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Gary Guthrie, of Lodi, shows off the iron gate he made that will be installed near the entrance to the orphanage that the Red Rhino organization will construct in Kenya. (Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel)
Lodi family helping to ensure orphanage is built in Kenya
A Lodi family has been active in constructing an orphanage in the east African nation of Kenya.
Gary and Kathleen Guthrie, along with their daughter, Ashlie, have been busy raising money for the orphanage through their involvement in the Stockton-based Red Rhino project.
Kathleen and Ashlie Guthrie have been on a development team for Red Rhino for the past three years. Ashlie, 23, learned of the program from Greg Traverso, a geography teacher at St. Mary's High School in Stockton, where Ashlie graduated in 2003.
Traverso, president of the Red Rhino effort, offered a two-week tour of the Kenya neighborhood where the orphanage is planned. That took place in the summer of 2005.
"I thought it would be awesome if I could go with Greg," Ashlie Guthrie said of her former geography teacher.
Ashlie stayed a few miles from the eight-acre Red Rhino property during her two-week stay.
Upon her return, she and her mother began fundraising and publicizing Red Rhino. The organization has raised $5,000 thus far.
The past three years, the female Guthries kept trying to get Gary involved. The retired auto body business owner finally did get involved in December after reading in a newsletter that Red Rhino needed a tractor. He arranged for a donation of a John Deere tractor and spent three months getting other contributed materials for the orphanage project.
In today's economy, you can't get cash donations for worthy projects, Gary Guthrie said, but it's easier to get contributed materials. Several Lodi-area businesses donated items like tractors, tools, rebar, irrigation pipe, wood, steel, welders, power generators, welding equipment and metal, Gary Guthrie said.
The tractor and other materials have been stored in a 40-foot-long container that will be taken to Oakland in about a week, then loaded onto a ship. It should take about six weeks for the supplies to arrive in Kenya.
Gary Guthrie hasn't made it to Kenya himself, and he doesn't know if he will. His focus has been on getting supplies here for the orphanage effort.
"The Lord really moved me to get this portion done," he said.
Ashlie, who now lives in Walnut Grove, said she hopes to return to the orphanage site some day, but she's been busy at nursing school. She was recently hired as a registered nurse at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp.
She says she hopes to someday establish a medical center in the small community where the orphanage will be located.
Red Rhino's mission is to house and educate some of the most desperate children in Kenya and enable them to become tomorrow's leaders.
The village is 25 miles southeast of Nairobi, Kenya's capital. Planned structures include a girls' home to house 10 children, a similar home for boys, staff houses, kitchen and dining area, and an infirmary. They also want to provide adequate utilities such as water, electricity, phone and Internet service.
Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.
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