Woodland Banquet

Sharing the Legacy

More than 250 friends and family of the late Ansgar Schei, a businessman from Woodland, WA, gathered on April 24 to carry on a tradition Ansgar started when he was 75 years old -- saving lives. Ansgar passed away last January, but his friends remembered him well by raising more than $93,000 to help the sick and malnourished families of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Oaxaca is Mexico’s second poorest nation is home to an estimated 3.4 million people. More than a third of this population lives on less than $3 per day.

"All around the world in places like Chicujal, Guatemala, Woodland is known as the small community with a big heart," reported Frank Nichols, a Medical Teams International volunteer who visited where Woodland's gifts from last year helped Medical Teams International deliver lifesaving water to the families of Chicujal, Guatemala.

Woodland is indeed a community with a big heart. In the past 18 years, they have raised more than $1.2 million for people suffering from disaster, conflict and poverty. This year’s efforts will help Oaxacan families remain healthy through health, nutrition education and sanitation projects.

The evening featured a video of Ansgar when he said, "If I had to do my whole life over, I wouldn't change a thing." For the thousands of lives that have been changed by Ansgar's generosity in organizing this banquet each year to save lives, and for those he has inspired to carry on this legacy … we are grateful that he didn't change a thing either.

By living his life as he did, Ansgar, changed and saved thousands of lives instead.

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