Submitted photo Ben Simms poses in May 2007 with some of the youngsters with whom he works in Ujarras de Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, as a Peace Corps volunteer. Links   E-mail             Print            Advertisement

For Ben Simms, volunteering in the Peace Corps has been a slam dunk.

The Yakima native has been living in Costa Rica for the last two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, working with children and youth in the town of Ujarras de Buenos Aires.

Recently, Simms connected with a group of 21 students and teachers from Camas High School in Vancouver, Wash., who came to his small, rural community in southern Costa Rica on their spring break. The idea was to build a basketball and soccer court for the children and young people.

The community had no central place to gather, so an athletic court would not only provide an area for sports but would also serve as a central place for children to play.

The group came under the auspices of Courts for Kids, a nonprofit organization from Vancouver, Wash., that helps build athletic courts for needy children in under-developed areas.

Simms, who is 26, brokered a partnership between the Vancouver group, Costa Rica residents and the Del Monte Corp. Del Monte, which operates a pineapple company in the area, donated supplies, materials and labor for the project.

In January, Simms began organizing materials, equipment and volunteers to prepare the land. Once the Vancouver group arrived in Costa Rica two months later, they were able to complete the project in a week.

The result was a delighted crowd of children and a group of teenagers who felt pride in their accomplishment, Simms said. He described the project in an e-mail to his parents, Roy and Barb Simms of Yakima.

Once the task was complete, the Americans also taught the area children how to shoot baskets and play the game.

"This project has been the highlight of my Peace Corps experience," Simms wrote to his parents.

A 2000 graduate of Davis High School, Simms graduated from Boston College in 2004. After working for the Harvard School of Public Health as a research assistant, he joined the Peace Corps in 2006. He will complete his assignment in September.