[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 31, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1407-S1408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING HANLEY DENNING

 Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, today I mourn the loss of Hanley 
Denning, a truly remarkable native of Maine who in word and deed 
represented the very best of our State and Nation.
  Hanley was the visionary founder and executive director of Safe 
Passage, a Central American-based nonprofit agency which provides 
children who live in the Guatemala City garbage dump opportunity and 
hope through myriad forms, including education, nutrition, and health 
care. Hanley founded Safe Passage in 1999 after having seen children 
existing amid the squalor and destitution of refuse and trash. But 
where many would have seen a dead-end marked by desolation, Hanley saw 
a need which soon after evolved into a calling that required conscience 
and action. She imagined a pathway out--and possessed the will, 
determination, and resolve to forge a plan to begin making that route a 
reality. Hanley took a dilapidated church near the waste dump and 
developed a drop-in center where children could receive food and a safe 
haven.
  Hanley found that access to education of any kind was not a 
possibility for children who couldn't begin to afford the enrollment 
fees, school supplies, and books required by the Guatemalan public 
schools--not to mention requisite school uniforms and shoes. But thanks 
to Safe Passage, children have been able to attend a local public 
school for at least a half-day term. And that experience is 
complemented by the additional educational reinforcement, care, and 
supervision received at the center. Whether it is homework, hands-on 
learning activities, nutrition, medical attention, or a range of other 
programs, these at-risk youth are recipients of the care they deserve. 
Today, remarkably, Safe Passage serves as many as 600 children ages 2 
to 19 years old.
  Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once famously wrote that ``You 
see things; and you say, `Why?' But I dream things that never were; and 
I say, `Why not?' '' When Hanley saw despair, poverty, and 
indescribable hopelessness, she must have at first said, ``Why?'' But 
she responded to an unforgivable, intolerable situation--not with 
indifference, resignation, or anger--but by saying, ``Why not?'' Why 
not carve out a way forward for these children that leads from an 
abject condition to

[[Page S1408]]

one where the objective is a better way of life.
  Hanley's response to the deplorable situation she found at the 
Guatemalan dump is emblematic of her overall approach to so much of her 
life--one filled with a selfless care for others and a willful devotion 
to being an agent of good will and positive change. Although she hadn't 
created Safe Passage until 1999, Hanley had been offering a kind of 
safe passage for so many during years prior to her arrival in 
Guatemala. Along with earning a master's degree along the way, Hanley 
was also working at a mental health center, assisting children affected 
by AIDS, and teaching in a Head Start program.
  With this shining example of service, it is little wonder Bowdoin 
College, her alma mater, recognized Hanley's extraordinary 
contributions by honoring her with its 2002 Common Good Award. What was 
so exceptional about Hanley was her longstanding dedication and 
unfailing determination to address and improve the human condition. She 
truly exemplified words spoken in 1902 by Joseph McKeen, first 
president of Bowdoin:

       . . . institutions are founded and endowed for the common 
     good and not for the private advantage of those who resort to 
     them for education. It is not that they may be able to pass 
     through life in an easy and reputable manner, but that their 
     mental powers may be cultivated and improved for the benefit 
     of society.

  Hanley's greatest legacy and enduring cause will be memorialized in 
her name and with her spirit--in a thriving center given to helping 
those who truly cannot help themselves; a center where, according to a 
Portland Press Herald account, just last year six Safe Passage students 
were selected to enroll in Guatemala City's foremost private high 
schools, where the annual budget has grown from funds in the hundreds 
to $1.6 million and an employee base of 100, and where more than 500 
people from Greater Portland are counted among an emerging force for 
good of Safe Passage volunteers.
  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Hanley's parents, Michael and 
Marina Denning, and her three brothers, Jordan, Seth, and Lucas.
  Thank you, Mr. President, for affording me the opportunity to speak 
about this truly exceptional Mainer and American whose memory will be a 
lasting inspiration to us all.

                          ____________________