Last year, we celebrated the International Day of Light in Santa Barbara with an evening focused on the power of light—and the power of people coming together to make a difference.
That celebration, held in May 2025 in collaboration with Community Health Partners Honduras (CHPH), helped raise the funds that would eventually bring 2,000 Luke Lights and 200 Chandler Chargers to families living in the mountains of Honduras.
A year later, I had the privilege of seeing that impact firsthand.
In May, Unite to Light Board Member Dawn Mitcham and I traveled to Honduras to help distribute the lights and chargers, with guidance from our longtime partner Jennifer Smith at Community Health Partners Honduras. It was a trip that, at its heart, was about helping the helpers—the part of this work that makes my heart sing.
But the journey started long before we arrived.
After the International Day of Light celebration, the lights and chargers made their way to Honduras with the help of Airlink. They were delivered to COMSA, a local coffee cooperative in the mountains of La Paz, where they were safely stored until we could arrive in the spring.
The timing was intentional. COMSA is deeply connected to the communities we hoped to reach, but the spring is also coffee harvest season. We waited until the harvest was finished before making our trip.
COMSA not only stored the lights for us—they became an important partner in getting them where they needed to go.
Our first stop was a meeting at COMSA organized by Jennifer and Oscar, one of the co-op members. They brought together the mayors of 20 surrounding villages so we could begin distributing the lights through local leadership.
Each mayor took between 50 and 100 Luke Lights back to their community, depending on the size of the village and how many people had access to electricity.
It was an incredibly simple distribution model, but it made so much sense: the people who know their communities best were the ones deciding where the lights were needed most.
And that was just the beginning.
High in the mountains of Opatoro, we were surrounded by plentiful mangoes, fresh coffee, and a strong community of people who show up for their neighbors.
Twenty-three Voluntarios came to us with lists of families in need of light and left with bags of Luke Lights to distribute throughout the mountainous region.
The Voluntarios are the vital line of communication between these communities and CHPH. They are the people who know what is happening in their villages and who make sure Jennifer knows when someone needs help.
They might be the ones to report that a baby has been born with a cleft palate and needs medical care. They might identify a child who needs glasses, or let CHPH know that an accident has left someone badly burned. They see the needs that might otherwise go unnoticed—and they help connect families to the resources that can change their lives.
So when we handed them bags full of solar lights, we weren’t simply giving 23 people a light.
We were giving them another tool to help their neighbors.
That is what I love most about this kind of work. Help the helper, and the help never really stops.
Those 23 Voluntarios will take the lights home to families who need them. Those families will have light after sunset—to cook, study, work, care for children, or simply spend time together. And the Voluntarios will continue doing what they have always done: showing up for their communities.
The impact moves outward.
Standing there in the mountains of Honduras, it was hard not to think back to that evening in Santa Barbara.
The people who gathered to celebrate the International Day of Light in 2025 probably never imagined exactly where their generosity would lead. But the funds raised that night became 2,000 Luke Lights and 200 Chandler Chargers. They traveled by Airlink to Honduras, were stored by COMSA, and were ultimately carried into villages by mayors and Voluntarios who know exactly where they are needed.
A celebration back home became evenings of light for families thousands of miles away.
And that is the beautiful thing about this work: none of us does it alone.
We rely on the generosity of donors. We rely on partners like Airlink. We rely on organizations like CHPH that have deep roots in the communities they serve. We rely on local leaders who understand the needs of their villages. And we rely on people like the Voluntarios who show up, again and again, for their neighbors.
We also owe a tremendous thank you to COMSA, the local coffee cooperative that stored our lights, helped us with distribution, and welcomed Dawn and me so generously during our trip.
Their hospitality was a reminder that Unite to Light’s work is really about building a network of helpers.
Because when we help the helpers, our impact multiplies.
And that is what light does. It doesn’t just illuminate a room. It creates opportunity, strengthens communities, and helps people show up for one another.
I’m grateful to everyone who helped make this particular journey possible—from the people who celebrated with us on the International Day of Light in Santa Barbara to the people carrying Luke Lights into the mountains of Honduras today.
The light keeps moving.
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