CHARLESTON, S.C. - s4story -- For Monat Senior Executive Director Toni Vanschoyck's 50th birthday, she isn't asking for presents for herself. She is asking people to help her Monat team build a community center in Ecuador.

A few months ago, Jessica Schone, also a senior executive director with the hair care products company, was approached by the pastor of her local church, which has worked with Compassion International for years. The organization had offered the church an opportunity to help build a community center/church in an impoverished neighborhood in Ecuador, but the church was not in a financial position to take on the project.

So the pastor, having learned from Schone how much Monat preaches gratitude and puts an emphasis on giving back, asked her if Monat would like to get involved. She agreed, and a month later, the pastor, Schone and five other Monat representatives took a two-day trip to Ecuador. They saw an existing community center that is much like the new one would be, met people in the community and saw the land where the new center would be built. The land has been donated by a woman in the community "because she knows the value it will bring to her family and her community," Schone said during a Facebook Live with Vanschoyck on Thursday.

"So what is so cool is it's not just us, it's not just the church-planning group, it's not just Compassion, it's not just the local church," Schone said. "It's so many people linking arms to make such an incredible difference."

The team was given just a month to raise $87,000 to build the community center/church. With just five days to go, they only need $5,000 more. If the fundraising goal is surpassed, it could mean adding a playground or other amenity to the community center.

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No one organization has ever sponsored an entire center in the area, Schone said. It's usually the work of several businesses partnering together.

"So for us to be able to do this — just normal people doing normal things, and it started with a bottle of shampoo — is amazing," she said. "But I knew we could do it. I didn't doubt it."

Vanschoyck and her husband, Jay Treloar, already donated $10,000 to the cause during a recent Monat retreat, but during the Facebook Live on her 50th birthday (which she labeled "What I want for my birthday"), she asked anyone who is able to donate to the cause.

"If you can find it in your heart to donate even $5, every little bit makes a difference," she said. "We are going to do this."

Donations are being gathered in two ways. Tax-deductible donations can be made directly to the fund at https://aware3.net/give/appeal/kDqQ2mb through Wednesday, July 31. In addition, T-shirts reading "Gratitude Awakens Compassion" can be purchased through Friday, July 26, with $15 of the shirt price donated to the project, at https://strawberryrevolution.com/products/gratitude-awakens-compassion-crew-neck-tee.

Once the money is in the hands of Compassion International and Stadia, a church-planning group partnering with Compassion, construction on the center will begin. The local church will also go into the community and determine what children in the area need sponsorship, and sponsorship opportunities will first be offered to the Monat team. The team is planning a trip back to Ecuador in June 2020 to see the new center and meet the sponsored children.

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"I really believe this is just the beginning," Schone said. "Our prayer when we were going is that this will be just a ripple effect to know you can do amazing things and you can do big things. You can partner with people in the trenches and make a difference for people even when you think you can't."

MORE ABOUT TONI VANSCHOYCK
A self-proclaimed "personal accountability professional," Toni Vanschoyck was raised in Detroit and currently resides in Charleston, S.C., with her children and husband Jay Treloar.

Vanschoyck joined Monat Global in 2014 as its first market partner when it was a start-up network marketing organization. She was the first in the organization to hit the million-dollar club and has since gone on to join the $4 million and $5 million clubs. Today, she and Treloar cultivate multiple revenue streams, which have amassed them a seven-figure income.

Along with the couple's combined motivational speaking engagements, they earned a spot on Network Marketing Pro's Million Dollar Hall of Fame list in December 2018 and started a nonprofit organization, Low Country Love, to help individuals who have experienced tragedy, focusing mainly on domestic violence and trafficking in Charleston.

Vanschoyck published her book, "Effing Simple," which offers practical business advice that anyone could follow, in March.

For more information on Vanschoyck, visit tonivans.com. Find her on Instagram and Twitter @thetonivans and on Facebook under Toni Vanschoyck.