Naugatuck – In the summer of 2002, Bryan Nurnberger found himself heartbroken and appalled by the severe poverty he saw on a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico.
Children at an orphanage where he volunteered were wearing the same clothes day after day. Many of them wore the same diapers day in and day out, and most didn’t have food in their bellies.
So Nurnberger, then a special education teacher in Prospect, emptied his savings account of about $5,000.00. With that he bought food, clothes and diapers for the children at Casa Hogar, a struggling Mexican orphanage with 80 children.
A year later, he gave up teaching and began a nonprofit organization called Simply Smiles Inc., dedicated to solely to improving the orphanage. The organization provides funding for food, shelter, medical assistance, and educational opportunities for children at Casa Hogar.
In three years, Simply Smiles has raised more than $500,000 for the children. The orphanage has gone from a place where children seldom had a decent meal, to a model children’s home that not only provides orphans with adequate food and shelter but also enjoys access to high-speed internet service.
“Just because kids are born in Mexico, it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the same things any other kid would get,” said Nurnberger, now 29. “Whether you were born in Greenwich, or the south of Mexico, it doesn’t matter, you should have the same opportunities to succeed.”
Nurnberger, a Naugatuck native, said children who come to the orphanage are treated like family. Unlike many traditional orphanages, children at Casa Hogar are not sent into the “real world” when they turn 18.
“If they want to go to college, we’re going to help them get there and finish,” he said, adding that Casa Hogar means “a house that is a home” in Spanish.
Two children who have been at the orphanage are now in college; one studies accounting and the other studies law.
Nurnberger, who is single, said another child who came to the orphanage with a stomach full of parasites now has a heart filled with hope. He’s healthy and the best student in his class, Nurnberger said.
Another child is the best soccer player in his school.
“In Mexico, that’s like being the best football player in Texas,” Nurnberger said.
Nurnberger, the president Simply Smiles, runs the organization out of a third-floor office at the Congregational Church of Naugatuck. He visits Casa Hogar for two to three weeks every two months.
Simply Smiles is in the process of building a second orphanage in Oaxcaca.
“Casa Hogar has become a model children’s home, and we want to duplicate that,” he said, adding that the goal is to have eight Casa Hogars in Oaxaca.
It would cost about $11 million to complete that goal. That why Nurnberger uses almost every waking moment campaigning for donations. About 60 percent of the organization’s funds come form donations, and the other 40 percent comes from people sponsoring children. Donors can sponsor children for $30 to $120 a month, or $360 to $1440 a year. Ninety-eight percent of all donations go directly to the children.
Simply Smiles raised a total of $122,879 and $82,293 went straight to the orphanage in 2005, according to an examination of the organization’s fiscal records. The records show $14,250 went to compensation of officers, while the rest is being saved for future needs of the organization.
The Rev. Laura Whitmore has known Nurnberger since he was a 9-year-old parishioner at the Congregational Church of Naugatuck. Though she is now a minister at a parish in Fairfield, Whitmore has kept in touch with Nurnberger, and is a member of the Simply Smiles Board of Directors.
“Bryan is the type of person who sees a need, and feels compelled to help,” Whitmore said. “When he came back form Mexcio, he sat a my kitchen table and told me he needed to do something to help these people.”
She said since that meeting, Nurnberger has put in 10-12 hours almost every day bringing his vision for the orphanage to life.
“His vision was so big, but his drive is so incredible,” she said. “I don’t think anybody expected it to become this big in such a short period . . . I think it will continue to grow and get better.”
And while his goal is lofty, Nurnberger is confident. He has overcome adversity many times in efforts to help the children in his “family”.
Nurnberger once fought for eight months to bring a yellow bus filled with medical supplies, toiletries, clothing and toys to 80 Mexican children. He had to fight through the bureaucracy of the Mexican government, but the bus eventually reached the children.
And he doesn’t plant to give up on his crusade.
“I’d like to think I have another 50 years of doing this,” he said. “what it comes down to is putting stock in children who others might disregard.”
