Zac Liskay had little trouble coming up with a senior project, required for graduation from Moon Area High School.

He had been to Latin America twice on mission trips and had seen the need that exists there. He was already planning to study engineering so he could join the assistance group Engineers Without Borders and help people in developing countries.

So planning his project was more about logistics than it was about goals. He knew he wanted to collect items to help people in places like the ones he had visited. The only question was how.

The answer came through the Thomas L. & Linda J. McCormack Foundation of Raccoon, Beaver County. The foundation collects clothing and medical equipment for the people of Chiriqui, a poor region of Panama.

So Zac, 17, decided to do a clothing drive at school, collecting summer clothes for children and adults. The clothing will be part of a shipment headed out from the McCormack Foundation this month.

He said he would love to go to Panama to help distribute the clothing but doesn't believe his school schedule will allow it.

He spent much of the past summer in Costa Rica fixing up schools and planting trees.

"I really saw what the country is about away from the tourist areas," he said. He spent the summer before that in Ecuador. Both trips were through the group People to People International.

"What struck me is how people there are happy with so much less than what we have," he said. "People can be happy without material possessions."

And he found some happiness himself, especially through a youngster named Pablo he met in a Santa Ana orphanage on one of his last days in Costa Rica.

Zac's group was working on the orphanage school and got to spend some time playing with the children as well -- he said his American-bred soccer skills were severely tested by the soccer-mad Costa Rican children. Pablo, 6, seemed to take a special interest.

"I spoke no Spanish and he spoke no English, but we managed to establish a friendship," he said. "There were a lot of hand gestures, pointing, tone of voice."

At the end of the day, Zac took Pablo's picture, and "he actually gave me a hug. It was one of the most touching moments of my life."

Zac hasn't yet settled on a college but plans to study engineering and take his knowledge into the field. Engineers Without Borders helps create clean water supplies and other basics for life in developing countries.

"I would definitely like to help with that," Zac said.

Donations can be made to the Thomas L. and Linda J. McCormack Foundation, 115 Reesman Drive aliquippa, Pa. 15001.

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