Kootenays’ own Stephanie Conroy, the heart and soul behind Indigo Valley Interiors, is about to fulfill a 30-year dream: helping a family in need by designing and decorating a safe and functional home abroad.
This January, Stephanie is traveling to Guatemala to work alongside The Giving Experiment, a grassroots project dedicated to supporting families. Together, they'll create a secure and nurturing space for a single mom and her children.
For Stephanie, this isn’t just a project—it’s a calling. For decades, she’s dreamed of using her design skills to make a tangible difference in the lives of others. This opportunity is truly a blessing, and she’s overjoyed to represent the Kootenays on such a meaningful mission.
We’re reaching out to ask for your help in supporting this family. Donations will go directly toward covering the costs of construction materials and supplies to build their safe and loving home. Every contribution, no matter the amount, will make a life-changing difference for this mom and her kids.
Follow along on Instagram (or the project blog) to see how your support is helping bring this vision to life! You’ll be able to watch the progress, see the difference you're making, and feel even more connected to this powerful journey.
While this journey is deeply meaningful for Stephanie, the true heart of this mission lies with the incredible family she’ll be helping. Their story is one of strength, resilience, and hope—a reminder of why projects like this matter so much.
As tourism surges in this beautiful country, Guatemala is catching the attention of many North Americans as a popular travel destination. A landscape of volcanoes, lakes, lush jungle and incredible hiking. Yet, when we look past the Instagram glamour and take a closer peek into the homes of regular neighborhoods, the reality presents a stark contrast. Pacucha, a small neighborhood consisting of a steep street with stairs that climb up the mountain, offers a great snapshot into everyday life, a place the Dargatz family, originally from Rossland, BC, now calls home. Their neighbor and close friend Ceci is a mother of 3 that was abandoned by her partner years back at the news of her pregnancy. She lives with her mother, and two sisters whom also have a number of children in a 3-bedroom house with bare cinderblock walls, an irregular water supply, a leaking roof, and rat and cockroach infestations. The family is regularly sick and with no male supports in a male driven culture, they have struggled.
The Dargatz family embarked on a mission just shy of 4 years ago called “The Giving Experiment” a grassroots project that started off with a one-year trial with “Loving their neighbor as their selves” as the bottom line. “What would happen if we ACTUALLY loved our neighbors as ourselves?” “What would it look like?” With this take on experimental living, they packed up, sold their belongings in Canada and moved to Guatemala eventually finding their new home in Pacucha..
There was a bar down their street that was swallowing lives, poverty and addiction go hand in hand. After an alcohol related death of one of their friend’s close family members, Owen and Christina Dargatz began to pray every time they walked by the bar establishment, in the hopes that it would close down. Answered prayers, just weeks later, out of the blue, the building’s owners approached Owen and Christina and let them know that the Bar’s lease was almost up.. Asking if they would be interested in leasing the building as she was reluctant to renew the lease with the bar operator.
If you have gotten this far.. thanks for investing your time in taking in this story! Now, please invest a few dollars in the life of the Mother we want to house in this new (to us) building. It is quite run down but we believe we can turn this into a dignified home for a woman we respect and hold dearly in our hearts. Please give generously.
Thank you for being part of this story of hope and transformation