By midnight of July 2nd, the city had received over 30 inches of rain, the Santa Catarina was completely out of it’s banks, thousands upon thousands were homeless and the public school where my friend Estela works as 
director was totally devastated.
When school started on August 23rd, she found herself facing 250 students with nothing to work with except 20 reams of paper and some crayons. No books, playground equipment – nothing.
Although the country, state, and city have made great strides in restoring their city, it will be a long time before they get to Pedro Wood Fernandez Jardin de Ninos.
I pledged $500 to help her with books knowing that my donation would only be a drop in the bucket.
When we arrived at Sandpipers on our way to Europe this fall, it so happened that a pot luck was planned for that night. On a whim, I asked Karen if I could share Estela’s needs with the group and she graciously consented. That spontaneous speech generated another 500 dollars in donations.
I spent every penny.
Almost 100 Bilingual books, posters, table games, puzzles, markers, butcher paper. When I say the words, it sounds like a lot, but when you think about sharing that with a school population that has since grown to 276 students, it wasn’t much.
To illustrate: I brought the books I found at Scholastic Warehouse this last week. The books on the table represent a purchase of 97.00. However, everything was half-price and I got 35.00 off the final total. It all fit in this box with lots of room to spare.
(Small Box!)
These are the reasons you should help with this project.
1. The need is great and the appreciation is enormous!
2. Unlike many donations you might make to other very worth-while causes, this one is assured of reaching the intended recipients.
3. Not one penny will go for shipping or administration.
4. Although it’s easy to get lost in the sea of sweet smiles and brown eyes, the truth it the best thing we can do for Mexico is to encourage the education of children. What better place to start that kindergarten?
On to my second objective:
Heart felt thank-yous! I don’t believe any of these people are here, but I’ve never thought it was a bad idea to say thanks behind someone’s back.
First to Pat on the 200 row. In addition to a generous donation, she helped me make the order, and then placed the order to Amazon.com on her account so that we could take advantage of her free-shipping.
To Karen for her generous donation and for receiving all the books and materials as they came in.
To my neighbor Sue R. for her donation and for meeting Estela in McAllen with the books and materials. I didn’t know how Estela would react to the resort. We’ve never discussed social nudism.
And to Sue’s church which donated 50 backpacks filled with school supplies. These were the backpacks you saw being raffled in the slide show. These back packs were destined for children in Africa, but when the cost of shipping came into play, that idea was abandoned. They were sitting there waiting for a need to present itself. Thank you, Sue, for being the intermediary.
(50 backpacks, 275 kids...think about it!)
And finally, Thanks, to all of you who heard the first spiel and made generous donations.
If any of you have questions about Pedro Wood Fernandez Jardin de Ninos I would be glad to try to answer them.
All donations for this round must be in my hands by dark on 12/18, in order to get the supplies to the kids before school starts up after Christmas break.
Your help is greatly appreciated!
Dona #330
1 comment:
Thanks so much, Sue.
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