Eddie O'Toole

, as he dedicated his life to bettering the quality of life of a little town in Honduras called Guaimaca. And he's done it with a little creativity, used and discarded materials that would have otherwise found themselves in a garbage dump in the United States and empty Chiquita Banana containers.
Though O'Toole's love affair with the poor Central American country began in 1979 when he was a Peace Corp volunteer there, his story begins here in Rockville Centre. One of 15 children, who all attended St. Agnes High School, O'Toole wanted to go in his own direction and attend Maria Regina in Uniondale. His parents told him if he could pay for another school, he could go. So in the eighth grade he got a job at a gas station in town, which is where he learned his skills as a mechanic. "Learning about mechanics there has taken me all the way to where I am now," he said.
During his two-year Peace Corp stint, O'Toole taught mechanics and automotive skills in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa was not at all what he expected. He felt unneeded in the city and as though he wasn't accomplishing anything there.
But he knew he found his calling when he stumbled upon Guaimaca on a weekend visit. "They put me with a family that had 15 kids," he said. "They had dirt floors, an outhouse in the backyard and no switches for light... That weekend visit in Guaimaca completely changed my life. I decided I wanted to go back there on my own power and do something." Though he didn't make it back to Honduras until 1996, he kept his word.
After he returned from the Peace Corp, he wanted to learn about diesel engines, but didn't have the means to do so. So he joined the Navy in 1980 to learn about them and was honorably discharged in 1983. He then moved up to the Berkshires in Massachusetts to open a small auto shop. There, he met his wife, Kelley, also a former Peace Corp volunteer who shared his passion to help people. The two had a daughter, Sonrisa.
When Sonrisa was two, the O'Tooles decided if they didn't go to Honduras then, they never would. "What I didn't get to do in the Peace Corp nagged at me," said Eddie O'Toole. "I wanted to go back and really complete something and do something and we did it by recycling." O'Toole renovated an old school bus he bought for $500, turning the front into a motor home for his family and the back into an automotive shop. They drove from Rockville Centre to Guaimaca, where he taught kids how to fix things for themselves, such as bikes and motors. He helped to rebuild a tractor that had been lying broken and unused in a field for years. All the while, he and his family lived at the same level as everyone in the town.
After Hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1998, O'Toole received a $15,000 donation from Meg and Dick Dunn, a couple who lived in the Berkshires. With the money in hand, O'Toole bought a plot of land in Guaimaca and came back to the United States to regroup. He wanted to construct a building, but he needed supplies.
A nursing home in the Berkshires was going to be knocked down to make room for a new one. He was granted permission to take away anything salvageable from the site. He stripped the building as much as he could, coming away with a variety of building materials, such as florescent lights, light switches, screws, doors and doorknobs. He bought another school bus to bring down these materials.
When he got back to Guaimaca, he hired local workers to help him build what would be the beginnings of the Centro de Capacitacion Nueva Esperanza - the New Hope Training Center. Today, the center includes a library and an adult learning center as well as an ambulance service. O'Toole drove down a donated ambulance in 2005. Driving an ambulance is how he makes a living in Guaimaca. It's a much needed service, as the nearest hospital is 125 miles away round trip. He makes 300 trips a year.
He also learned in 2005 that three schools in Great Barrington, Ma. were being closed down. He reached out to the school district and was told he could take whatever he needed for his center. This is when he first struck a deal with the Great White Fleet, which owns Chiquita Banana. He learned that after the company delivered its bananas, he could rent the empty containers at a special non-profit price of $2000. With help from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Pittsfield, he was able fill containers with items from the school: paper, filing cabinets, desks, microscopes, music equipment and ceramics equipment.
The center was growing before his eyes. With these containers and other numerous donations, he now had a library, musical instruments, a ceramics studio, and classes on a variety of topics, especially bike and automotive repair. Because school is only half-day for children in Honduras, the center gave them a place to go when it let out.
Currently back in the United States, O'Toole is focusing on education and health care. He especially hopes to build a maternity wing. He's drumming up as many donations as he can, both monetary as well as used items. So far, he has two complete dental clinics with X-ray units, more building materials from another building that would otherwise be demolished, riding lawnmowers for people to use as wheelchairs, prosthetic arms and legs, sports equipment, puzzles and an examination table, as well as a chain link fence, volleyball court and jungle gym for a playground.
"He's always been that kind of a person, always willing to help people, whether it's with his mechanic skills or whatever," said his brother Kevin O'Toole. "He's just that type of person. I just think it's an incredible feat to go out and help people the way he helps people. The biggest thing is it's done selflessly. He doesn't profit from this. A lot of people capitalize on these type of things."
"He's an amazing human being," said Catherine Fountain, a friend of Eddie O'Toole's since they were teenagers, who has helped him set up presentations about his work while he is back in the United States. "There's really nobody like him. Anything he sets out to do, he makes it happen. He's not just all dreams and plans. He follows through and gets it done... He was always a very giving person and always lived by his beliefs."
O'Toole feels as though his time in Honduras is coming to an end. As he prepares for what could be his final trip, his projected date to return to the United States for good is Mother's Day 2009. Before he leaves, though, he wants to make sure he has left the people of Guaimaca able to run the center on their own. His major goal is to complete the makeshift roof on the building.
He implores people to do what they can to help too. "If you're eating bananas, you can do the same thing I do," he said. "Every day there are containers going from Long Island back to Honduras. With the charity rates, you can easily fill a container and send it down."
For more information, go to www.eddieotoole.org. If you're interested in making a donation for his upcoming trip to Honduras, call Catherine Fountain at (516) 510-7014.