Serving with BLUE as a volunteer has been an invaluable experience, from serving those in the Dominican Republic to being taught unmeasurable life lessons. I admire the organization greatly and highly encourage anyone considering to serve with them!
Blue has given me the opportunity to learn endless lessons that I have been able to carry with me into my life. I have a home away from home when I work with Blue and that makes me want to come back every year!
The last two years I have interned with BLUE and it has been a life-changing experience. I have learned so much about being a leader, non-profit management, and service while being in the place that I love most: the campo. Couldn't recommend the experience as a volunteer or leader more. So grateful to BLUE for all of their support, both professionally and personally. Couldn't recommend them enough!
BLUE gave me the opportunity to disconnect, immerse, and reflect. It was the home stay experience I was drawn to and an overall incredible program!
BLUE Missions is a wonderful organization that is helping build global citizens to become better-informed people with a mind leaning towards serving and bettering our world. Getting involved in the BLUE mission while in high school has opened my eyes to the reality some parts of our world face. The service trips allowed me to put myself in the shoes of those living in campos and see what it was truly like to face the water and sanitation crisis.
I have been wanting to go on a BLUE Missions trip for a few years. After waiting patiently, I was able to go on a trip this past summer. This trip exceeded my expectations. BLUE stands for Building Love Uniting Everyone and that is exactly what happens on a trip. In a short amount of time you become family with the locals, DR staff and the group you travel with. You receive so much on this trip. I recommend this trip to anyone. Come ready to serve and work!
Going to BLUE was a true gift! I was a little hesitant about going, but once I was there, I realized how powerful BLUE's mission is.
This organization has greatly help shape the person I have become today. Going on trips while I was in high school opened my eyes to the reality that people around do not live in the same ways we do. It has shaped me to become a better person and always look for ways to be giving forward. At first I was hesitant to go on BLUE but after having said YES, I have no regrets and wanted to go every summer. I can't imagine a summer without BLUE. Thank you for the impact.
BLUE Missions is breaking cycles of generational poverty by empowering communities to gain access to foundational needs like water and sanitation. I've witnessed how communities are transformed by this work. I personally know so many people in the Dominican Republic that have been able to achieve their dreams thanks to the support of this amazing organization.
I had the honor of getting to volunteer and see how the BLUE Cause Camps runs and was able to see how the organization impacts the lives of the youth to learn about climate issues in Miami and how to facilitate change.
Attending a BLUE Missions trip has always been a huge goal and dream of mine. In the summer of 2023, it finally came true and I was able to chaperone a group to the DR this summer. It was an amazing and immersive experience where we truly got to view and be a part of the Dominican culture all the while we worked on bringing clean sanitation to the community. 10/10 would recommend to anyone who is looking to get out of their comfort zone. It was a wonderful way to grow in community and help others.
BLUE Missions works to connect families with access to clean water and sanitation in rural communities around Latin America. I've travelled to serve with them multiple times and each time my life has been enhanced by the experience. Working and living alongside locals is such a genuine way to immerse yourself into the lifestyle of those living in rural poverty. As a volunteer, you witness the transformation from seeing families struggle to get clean water, to the day water arrives and they can open a faucet in their homes. This project is the most impactful service opportunity out there, both for the volunteers and the beneficiaries.
My experiences with BLUE have all been positive and extremely impactful. I have participated with them on their volunteer trips, local initiatives in Miami, and as a donor. Being active with their organization and volunteers feels like you are part of a family and a community that not only helps those less fortunate but also each other. As a volunteer, you also have an opportunity to reflect as an individual which I find very impactful in finding your own inner passions and purpose in life.
BLUE has given me an amazing and unique experience in the past couple years. I had the privilege on going with them as a volunteer to the Dominican Republic and create aqueducts for remote regions that didn't not have access to clean water before. They not only work on fighting the water crisis, but the sanitation too, making this world a better place.
Growing up I was always told the things you take for granted, someone else is praying for. I never truly understood the meaning of that until I started joining BLUE Missions in the Dominican Republic. It is through these experiences that you are able to meet countless men and women who completely blow you away with their endless compassion and their beautiful perspective on simplicity where you are able to learn so much. The way they spread their love and joy to complete strangers left, and continues to leave, such an impression in my heart. My appreciation for life, my family, and the little things in this world —such as clean drinking water—has made my heart grow and absolutely love the work we are able to do for them and these communities. Building love, uniting everyone, is my confirmation and drive towards my future career in serving others.
I spent last summer interning for BLUE Missions in the Dominican Republic. I was able to see the amount of dedication and passion that is involved behind the scenes of this organization. It is extremely organized and well run all focused around their mission of giving rural communities access to clean water and sanitation. I went to 3 different rural towns to work on 2 sanitation projects and 1 water project. It is magical what can happen being in a town only for 8 days. We are able to see a project from start to finish, see the need there is for this type of work, and see the huge impact it makes on these people's lives. BLUE Missions impacts people everyday in the most important way possible- they give them the opportunity to live a better and healthier life!!
The summers of 2016, 2017 and 2018, i had the opportunity to volunteer with an amazing organization called BLUE Missions which helps connects many families in rural communities to access clean water and sanitation. If i had to describe BLUE Missions experience every year I have volunteered i would say eye opening, discovering simplicity, and finding purpose. This organization gives me the ability to see things from a different perspective, meet new people, and interact with the locals and hear their stories every summer I have the opportunity to go back. I have been able to learn more about myself and the potential I have when I take myself out of my comfort zone and go out and experience something like BLUE Missions. There is always room to try something new in your life and I say do it when you have the chance because I would have never thought, 3 years ago, that I would love something so much like I love this organization, BLUE Missions.
BLUE's devotion to improving the lives of others is incredible. I look forward to going to the campo every year. I have been on nine different trips and have no intention of stopping. On a BLUE trip, you get to connect with the campesinos, the other volunteers, and yourself while working purposefully for a greater mission. I can't wait until I get to go back!
BLUE...
I see, hear, and think of this organization and the word I react with is “happiness”.
Why does it make me happy? Why do I love BLUE?
I look back at my experiences in this organization and I think about all the moments when I felt this happiness. I realize that I first felt it when we simply showed up and gave the people of the campo new faces to see. I felt it again when we simply introduced ourselves, struck conversation, and started making memories with them. I felt it again when we simply hammered nails, dug trenches, and brought clean water and sanitation to these people who didn’t have it before. What is it about some of these simple things that actually made me happy? Each of these things I was doing made people feel love and they brought out such big smiles! Simple, yet so powerful!
Being in the campo, this is all done so effortlessly. And I question, why? Why is it that we’re able to be so humble, loving, and HAPPY in a place that has so little? Thanks to BLUE Missions, the answer is always that we’re able to live in the moment.
Because of BLUE, I had the opportunity to expose myself to life in the campo. Because of BLUE, I was able to put away my phone and embrace and contribute to what was in front of me. I realized that the people in the campo don’t lack any more than we do. Just as we have all these material needs that we’re able to give, they’re able to give the richness in love that they have. As simple as that, it’s made me learn exactly what the world was created to be. A home for us all. A place to build love, uniting everyone.
So thanks to BLUE Missions and the beautiful lives in the campo, I have not only learned how to be happy in the campo, but I have learned that it’s meant to be spread throughout the entire Earth.
Being apart of this organization and receiving these experiences have challenged me to let these lessons learned transform my life and work through me EVEN back home. I now know that we are born to share the blessings that we have. It is our purpose in the world and that is ultimately how we will all be our happiest. CHOOSE to live in the moment, magnify the good that you can engage in, and contribute to from wherever you are in the world.
Even if it’s Monday.. it’s a new week, a new day, a new moment! We get to learn or work to enhance our lifestyles. We get to be surrounded people. So it’s all a choice to make it a happy Monday if we want it to be. Simply bring out your own smile to bring out someone else’s smile. Change up the ordinary tasks for the day and bust a move.. who knows if someone will join in and laugh too!
Thanks to BLUE Missions, I now know that this is living. And living doesn’t mean existing, it means choosing to love anyways, which means choosing to give anyways. A smile, a question of how someone’s day is going, any helping hand to show that love is present in the moment.
Live. Love. Give. They all mean the same thing to me!
Often, what many people want and need is right in front of their faces, and there are many who don’t see it...
"No one can snap their fingers and make someone happy. What you can do is help people to see what is useful for them to see. What you can do is point and hope they look.”
Now, being an intern, I was able to point and hope the volunteers looked. And when they did, I was able to help them give of themselves. This was the best part of my experience this summer. It was a feeling like no other when I got to see them reach clarity with the lessons that the BLUE experience is all about.
I realized a form of giving I am capable of. Bringing out what makes us passionate and simply ourselves. Doing that every moment of every day. Giving it to those around you, whether it be knowledge, talents, or even just a positive attitude. Be the one start the ripple of giving what we have to offer to the world.
I couldn’t think of anything more awesome than this organization and the people in it. So as many times as I’ve said “thank you BLUE”, I can’t say it enough for making a simple water drop picture be a reminder for me that each day of life is precious. Thank you for being a family open to all, waiting for the entire world to be bold, say yes, and join in on your mission.
I have been lucky enough to go on four mission trips with this amazing organization! I have completed two water trips and two sanitation trips. Each trip surprises me with how much I get out of it. It is absolutely amazing to see the beautiful faces of the Dominican people light up when clean water reaches their town or when they receive their brand new latrine. The people of the Dominican Republic are generous, welcoming, and caring, and they treat all of the volunteers as family. It is eye-opening, humbling, and inspiring to see how they live with few possessions but make the best out of everything they have, spreading positivity, love, and joy. BLUE missions is devoted to not only improving the lives of those in need but also helping volunteers find their purpose and passions. These trips make you realize that there is nothing more fulfilling than serving others, and that all you really need is clean water, proper sanitation, and people to love.
Thanks to BLUE Missions, 16 families in the community of Firme in the Dominican Republic now have access to clean water and ventilated pit latrines. They are treated with the dignity they deserve after years of not having access to water and sanitation.
This started with a choice that began with the community of Firme who contacted BLUE. Then, 11 volunteers chose to serve. They chose to serve in the same community they would sleep in. They chose service that is collaborative, compassionate, and builds community. This led to hard work that built bathrooms, something simple I take for granted. These bathrooms were made possible by the choices of former volunteers who worked alongside the same community to gain access to clean water the year before. These rights gave the community of Firme the freedom to choose how to live daily life. A campesina I got to know well, Urbina, chooses to pursue her dream career as an architect.
This cycle of service touches volunteer, campesino, staff, leader, intern, donor, you, me. It truly unites everyone. It is carefully crafted and extremely thoughtful under incredible leadership. I cannot wait to continue authentic immersion service with BLUE Missions!
BLUE Missions gives the experience of a lifetime. Everyday you do fun activities along with working and serving the communities. They have a great staff and will want you coming for more. BLUE Missions showed me what it’s like to fall in love with a strange place. I love this organization and I’m more than thrilled to be a volunteer for 3 years in a row and counting! The leaders are amazing and take care of you no matter what time it is. I am very excited to see BLUE Missions growing. I’m proud to be such a big advocate for BLUE. Best Missions trip ever!!
Waking up before the sun rise, hiking through unbelievable mountains, sweating until we were drenched, laughing until we cried, smiling until it hurt, and everything else in between, BLUE taught us that you can work hard and play just as hard meanwhile falling in love with volunteers and communities. From campo to campo we were able to meet countless men and women who just completely blew us away with their endless compassion and their beautiful perspective on simplicity each time impacting us more and more profoundly... and these were all just the cherries on top.
Growing up I was always told the things you take for granted, someone else is praying for. I never truly understood the meaning of that until I interned for BLUE Missions. It was through these experiences that I was able to meet countless men and women who completely blow you away with their endless compassion and their beautiful perspective on simplicity where you're able to learn so much. The way they spread their love and joy to complete strangers left, and continues to leave, such an impression in my heart. My appreciation for life, my family, and the little things in this world —such as clean drinking water—has made my heart grow and absolutely love the work we are able to do for them and these communities. BLUE is an acronym that stands for building love, uniting everyone, and that itself is one of the many reasons why I find myself saying yes. every. single. time.
BLUE Missions is a nonprofit like no other. Passionate young people going out into the world to make a dent in the water and sanitation crisis with the hope to end it. I have participated on 8 trips with BLUE and have served as an intern. From my experience BLUE is out there changing the world and ready for you to join the cause!
I first volunteered with BLUE Missions in 2011 after working with other non-profits abroad in the Dominican Republic. I quickly fell in love with their dual-mission of connecting rural communities to clean water & improved sanitation while cultivating a generation of global citizens through service driven travel. I returned back from my first service trip with BLUE Missions and immediately wanted to do more. In 2012, I became a board member and have seen the organization grow and reach more communities and lead students from all over the United States on international service trips.
Since inception in 2010, BLUE has worked in 73 rural communities throughout Latin America constructing safe water and sanitation systems impacting over 22,000 individuals. BLUE has facilitated authentic immersion experiences for over 1,400 high school & university students nationwide resulting in over 300,000 hours of community service.