WATCH NOW: Schererville nonprofit collects equipment from local agencies to aid firefighters in Guatemala
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Karen Scheeringa-Parra, founder of Hearts In Motion, works with Schererville firefighters to load equipment donations for transport.
Giovanni Cordon, El Comandante, aids a child in an emergency in Guatemala. El Comandante is a title for the top fire official in Guatemala.
Schererville firefighters volunteer to help Hearts in Motion members and Guatemalan firefighters prepare donated equipment to be sent to Guatemala.
From left: Bob Baker, Karen Scheeringa-Parra, Giovanni Cordon and Edgar Sainz.
El Comandante Giovanni Cordon, left, works with a fellow bombero, or firefighter, at a crash. El Comandante is a title for the top fire official in Guatemala.
SCHERERVILLE — A total of $500,000 worth of firefighter equipment is on its way to Guatemala after a Schererville organization coordinated donations among several Indiana fire departments.
Karen Scheeringa-Parra, founder of Hearts In Motion, said she gets donations from Northwest Indiana agencies and from some as far as California. Parra said her passion for aiding first responders in Central America began 22 years ago when she happened upon a horrific fatal car crash while on a missionary trip in Guatemala.
“There were eight people pinned underneath a semi and there were these firefighters who were trying to rescue the people but they had no equipment,” Parra said. “It was in the middle of the night and they were going to have to come back in the day, but by that time, all of those people would be dead. So the group I was in recruited a few hundred people who were around the crash and we worked to unload the semi so it could be lifted off the car. Three of the eight people were saved. That was my turning point, when I saw this tremendous need.”
Ride along with LaPorte Police Specialist Justin Dyer as he patrols the streets of LaPorte.
After that experience, she began the Fire Service International Program initiative for Hearts in Motion. She said fire departments have donated air tanks, turn-out gear, firetrucks, ambulances and more that have been put in the hands of Guatemalan first responders.
Parra started Hearts in Motion, headquartered at 2210 U.S. 41 in Schererville, in 1982 which offers a number of services and resources to local residents and Central and South American communities in need.