A group of seven high school students from Red Bank Regional and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional will be joining their fathers on a humanitarian mission to the Dominican Republic in November. Pictured clockwise from top left are Olivia Turi, Maddie Orr, Paige Borden, Hannah Horan, Annabel Morris, Caroline Healey, and Mara Campolattaro.

For fourteen years, Dr. Brian Campolattaro, a Rumson resident and professor at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in Manhattan, has performed vision restoring surgery in the Dominican Republic. His daughter, Mara, a student at Red Bank Regional High School, has always wanted to help — and this year came up with the idea for a special mission that would allow both father and daughter to volunteer their energies there in the second-poorest country in the western hemisphere. When she shared the idea with her friends, they and their fathers eagerly came on board.

On November 4, Mara will be part of a group of seven girls from RBR and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School who will make the trip to the Dominican Republic, accompanied by their dads. They won’t be spending any time at the beach, however — instead, the father-daughter teams will be constructing an aqueduct to bring clean water to a remote village that is in desperate need.

The girls, who collectively go by the name HereToHelp, will also be collecting new and gently used clothing to bring with them to donate to the village they will be serving, as part of a project designed to foster a spirit of volunteerism.

In a show of support, the Spanish National Honor Society at RFH, led by Spanish teacher Mrs. Christine Gauss, recently held a car wash and generously donated $500 of the proceeds to help fund the construction of the aqueduct. Various other clubs at both RBR and RFH have also offered their support in assisting HereToHelp to raise funds and collect clothing for their mission. If you would like to help, please visit the GoFundMe page that the girls of HereToHelp have set up here.