Matt Philippi’s pro skiing career has provided him the opportunity to travel to foreign locations but only rarely the chance to connect with the people of the communities surrounding the mountains he skis. We, FullCircle, plan to change that this summer when we will produce a short documentary film featuring Matt and other pro skiers not only doing what they do best, but doing their best to give back to several South American communities.

Our trip will begin at the end of July 2010 in Concepcion, Chile, where a series of devastating earthquakes struck on February 27th. Conception and the coastal fishing communities to the west of the city boar the brunt of the damage caused by the magnitude 8.8 quake. In the greater Valparaiso-Concepcion-Temuco region, an estimated 370,000 houses and 4,013 schools were destroyed, displacing as many as 800,000 people.

Un Techo Para Mi Pais, an organization that focuses on improving the quality of life of impoverished families through transitional housing and social inclusion programs (www.untechoparachile.cl), has constructed 6,064 emergency houses in the Conception region as of May 28th. Despite the encouraging progress of construction, thousands of displaced Chilean families are still without a roof and await placement in emergency housing that has yet to be built. Working alongside Un Techo, we will spend three weeks constructing emergency housing, as well as visiting and documenting the emergency sites and programs recently established in the wake of the February earthquakes.