A Gig Harbor retiree’s mission in Guatemala helps villagers burn less wood

Ross Gaussoin, an 84-year-old Gig Harbor resident, has been hailed as a humanitarian hero simply for doing something he loves.

A retired trucking executive, Gaussoin has traveled repeatedly to one of the poorest areas of Guatemala to help build schools, install water systems and bring clean-burning wood stoves to villagers that were still using open fires.

During three mission trips for his Presbyterian church, he came to love the Guatemalan people.

“They are wonderful people,” Gaussoin said. “We take soccer balls and play soccer with the kids. I had a great time.”

At a ceremony last week in Marysville, Gaussoin was presented with the Aller Humanitarian Award by the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation, recognizing his 10 years of service to that organization and its anti-poverty mission in Guatemala.

The Aller Humanitarian Award is named for the late Dr. Leeon Aller, a longtime physician in Snohomish, and his wife Virginia. Dr. Aller founded Hands for Peacemaking in response to the extreme medical and social needs he encountered in Guatemala during a 1984 trip.

Missions to Guatemala

Through his church, Marine View Presbyterian, Gaussoin made three mission trips to Guatemala, first in 2005.

On each ten-day trip, Gaussoin and other volunteers installed clean-burning wood stoves in homes, installed water systems, aided in the building of schools, and helped in education projects.

Most of the work was in the remote town of Santa Cruz Barillas and its surrounding villages in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango It is a mountainous area with a high rate of poverty and many indigenous groups speaking a variety of languages.

Gaussoin said villagers typically use an open cooking fire in their houses, which causes health problems because of the smoke.

“When we give them a clean-air cook stove their safety improves, the consumption of wood is one-third of what they were burning, and their cooking efficiency improves.”

The Aller Stove, named after the Snohomish County physician who designed it, is made of sheet steel and tile, with a griddle-like top called a plancha, which gets hot quickly.

The stoves, which cost about $225 to make, are assembled in a makeshift factory in Barillas.

“We’ve designed this stove to take wood in from the front, and the wood burns below the plancha surface,” Gaussoin said. “It is highly fuel efficient, and reduces the demand for firewood, which they need for heat” as well as cooking.

Unsettling poverty

Like many who visit Guatemala, Gaussoin found the poverty affecting. According to one benchmark, 70 percent of the people in the Santa Cruz Barillas area live below the poverty line.

Gausson’s son, Mark came along on one trip, and afterward wasn’t able to speak about it without crying, he said.

Mark loves soccer, so they brought along a dozen soccer balls. After arriving, they saw Guatemalan kids playing with a torn-up leather ball.

Mark threw them one of the new balls.

“They were so excited,” Gaussoin said. “As we came walking back, they threw it back to us, assuming we wanted it back, and we said, no they can keep it. They were all standing there, stunned.”

Gaussoin grew up in a family-owned trucking business, the Silver Eagle Company, created by his father in 1930. After running the trucking line for 38 years, in 1996 Gaussoin turned to the manufacture of trailer suspensions.

Gaussoin later served on the Hands For Peacemaking Foundation board for six years, three as its chair. Beyond Gaussoin’s service to Hands For Peacemaking Foundation, he volunteered for several other organizations, including Habitat for Humanity. He also volunteered for many years with Bikes for Kids, a bike shop on the grounds of Marine View Church that rehabilitates second-hand bikes for children in the community who don’t have bikes.

“I think it’s a responsibility we have to help others. I just think that’s the way we help society improve,” Gaussoin said.