The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Tiho Teisl’s impact carries on in Honduras
In his weekly prep column, Chris Lillstrung looks at former longtime Gilmour boys soccer coach Tiho Teisl’s mission work in Honduras and his impact on the remote village of Nuevo Paraiso.
If Gilmour was Tiho Teisl’s second home, it’s probably fair to say his third was Nuevo Paraiso.
As the sad news emerged Dec. 12 that the longtime former Lancers’ boys soccer coach died after battling thyroid cancer, the impact of his passing was likely felt in the heart of the Central American nation of Honduras.
Because one of the joys of Teisl’s life — and that of many people at Gilmour — was the annual trip he led with them to Nuevo Paraiso, a remote village east of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.
“Later on in his life, his last few years, he said, ‘This is why God put me on this earth — to help children,’ ” Gilmour boys soccer coach Joe Ciuni Sr. said of Teisl. “The students at Gilmour or the kids down in Honduras, Tiho believed it.”
Teisl’s impact on area high school soccer was renowned after three decades on the touchline guiding the Lancers’ boys side. His impact on his school walks the hallways at the campus and in various walks of life around the world today.
But what may not be as well known — and should be — is what Teisl meant and means to a generation of children in Honduras.
In 2001, Teisl was part of a mission trip to Honduras through Gesu, the University Heights-based church across the street from John Carroll University.
The work being done was impactful enough on him that, when Teisl returned to Gilmour, he suggested to administrators that the school should take on such an endeavor.
And led by Teisl for the next 15 years, starting in 2002, they did.
As part of Gilmour’s two-week spring break, students, alumni, parents and others affiliated with the school would join Teisl for a one-week excursion to Nuevo Paraiso.
But this was no sightseeing trip — they were coming down to be a labor force for the good of the locals, who were grateful for the assistance.
Lancers girls soccer coach and 2003 Gilmour graduate Joe Ciuni Jr. twice made the trip to Honduras with his father and with Teisl.
He said his first trip, after the group was split up to tend to its various tasks, involved building a fence around the community, down to digging holes for the posts and having to use shovels and rocks to mix concrete in lieu of a traditional construction site. His second trip required bricklaying as the delegation helped to build a guardhouse.
Painting and building walls and even full structures such as homes and a medical center were part of the experience over time. If doctors or dentists were part of the traveling party, they assisted with healthcare.
“It’s basically almost building a community from scratch with your bare hands and not with any real construction equipment,” Ciuni Jr. said. “So it really is eye-opening.”
Teisl was a founding member of the Honduran Children’s Rescue Fund, a 501 (c) (3) charity. Teisl served as recording secretary along with his annual ventures to the country, and Ciuni is a vice president.
According to HCRF, Nuevo Paraiso was established for single mothers and their children, then later also hosted children abandoned or orphaned. Those children in the latter reside in group homes with housemothers.
The children are educated, trained, counseled and cared for, with the hope of sending the children to Tegucigalpa for college or to learn a trade when they reach that age.
As of 2016, according to HCRF, more than $3 million had been raised by the organization, along with donations of pharmaceuticals, medicine, clothing, books and toys.
On Sept. 15, at the annual HCRF benefit, Teisl was awarded “Guardian Angel of the Children of Honduras.” Unable to attend as he waged his fight against thyroid cancer, Teisl was represented by his son Steve and daughter-in-law Valerie. In the program for the event, Teisl was said to be “the symbol of everything good that can come from afar.”
Just how valued was that good from afar?
Teisl’s niece Katie O’Toole shared with me by email over the weekend a girl named Karla from Honduras whom Teisl sponsored through his mission work requested and was granted a visa so she could come to Teisl’s funeral Dec. 16. She’s staying for a couple weeks in the United States with one of the many people who accompanied Teisl on his mission trips to Honduras.
To be sure, the sadness of Teisl’s death was felt locally. But in the heart of Central America — and in the hearts of children who will never forget the charity of someone who arrived a stranger and exited a dear friend — they feel his loss, too. Because if Gilmour was his second home, Nuevo Paraiso was deep in Teisl’s heart as well.
“That’s probably the best thing that Tiho has done, I think,” Ciuni Jr. said. “He was able to set that whole thing up and get that mission trip going that Gilmour went on every year.
“There are so many people that have gone on that trip. People have said it’s life changing and it really helped them become a better person. And all of that is possible because of Tiho.”
Lillstrung can be reached at CLillstrung@NewsHerald.com; on Twitter: @CLillstrungNH