If Andrew Burnett is asked what he did on his summer vacation, the 17-year-old senior at The Meadows School will have some real stories to tell.

Not only did he ride in a 100-mile bike race for Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Challenge, he and his mother, Beverly Burnett, spent more than a week in July working with children as volunteers at "Camp Hope" (more properly known as Fundacion Campamento Cristiano Esperanza) in Quito, Ecuador.

Burnett, who volunteers locally with the Make a Wish Foundation, heard about Global Volunteers, a nonprofit organization in St. Paul, Minn., which sets up service-oriented "adventures" around the world, from a friend at school.

"We were looking to help out in some way," Burnett says.

For Beverly Burnett it was also a chance to do something with her son as well as "experiencing something totally different and giving back to a community in need. ... This program is not about rich Americans telling people what to do and solving all their problems."

Given a list of places to go, the Burnetts narrowed their list to Latin America, partly because it was an area they had never been before, and so that Andrew could practice his Spanish.

At "Camp Hope," a day school and orphanage, Burnett worked with pre-schoolers and first graders as a teacher's assistant.

Burnett also put his Spanish to good use as a translator for his mother and others in the 22-member group of volunteers.

"I think they are looking for someone to love the kids," Burnett says of the school. "They don't get much attention at home."

A pediatric occupational therapist in private practice in Las Vegas, Beverly Burnett provided much-needed therapy to the school's mentally and physically disabled children and also worked in the classroom.

"It was a way to use my skills in a different way," she says. "I feel like I was not just taking."

Andrew Burnett described the trip as "a great experience. I'd recommend it to anyone."

It also was eye-opening for him because of the extreme poverty many Ecuadoreans live under. "It's like something out of a movie. It's really sad," Burnett says.

While Beverly Burnett has been exposed to poverty in the United States, in Quito "the poverty was pretty extreme. Here, it seemed the poverty was across the board."

Next year, the Burnetts may make another Global Volunteer trip. "I'd be willing to go anyplace that needs help," Andrew Burnett says.

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