A Decade In Review
10 years of Building Love, & Uniting Everyone.
The BLUE story starts before 2010 when founders Danny and Nicole Rodriguez traveled with LIFO Missions to work on a water project in the Dominican Republic. They were in high school at the time and Danny admits, “If I’m being honest, I didn’t want to go on my first service trip.” But after that first trip, they were hooked and he says, “It made me want to maximize the opportunities I had been afforded.” They traveled back with LIFO three more times until co-founder, Albert Perez, kindly kicked them out. LIFO hosts one trip a year with room for 30 volunteers, Albert explained to them that they needed room to give others the opportunity to experience the service trip.
Danny and Nicole wanted to keep serving so they approached Albert about hosting their own service project. Albert says, “The thought that a LIFO trip had touched them enough to want to do more was a great gift. I felt honored that they would ask me for advice about something that meant so much to me.” Albert helped Danny and Nicole coordinate the logistics and in the summer of 2010, the first BLUE Missions project was completed in La Penda, Dominican Republic by a young group of 12 friends.
Let’s look back at the past 10 years and see how much we’ve grown since.
2010
In 2010 BLUE Missions held its first service project by helping with the construction of a school with a group of 12 friends looking to make an impact during their summer break and have fun at the same time.
2011
In 2011, BLUE completed its first water project! We washed cars, held bake sales, and asked friends and family for donations to be able to fund all the materials. From Day #1, we committed to allocating 100% of donations directly to funding project costs.
2012
“In 2012, BLUE completed its 3rd project ever in the community of Carrasco. Throughout that project, two young girls from the community, Violeni (age 10) and Dayani (age 8) showed me the importance of human connection. They taught me that although we may all come from different places, we are all the same.
We all laugh, we all cry, we all love, we all worry. And most importantly, we all have dreams and aspirations that we strive to achieve.
At the end of the project, Violenny stopped me before getting on the bus and thanked BLUE for giving her the opportunity to pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer since she no longer had to walk for water and can now attend school regularly.”
Danny Rodriguez, CEO & Co-Founder on BLUE Missions
SPOILER ALERT! Fast forward 8 years and Violeni is now starting law school.
1st Picture: Violeni is in the yellow shirt (2012)
2013
This year, was the first year that we had more than one project. We partnered with local high schools to get more students involved. Confident in the belief that we could do more, we took a big step and in 2013 planned for five projects in one summer! Five communities were connected with clean water and five groups of volunteers got their hands dirty to make it happen. This was before we had any trucks or buses or full-time employees, so coordinating the logistics was no small feat. Danny, Nicky, Vanessa (our first intern) and Michael (now a board member) led every trip.
With the help of some incredible donors, we were able to purchase our first pick up truck in the Dominican Republic. This investment would allow us to take more volunteers on our service trips and in turn, would provide the gift of water to thousands of people.
2014
In 2014 we completed seven water projects! We were starting to grow a little faster, getting more involved with high schools and universities to participate on our trips. We began partnering with local companies to invest in our organization.
With multiple projects, we needed someone that could be on the ground full time coordinating with and preparing communities. So in 2014, we brought on our first full-time employee, Marino! Since then, he’s managed the logistics of all our projects and our whole team in the Dominican Republic. At that point, we were ready to crank it up a notch.
2015
In 2015 we were ready to grow, and Danny approached Nicky and Richard with the opportunity of being the first official US hires.
Here’s what was going through their minds:
Nicky — “I was getting ready to graduate from the University of Miami in a few months and already thinking about applying to jobs and graduate school. I didn’t think that BLUE was at the point of hiring anyone full time but when Danny approached me with the idea I was excited. I think I took about 24 hours to think it over before I knew I was all in.”
Richard — “I was never sure of anything until that point in my life. I was never truly sure about where I wanted to go to college or what I wanted to study or what I wanted to do with my diploma. I was absolutely positive that quitting my stable job to work with my best friend to help people was exactly what I should be doing.”
Nicky (on the left), Richard (in the middle), Danny (on the right)
Many of the families in the communities we were working in either did not have bathrooms at all or had makeshift structures that were unsafe. After understanding the way water and sanitation go hand in hand, we developed our sanitation program and built our first latrines in the spring of 2015.
A new Ventilated Improved Pit Latrine (VIP) means sanitation, privacy, and dignity for a family. VIP latrines reduce the risk of contamination of crops and rivers, and they make the whole community a healthier place to live!
2016
Our DR operations were being run out of a spare room in an orphanage, and then a small apartment. In 2016, the BLUE House (which used to be a convent) became our HQ in Santiago, Dominican Republic with enough room to fit our growing team of engineers, community organizers, and summer interns. The house came at just the right time as we prepared to make a jump to 21 projects in one year!
2017
During the summer, a group of 5 boys from Christopher Columbus High School decided to film a documentary on BLUE Missions. They joined us on a water project, to show what it means to work on one of our water projects and the impact that giving clean water has on the community and on the volunteers.
2018
When we started out, our small team was working out of a spare room in Danny’s apartment. We didn’t have a space where we could hold meetings with our volunteers or build community locally. In 2018, we moved into BLUE HQ Miami — a space that we could finally share with others that wanted to be a part of our mission. It took a lot of hard work and generosity from local business owners to bring it to life, but today it’s a home we’re grateful to work in!
Although the majority of our work takes place in the Dominican Republic, we are always looking for ways we can expand into other countries. This year we partnered with an organization in Nicaragua, called Agua Para La Vida, where we were able to fund the construction of a water project.
With our hope to expand into other countries, we also partnered with another organization in Colombia, where our US team, and part of our DR team, went to help with the construction of the water project. It just so happened to be our 100th project.
2019
In our first year hosting the BLUE Gala at The Alfred Dupont Building, we threw an event focused on celebrating the elements that go into growing BLUE Missions. The gala was dedicated to inspiration, generosity, and fun. We shared stories, a delicious meal, and made beautiful memories while making an impact. Thanks to our incredible sponsors and guests we were able to raise over $260,000 for clean water and sanitation projects.
2020
This year BLUE Missions celebrates its 10-year anniversary. In that time we have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, which has funded 132 water projects providing clean water to over 22,000 people in 3 countries and over 2,500 volunteers that have traveled abroad with BLUE Missions to serve on a water or sanitation project.
Celebrate 10 years with us by joining our monthly giving campaign, The Source!
Where you can continue to give clean water every month.
We would like to thank everyone who has played a part in our organization. Every dollar, desk, bag of rice donated, every pipe carried, every nail hammered, every minute of your time, and everything in between, we thank you.
We hope you continue to be a part of our journey, as we hope to be a part of yours.
Happy 2020!
Love,
the BLUE team