About Mike

The following story about Becky's brother, Mike, appeared in the Birmingham News 11/11/07

He loved life but questioned convention
ERIN STOCK
News staff writer

Pieces of Mike Prichard's life fill a portion of the wall in a narrow hallway at the Bare Hands Gallery in Birmingham.

The items and photos clutter the "ofrenda," or offering, dedicated to him in a space about the width of a fireplace and sprinkled with marigolds.

At the center, above a wooden mantel mounted to the wall, is a letter written in cursive handwriting and signed with a lipstick kiss: "Dear Christine, I am sooo much in love with you! Won't you please be my Valentine? Love, Michael."

Circling his words are photos of Prichardwith his wife, Chris, and other family. The mantel beneath holds a miniature book, "The Joys of the Garden," and a small vase of wooden cooking utensils that hint at one of his talents. The collage of items from Prichard's life is part of El Dia de Los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) exhibit at the gallery. Prichard in recent years honored his younger sister, who died four years ago, through the exhibit. This year his wife is honoring him. Prichard died in September at age 40 in an accident at their Forest Park home. The ofrenda displays a photo of Prichard hiking with his daughter, license plates from the six states he lived in with Chris before they had children, gardening gloves tinted with earth, House of Blues concert tickets and a Bob Marley bumper sticker: "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds."

Prichard, who adorned his car with political bumper stickers, used to call Russ and Dee Fine and argue with the radio talk show hosts. The St. Paul Minn., native challenged others to question convention in his daily conversations, delighting in provocative debate.

He also lived some of the change he professed. Recently he and his wife had begun renovating homes using eco-friendly products, and they planned to start a business that would provide "green" building supplies. He ate organic foods long before it started catching on. The garden in his backyard sprouted peppers, tomatoes, okra, beans, corn, strawberries, herbs - ingredients he used to craft dishes that were rich in flavor, surprising guests who thought vegetarian food couldn't be so tasty.

He sent his 5-year-old daughter, Marley, to school every day with a salad from his garden and taught her how to cook. Prichard would read Mark Twain to her and Avery, his 3-year-old son.

"After Marley was born, he said, `You know, Mom, you were right,'" said Dinny Bomberg, recalling how she once told her son that if he ever had children, he would love them 1,000 times more than he loved dogs and other animals.

Prichard did free-lance TV and film production work for most of his career, including art department, sound mixing, lighting and camera work. He was hard-working and a real "MacGyver" who would show up at a shoot with a toolbox and find a way to make things work, said Allen Rosen, a colleague and friend. Prichard's mom said her son never feared trying new things. When he was 3, he stripped off the training wheels that came with a new bike and learned how to ride without them.

He played the bass, violin, guitar and piano, and was part of several bands in his life. When Chris met him, he was running an art gallery in St. Paul that held concerts in the basement. The first time she saw him, Chris was walking with a boyfriend and dropped his hand. It was Prichard's eyes that caught hers. They were intense, blue eyes with a hint of mischief in them.

As a couple they traveled together and lived in Montana, Utah, Maine and New Hampshire, eventually coming to Birmingham in 1997.

A blueberry and fig orchard is being planted in his memory at Jones Valley Urban Farm. Anyone interested in helping can join volunteers Saturday from 10 until noon.

Radio Story and Slideshow

Listen to a series of radio interviews with Dinny on Las Cruces station KRWG and watch a slideshow of 21 pictures from the work of The Becky Fund.

Desks for Students

In July Ethan and Aaron Ebner went to Peru to build desks for students (they are the sons of Dinny's cousin Genie). They wanted to participate in the project during their summer break from college and did a great job that will be greatly appreciated by many children, teachers, and parents.

The Becky Fund in Sudbury Town Crier

The Sudbury Town Crier and the Lincoln Journal both printed the following story on the most recent trip of The Becky Fund.

Grads Bring Supplies to Peru

By Carole Lamond/Staff Writer
Thursday June 29, 2006

It was something of a culture shock to arrive in Calca, a town high in the hills of the Sacred Valley of Peru, where his small group from Sudbury were the only gringos in town, but for Matt Moore that was part of the adventure.
It was also the beginning of a two-week trip that touched the lives of hundreds of schoolchildren in villages so poor that a pencil and notebook are treasured items.
Moore and fellow 2004 Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School graduates, Marie Smith and Dan Kamen, volunteered to deliver school supplies for The Becky Fund, a small charity named in honor ofBecky Prichard died just north of Cuzco in an automobile accident in 2003 at the age of 27 [30] and her mother, Dinny Bomberg, established the fund in Becky’s memory.

Smith’s mother, Ann, and Bomberg are friends who have worked together on Habitat for Humanity projects, and the Smiths accompanied Bomberg on a trip to Peru to deliver school supplies in 2005. When Smith told Moore and Kamen about her plans to for a second trip to Peru with The Becky Fund, and asked, "Anyone, want to go?" her two friends decided to spend their spring college break on the charity trip.
"I kind of blindly went into it, but it sounded like a good cause, it sounded like an adventure and it sounded like fun," said Moore. "It definitely proved to be all three."
Many of the Indian children in the remote mountain villages attend windowless schools with no heat or electricity where pencils and paper are luxuries. Many of the teachers buy school supplies from their meager salaries of $100 per month.
This year the fund delivered gift bags to 3,250 children in 78 schools and gift boxes to 70 teachers. The volunteer also bought cooking pots, plastic cups and food for several schools and contracted with a local carpenter to build tables and chairs for a preschool. They also supplied yarn and musical instruments which are used to teach the children to knit and play music in their cultural traditions.
The volunteers, who all pay their own expenses, are assisted by the family of Becky’s fiancé, Mendel Wilson Muniz, who provide lodging and a place to store supplies while the volunteers go out each day to different schools which the family has contacted in advance.
"We leave early in the morning and go to the market to buy bread. We give each child a few pieces of bread which they would share with their siblings and parents," said Smith, 19, a student at Massachusetts School of Art in Boston. "We would give them the bread and their school supplies. Some of the kids still had their little plastic bag from the year before. It’s sad, but also really exciting to see how thrilled they are by getting a pencil or a balloon."
The group drove their van as far into the hills as the roads would take them and traveled the rest of the way on foot to a meeting spot. Some of their destinations were 14,000 feet up in the mountains. Once there they would shout for a resident of the village to get the local teacher.

It was amazing that they knew which day we were coming and they were ready for us. We would call out and after a little while the teacher and children would come walking down the mountain," said Moore. "The teacher would usually know Spanish and the kids would know a little, so communication was very basic. I learned some Quecha, the Indian language they speak."
Each child receives a plastic bag with notebooks, pencils, erasers and sharpeners. The teacher receives a box of 30 to 40 items including story books, puzzles, scissors, glue, masking tape, paper, markers and other craft supplies.

"That they got to own their very own pencils was huge for them. They would even save the boxes the pencils came in to play with," said Moore. "Kids literally won’t go to school if their parents can’t afford to buy a pencil and a notebook, so the children don’t get an education."
They also gave the children volley and soccer balls.
"Their eyes lit up when they saw we brought them a ball," said Moore, 20, a student at Northeastern University in Boston. "They were playing with a bunch of rags tied together, that was their ball. We blew up balloons for them to play with and that was a big novelty for them."
The children were dressed beautifully in colorful hats and clothing woven in the Indian patterns. The youngest children were often shy with the American students who looked and dressed so differently, but families were generous with the visitors, sharing gifts of corn or potatoes, or playing music and dancing for them.
"The whole country is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and the culture there is so rich," said Smith. "You see people singing and playing instruments that they made."
The Becky Fund is researching ways to bring better nutrition to the people in the remote mountain villages and is experimenting with a grain/milk combination to supplement the children’s diet. Their diet consists mostly of corn or potatoes.
The Sacred Valley of Peru was the heart of the Inca civilization during the 14th to 15 centuries. Many of the villagers live very much the way they did prior to the Spanish Conquest of the country in 1532.
"You can read about the conditions, but you really have to be there, it’s really an amazing experience," said Smith. "It’s easy to feel you can’t help much, but it’s really important work, and it definitely makes me want to go back and do more things for the project. I hope that other people will want to help too."

March 2006 Trip a Success

Dear Friends of the Becky Fund,

Please excuse my delay in getting the 2006 trip report out to you. I was hopingthat the 3 college students, who we were fortunate enough to have accompany us this year, would be able to participate in the writing, but their busy schedules haven't allowed that to happen.

Our trip started out on a sad note as my friend Toby, from Spokane, learned her mother had terminal cancer the day her tickets arrived, so she was unable to go. Two weeks before the trip my brother-in-law, Ross, from New Zealand fell off his roof and injured both ankles and legs. However, I did have incredible participants in Ann Smith, her daughter Marie, and two college friends of Marie, Matt and Dan, all from Boston.

This was our third trip and the people were waiting for us! Everyday we had teachers or parents coming to find us, on the street, at the hotel, etc. It still amazes, and humbles me that they so value the supplies that we provide. We also get such wonderful and loving support from the whole Wilson family and the many friends of Becky and Mendel. Without them it would be impossible to do this work.

Every morning we load up the van with the boxes of teacher's materials, supplies for the kids, and head to the oven to buy fresh bread (500 pieces). Next we head out and I have no idea where we are going. They tell me which schools we are going to visit that day, some as far as three hours up the mountain. Miraculously we find the schools and they seem to know we are coming. I still don't know how it all happens. In several schools the parents had gathered to thank us for our gifts. The children sing or dance, and the parents and teachers serve a soft drink, some potatoes, or crackers. Sometimes they present us with homemade presents. These people who have so little share what they have with such dignity and pride it makes my heart ache.

This year we gave a box of supplies to each teacher, instead of one to each school. We were hoping that this would eliminate any competition. Also, we recognize that they each desperately need these things, as they often have to buy supplies out of their own meager salaries. We include such items as scissors, glue, rulers, masking tape, 3 kinds of paper, magic markers, colored pencils, pens, story books, puzzles, clay, soap, towel, etc. Of course, the most popular items with the children are still the volley and soccer balls. It still is the only thing they have to play with. Each child receives a plastic bag with notebooks, pencils, erasers and sharpeners.

I still can't believe how excited they are to receive these simple things. This trip we gave to 3,250 children and gave supplies to teachers in 78 different places . In addition, we were able to buy cooking pots and plastic cups for several schools so the teachers and parents can cook something for the children with the few commodities the government provides. Often the families send a few potatoes or yucca to augment what they prepare. One of the preschools had been given a fairly nice building, but there wasn't a thing in it. We contracted with a local carpenter to build desks and chairs, painted in bright colors. We were also able to assist a nun who makes a noon meal for about 120 kids, without any government or agency support, by buying some large quantities of food.

In one remote village the teacher is working to keep the young people participating in their cultural traditions by having the girls knit and the boys play the traditional musical instruments. We were able to assist in this effort by purchasing enough yarn and instruments for the school year.

As always there were some very touching things that happened. One that moved me deeply was when a man approached me and told me that his son had chosen Becky for his godmother. They had waited for my arrival to ask if I would consent to be the godmother in her place. The young boy came to meet me, and I guess I passed as we are scheduled for the big celebration next year. A woman who we buy many supplies from in the market, and who has been very supportive of our work, also asked if I would be the godmother to her only son. When I consented, she also asked if my sister would sponsor her at church so she and the boy's father could get married. We are going to be part of in some meaningful celebrations next year!

We are happy to announce that we have been granted tax-free status, thanks to the hard work of Angela Larson. Michael Prichard is the President of our Board, Alex the Vice-President, Jessica Cannon the Secretary, and I am the Treasurer, but Frank does all the work of keeping us fiscally compliant. The real force behind this project is all of you who make it happen with your incredible generosity!!!!

There are thousands of desperately poor children and parents who thank you with humble gratitude.

Love, Dinny

PS: I want to include a few comments I received from Matt and Dan:

"The teachers we met were some of the most dedicated I have ever known"

"In nearly every political conversation I heard it was mentioned that the Quechuas were being manipulated by politicians. Promises would be made for better living conditions and more prosperity, vague assurances that are rarely followed through on. Education gains a whole new level of importance within this context"

"The gratitude of the children surprised me at each school. At one school there was no teacher, because she had a meeting. Still, the children waited for us most of the day, and when we arrived they sang for us, and a couple of them gave speeches on the school's behalf. These were words of appreciation from children who couldn't have been more that 12 years old"

"I saw poverty in these villages, but I did not see much despair"

"Dan remarked that through this experience he felt like he had gotten to know Becky, and I (Matt) felt the same way. Neither of us had known her, but after spending as little time as two weeks with people who had, I did start to get a sense of what kind of person she was. Her family and her friends had taken a tragic event and built something positive out of it. For her death to inspire others in that way gave me an impression of who she was"

The Becky Fund in LoreMagazine.com

The Becky Fund was recently the feature article in Loremagazine.com, a magazine for residential real estate associates, and brokers.

Upcoming Trip

The next trip to Peru is scheduled for April 11-25, 2008. To volunteer or donate contact us.

Our Mission

The Becky Fund was established with a vision of aiding the children of Peru, who continue to be the most vulnerable victims of the crippling poverty of the region.

Since its beginning in 2003, the fund has provided thousands of children in rural areas
of Peru with individual school supplies and almost 100 schools with teacher materials. In schools where the few items available are usually purchased by the teacher with his or her own money, these supplies can make the difference between a child having only a rudimentary understanding of the language and being truly literate, opening up options for that child’s ability to make a contribution to his or her community in the future.

Throughout the region, children exhibit the signs of suffering from poor nutrition. These signs include delayed mental and physical development, and lower resistance to infection. In response to this need, a nutrition component, called “the guinea pig project”, was initiated in 2005. Focusing on a traditional source of protein in Peru, a plan was presented to the schools to provide the young animals. In the participating schools, the parents and teachers have made a commitment to build a habitat for the animals and to prepare meals for the children at the school.

The work of the Becky Fund is possible through the generosity of hundreds of donors. Over 95% of what is donated is spent in direct aid to the children of Peru. Volunteers to the program pay their own expenses. The activities afforded by the Becky Fund have affected thousands of lives, those of the children, their parents and the teachers. Through the education and energy of their
children, the Peruvian people see hope for lifting themselves out of poverty.

April 2005 Trip

May 2005

Dear Friends of the Becky Fund,

I have just returned from Peru and wanted to update you on what was accomplished on this second trip. I was fortunate to be accompanied by Amy Mahowald, my stepdaughter from St. Paul, Christina and Ross, my sister and her husband from New Zealand, and an old friend from many Habitat for Humanity builds, Ann, and her daughter, Marie from Boston. We were an energetic and efficient team!

This year we provided individual school supplies to over 3000 children and teacher materials to almost 60 schools. Our format is for each child to get a plastic bag and then go through our “assembly line”. They receive notebooks, pencils, eraser, sharpener, ruler, colored pencils and bread. From the looks on their faces you would think we were giving a trip to Disneyland. They are incredulous that they have something of their very own. The school receives a box of materials, including several kinds of paper, masking tape, glue, scissors, markers, pens dictionary, story books, puzzles, tempera paint, etc. These basic items are all the schools have to work with, and usually the teachers must purchase them from their meager salaries of a few hundred dollars a month. The big hit though is the volley and soccer balls that we give to each school; it is the only thing that they have to play with.

This year we were able to get to some schools that are very remote (sometimes by pushing the van through mud holes, clearing rocks, etc.). Several of these are located where there are no roads. The children, teachers and some of the parents would walk several hours to meet us at the end of the road. It was such a moving sight to see a village coming down out of the mountains, often with a horse to carry the things back. That is certainly indicative of how much they value the help that we bring them. One village that came down became separated and we had to wait for them all to arrive. We had some balloons so we started playing with the children. They were reluctant at first to join in, or maybe they didn’t know what we were doing, but they soon got into it with great glee. I heard real belly laughs for the first time from these children. The look on the mothers’ faces as they watched their children laugh and play was worth the whole trip.

Another day we traveled 3 hours to a town up the mountain. Along the way the driver of our van would honk his horn and kids would come running up the mountain from their homes. He would tell them in Quechuan, the indigenous language, that we would be back in a couple of hours and they should get the village together to meet us. When we arrived at our first rendezvous the village was there to meet us, all dressed in their indigenous clothing. The president of the parents association opened his cloth pack he carried on his back.his wife had sent lunch, Guinea pigs and potatoes. When we got back to the town we met a teacher who apologized that her school had not been able to walk down, as the 5 hour trip was too much for her 3-5 year olds. She told us that the walk up is 7 hours, (after the three hour bus ride) which she does with her 1-year-old child on her back. We were happy to leave the materials with her, which the parents would take back on horseback. Amy and I were so moved by this woman’s dedication that we both gave her our shoes. On the return trip they were waiting for us along the way, pouring up, or down, the mountainside. We stopped and gave out school materials, clothes and bread. It was amazing.

At one of the schools the mothers wanted to cook a meal for us in appreciation for our help. We came back the next day after our work for the party. They were cooking in a kitchen with a dirt floor over an open fire. We were seated in the tiny nursery school size chairs and served a beautiful meal of stuffed peppers, potatoes, rice beet salad, and the dreaded Inca Cola. They had a local musician playing the Andean harp, his brother sang, and later we all danced in the dark because they have no electricity. Again, it is so humbling to have people who have so little share the best of what they have.

Maybe the most exciting accomplishment this year was the establishment of the “guinea pig project”. I had been very concerned about the lack of good nutrition for the children, which contributes to their delayed mental and physical development. I had thought that having the schools raise chickens would be a good solution to this problem. After a long discussion with many teachers and other local people it was decided that that idea was a bad one. But, what did make sense was to do the same thing with guinea pigs. They are considered a delicacy, food is plentiful and free, the people know how to raise them, and they are extremely high in protein. A plan was presented to the schools that if the parents and teachers would construct the habitat we would provide the animals. We took precautions to ensure that this would belong to the children and the schools, the mothers or the teachers would commit to make a meal for the children, and this would be an on-going resource. When we left there were 6 schools that were ready to go, and money was left for other schools that wished to participate. It is likely that several other nursery schools will join the project, which is particularly beneficial if better nutrition can be provided at a younger age.

Of course, all the schools want to know when we are coming back! The only thing I am able to tell them is that if we have money we will return. All the things we did this year, and there are many I haven’t mentioned, was done with only $7000. So, the future is up to you all, and your continued generosity. We are all plotting and scheming to figure out other ways to make money, such as adventure travel groups to the area that would include a donation to the Becky Fund, and building a school, etc. as part of the trip. If you have ideas, please pass them on. A big, huge thank-you to all of your for your love and support that made all this happen and brought some big smiles to some very poor children!!!

Dinny

About Becky

The Becky Fund was established in 2003 in memory of Becky Prichard.

The following story by Trudi Hahn, was printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on June 22, 2003.

Elizabeth (Becky) Prichard, who found her place in the world because political turmoil briefly trapped her mother in Bolivia, was interred June 15 in Calca, Peru. The St. Paul native, who had been running a restaurant in Pisac, Peru, drowned June 9 after a car accident near Calca, where she lived. She was 30.

Friends and family members who gather Saturday in St. Paul will recall an adventurous woman who was delighted by the bright rhythms of Latin American culture.

Prichard graduated from St. Paul's Central High School in an accelerated college-class program. She and her mother then traveled around Latin America for four months.

"She never wanted to be tied down to doing anything normally," said her mother, Diana Bomberg of Las Cruces, N.M.

Prichard lived for a time with an aunt in New Zealand, where she became certified as a teacher of English as a second language.

Fluent in Spanish, she worked in Minnesota for a while as an advocate for migrant farm workers, said her brother, Michael Prichard of Birmingham, Ala.

In her mid-20s, she stayed with a cousin in Albuquerque, N.M., where she attended college, studying Hispanic culture.

School associates wanted her to get a graduate degree, "but that wasn't Becky," her mother said. She would rather be off doing something new.

"Every time she traveled, she'd miss her plane, lose her ticket, be late -- that was the source of a lot of her adventures," Michael Prichard said.

About three years ago, Becky Prichard was living in Miami when her mother took a volunteer vacation to help build a house in Bolivia through Global Village Work Camps, an international branch of Habitat for Humanity.

Bomberg suggested that they meet when the work was done so they could travel to the ruins of Machu Picchu. A rendezvous was arranged for Cuzco, Peru.

Prichard got to Cuzco, but political turmoil in Bolivia prevented her mother from traveling for almost a week. By the time Bomberg got to Cuzco, Prichard had a host of friends and planned to move there.

She agreed to work as a bilingual staffer in an adventure-travel company's office if they would train her to be a whitewater rafting guide, her mother said.

"She wasn't afraid of anything," her brother said. "She would go trekking [alone] in the Andes for three, four days with her dog and a backpack."

The whitewater work proved to be too adventurous even for Prichard, one of the first women to be a whitewater guide in Peru, her mother said. After about a year, she switched to assisting on trail trips.

Tired of city life in Cuzco, she soon agreed to run a restaurant in Pisac. That situation didn't work out, but she liked the small market town, which was a jump-off point for touring Incan ruins, including Machu Picchu. Its children were so poor that their toys were pop-bottle caps.

In May 2002 she embarked on remodeling an old building for a second-floor restaurant.

"She'd say, 'Put a window there,' and somebody would take a sledgehammer and go bam!" said her mother, who was visiting at the time.

From the chaos emerged an airy, open space where diners could observe the bustling market and gaze at misty mountainside ruins while choosing from Prichard's health-conscious menu items, which included fresh trout, alpaca meat and quinoa soup.

She became engaged this spring to longtime boyfriend Mendel Wilson Muñiz, a Peruvian whitewater guide. She was treasurer at his daughter's Catholic elementary school, helping to raise funds for basic supplies such as aspirin and bandage strips -- or paying for them herself. The children had to buy their own supply kit of notebooks and pencils. If they were too poor to do so, they weren't allowed to attend classes.

She tried to help a group of children who had been organized as a dance class that didn't work out, inviting them to sing in the restaurants on Saturdays for tips and food.

On June 9, she was driving back to Calca from Cuzco after picking up Wilson when their car blew a tire and slid into an eddy of the Urubamba River. Wilson got out, but Prichard drowned because her seat belt got wrapped around her foot.

Her mother, brother and other family members arrived June 11. A two-day wake ensued while Wilson's sister worked through a forest of paperwork and fees to get permission to send the body to the crematorium in Lima. The family took the casket to the airport on June 13, but the body never was put on a plane. In Peru, any traffic accident is considered a criminal investigation, Bomberg said. Authorities wouldn't release the body for cremation while the investigation continued, which might take a year.

The only option was to leave Becky Prichard's remains in Peru. She was interred June 15 in the bright orange section of Calca's outdoor mausoleum, next to the purple section.

In addition to her fiancé, her brother Michael and her mother, survivors include her father, Michael Prichard of St. Paul; another brother, Alexander of Fairbanks, Alaska; her grandmother, Jane Rogstad Hawkins of Scottsdale, Ariz., and five stepbrothers and stepsisters.