues of social justice, development, and Portuguese. He also spent two and a half years traveling through Latin America teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). After five years as a bilingual investigator for the Colorado State Public Defenders office, providing the accused with legal defense services, Jake returned to graduate school at the University of Denver, earning his MA in International Development. He also worked as a Monitoring and Evaluation Intern for El Porvenir, a non-profit that provides rural Nicaraguans access to clean water, improved sanitation, and health education. More recently Jake served as a group leader for Walking Tree Travel, guiding ten high school students and two teachers through Peru. As part of this program Jake worked with community leaders to guide the participants through the community service element of their trip.

Jake dedicated his life to serving communities, both local and international and voiced his interest in joining a Habitat for Humanity Global Village team to build homes in partnership with low-income families. Sadly, that dream was never realized before Jake’s passing. We will carry the torch in Jake’s honor and continue the important work he was so passionate about.

Please join us in this partnership by supporting our team’s fund-raising efforts. This is a team fund raising page, so all fund raised here will support all team members.

Much love familia!