Dave Elmore is a former Baseball player (pitcher) for Marshall. He is
now in Honduras and has started a non-profit organization to help
under privileged children. Here is a quick outline of what he hopes to
accomplish...

1. Establishing community centers that offer extra curricular
activities that would be otherwise inaccessible.
2. Supporting existing foundations with similar goals.
3. Assisting educational systems with training, materials and resources.
4. Supporting and establishing sports programs.
5. Providing scholarships.

If you can help in anyway it will be greatly appreciated. You can
donate online at their website...

http://www.solif.org

Here's a recent newspaper article about Dave and his non-profit...

Roatanet.com
People who make a difference
By Mark Havey

Often time's people that actually make a difference aren't the ones
who talk about it. They just do it. Such is the case with a man named
Dave Elmore. Dave hails from Huntington, West Virginia and came to
Roatan via Guatemala a little over a year ago. He probably wouldn't
have wound up here except for the fact that he was working with an
orphanage in Guatemala and became a robbery victim. To make matters
worse, when he reported it to the police, they beat him and robbed him
as well. His next stop was Roatan. Close to being broke when he first
got here, he went to Eldon's with the little money he had left and
bought a bunch of bread and meats and spreads, made sandwiches and
went up and down to all of the dive shops in West End selling his
sandwiches in order to make some money to be able to afford a place to
live.

Dave is currently teaching grades 1 through 3 at Miriam Hansen's "Home
away from Home" school in Sandy Bay .As part of that job, he also
directs and holds physical education classes at the tennis courts at
Anthony's Key. If you talk to his students, they sing his praises loud
and clear. I was speaking to the mother of one of his students last
week and she commented to me that Dave had made such a difference in
her daughter's approach to studying and her attitude about school in
general had vastly improved as a direct result of his being her teacher.

After hiking the Appalachian Trail (over 2000 miles) starting in 1998,
he returned to Asheville, North Carolina and dedicated his time in
helping "at risk" children, working with them in a wilderness
environment. Children have always had a special place in Dave Elmore's
heart and as a result he has set out to help them the best he can.

With the help of friend Brandon Raab, Dave has set up a non-profit
organization called the "Sol Foundation". (Sol being an abbreviation
for School of Life.) The Sol Foundation consists of 3 parts:

Part 1. Education – To provide scholarships, uniforms, transportation
and even tuitions in some of the islands private schools for island
children who don't have the economic means to ever have these things.
He is even considering starting a shuttle service to get kids to and
from school each day.

Part 2. Sports Activities – In as many local communities as possible
Dave is looking to lease, buy or have someone donate land for
playgrounds and baseball and soccer fields. His goal being to start
Youth Sports Programs throughout the island. He feels that if more
island children were involved in these activities, it would keep them
off of the streets and away from trouble and add to their sense of
self worth. His plan is to get this program underway and eventually
turn over the operations part of it to locals who show a desire to
follow through with this sort of project. Being a scout for the Texas
Rangers major league baseball team gives him an advantage in
understanding how to put together and manage this part of his Foundation.

The 3rd and last part of the Sol Foundation is an internship program.
This is focused on the late teens and early adults age group and will
consist of local businesses such as hotels, computer stores, real
estate offices, marine science or marine biology companies being asked
to provide this select group of people with internships, exposing them
to new skill sets and letting them absorb and learn how businesses are
run. Dave feels that in many ways the future of the children and young
adults here on the island should include these sorts of positions
enabling them to become the decision makers of tomorrow for Roatan.

"I didn't have this plan in mind at all when I first came here" said
Dave. "It just kind of all fell into place on its own". He has also
been pleasantly surprised by the generosity of certain islanders who
have contributed financially to his sports activities programs. He's
hoping more people will take the initiative to get involved on some level.

Actions speak louder than words and this is certainly the case with
Dave Elmore. I found out about the work he is doing quite by accident
and this was after seeing Dave around for quite awhile. He's not one
to blow his own horn. I approached him with the idea of this article
because I feel he is one of the people here who really are making a
difference and other people should be aware of it.

If you'd like to know more about the Sol Foundation or more
importantly what you might be able to do to contribute or help Dave
with his projects he can be contacted at dave_elmore@....

http://roatanet.com/travel/people-who-make-a-difference.php