Caleb Procaccini ’26 pulled his coaches aside after a grueling summer workout in June. He needed a few minutes to let them know he planned on leaving the country for a week at the start of July.

The timing wasn’t perfect, just weeks before the start of Colgate football’s training camp, but this was important to Procaccini, so he had to try.

It wasn’t some summer vacation he had planned. Procaccini had no intention of sunbathing or sipping a drink on a beach. The entire Proaccini family was traveling to Guatemala to join a mission trip, working with their church to complete humanitarian work for villages in need. 

Colgate’s defensive coordinator Jordan Belifori wasted no time telling his linebacker to take the opportunity.

“I knew how excited he was for the summer opportunity he had,” Belifori said. “To go and learn and experience new things and travel a little bit was really big for him.”

For eight days in July, Procaccini, his three siblings and his parents left behind the luxuries of the modern world. Without cell phone service or air conditioning, the Proaccani’s poured cement, built kitchens, performed skits, and made arts and crafts for impoverished villages in Guatemala.

Those eight days enlightened the Lakeville, Mass., native. He knew he enjoyed doing nonprofit work, but this was different. This was something Proccani could do for the rest of his life. 

“Every time I go, I come back, and I realize it's just kind of a life-changing experience,” Procaccini said. “It gives me a lot of perspective.”

This was Procaccini’s second mission trip to Guatemala. His first-ever journey was during his sophomore year of high school with his younger sister, Hannah, and the two embarked on a nearly identical trek to their most recent trip in July. 

Procaccini’s parents had always wanted his two younger brothers to have the same eye-opening experience as their siblings did in high school. Luckily for the Procanni’s, a summer 2024 date became available which allowed the whole family to tag along this time. 

“When we saw that come up, it was just an opportunity we never thought we'd actually have, to all go together as a family,” Sarah, Procaccini’s mother, said. “But it had a very profound impact on Caleb and Hannah the first time. So it's just one of those things you just want to be able to offer each of your kids when you get the opportunity to.”

Their journey was alongside Hope of Life International, a humanitarian, nonprofit organization that’s based in Zacapa, Guatemala. The entire trip’s work revolved around helping small villages throughout the rural parts of the country. 

“They have all kinds of stuff in their facilities,” Procaccini said. “They have an orphanage, elderly home. They have a hospital, they do baby rescues and stuff from the mountains there. They have a special needs house.”

The first steps of the week-long experience was hosting a vacation bible school (VBS) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the many villages Hope of Life International works with to provide aid. But as the days went by, the need for physical labor took the forefront. 

The junior linebacker subbed out his shoulder pads for a shovel, helping to build a new kitchen inside a local school and lay the foundation for an expansion to a nearby hospital. It was intense labor, working in the heat and humidity of the summer. 

Procaccini earned the nickname, “el Grande,” because of how tall he was compared to most of the people there. He embraced it, and his mother said the nickname caught on very quickly. 

“When him and our other boys showed up, they were like, ‘oh,’” Sarah said. “They knew,  we were going to get some stuff done.’”

There were times where Procaccini had to help pour buckets of cement into holes for the foundation, sometimes as big as 20 feet deep. Him and his brothers used ropes to climb in and out of the holes, and even balanced on wooden planks to pour in the cement. 

“I'm supposed to be passing buckets and my eyes are on him,” Sarah said, laughing. “I'm in constant prayer, and I'm watching him balance and his legs are just wavering, because the plank is not steady. He’s balancing between the rungs of the ladder, he's trying to hold his weight and this bucket full of cement and then lift it up over his head and dump it in.”

If that was not enough hard work, Proccacini and his family worked on water quality projects to help bring fresh water down the mountains to the different villages. They were even tasked with unclogging a drain pipe that was connected to the brand-new kitchen they built. 

Though Procaccini was focused on the mission work he was doing, it helped that the linebacker was getting a workout through the labor. It was still the offseason, there was football waiting for him upon his return to Hamilton.

He occasionally found ways to do workouts and stretches on the Hope of Life campus, bringing his brothers along a staircase that overlooked the rural mountains. 

“That was one thing I had to do to stay in shape,” Procaccini said. “But it was pretty crazy. To get to the top and you overlook the mountains and everything, it was so cool.”

The Procaccini family came home having poured over 100 pounds of cement, building a two kilometer long drain to supply local villages with fresh water. 

Just like that, the trip was over. The high of a completed mission and the joy of service work led Procaccini back to Hamilton, New York.

Immediately after Procaccini returned from Guatemala, however, Belfiori and his other coaches noticed an immediate change from the quiet demeanor they’d come to know from their linebacker.

“He became a lot more outgoing,” Belifori said. “I think he became a little bit more comfortable, especially through that experience of just having to work with new people and get to new experiences.”

Procaccini is an economics major at Colgate, but he doesn’t have a specialization within his desired degree. In fact, he hasn’t figured out what to do after graduating in 2026, but Procaccini wants to continue making an impact on other people around him.

“Maybe nonprofit work would be a cool thing to try out immediately post college,” Procaccini said. “I know some people take a gap year between college and actually starting their career. So I thought about working for a nonprofit and it being a cool opportunity right after school.”

It’s still in the early stages of planning, but Procaccini has another year of college football to play. Even so, Belifori isn’t surprised knowing his linebacker is dedicated to causes bigger than himself. 

“That's just who he is in terms of everything,” Belifori said. “He's always going to be an individual that is willing to sacrifice for the greater good, whether it's through community service nonprofit organizations or for the Colgate football team.”

Through teary eyes, Sarah said she’s been overwhelmed with pride that her son chose that path for his life. Even with the competitive chaos of three football players in her house, having Procaccini serve as a role model for his two brothers and sister has meant everything to his mother. 

“I mean, for me, it's part of our belief that God's created us all uniquely,” Sarah said. “And he calls us all individually to something, and whatever he calls our children to be able to support.”

Procaccini’s faith brought him towards the first mission trip as a high schooler, and years later, it’s been a driving force to continually return to servitude. 

It shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows him. 

“We obviously want guys that are great football players, but we want guys that are great human beings as well,” Belifori said. “And just to see our guys, especially as a coach, being able to see a guy go out and help the community, it shows that we're bringing in and helping develop the right people.”