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 News from Around Banderas Bay | January 2006 
Love Can Build a Bridge... Vancouver to Vallarta
 PVNN
A line in a Christmas letter has sparked a bridge of love from North Vancouver in British Columbia to the Puerto Vallarta Dump.
Banderas News reporter and local freelance writer Kathy Taylor wrote in her Christmas letter to friends in British Columbia:
"In a country where the obvious poverty can be so overwhelming I found it necessary to focus my volunteer efforts on one cause. By chance I came upon the Children of the Dump program and it has been a very rewarding experience to visit and write about the moms and kids who live at the Puerto Vallarta dump.
There is so much need and even a small donation of used goods or school supplies can make a significant difference in a child's life. Those of you who might be visiting Paradise soon, please check the list HERE to see what you can squeeze into an extra suitcase. Contact me and I will get the stuff to the kids, or you can visit on any Monday afternoon."
| | Banderas News videographer Laura Gelezunas interviewing some wide eyed celebrities. | 
| | What a great "sonrisa" (smile)!!!! |
Each Monday, a group of local restaurateurs donate hot meals to the moms and kids at the Puerto Vallarta Dump, with the assistance of the South Vallarta Rotary Club. A loosely formed group of volunteers, some who have been visiting the families each Monday for more than four years, help with the program, organizing and distributing the donations, encouraging kids through homework checks, and acting as front line triage for medical problems.
Lorraine Sym, Kathy's longtime friend and committee clerk at the City of North Vancouver, read her Xmas letter and posted a notice with the link to the Banderas News story "It's All About Love" at City Hall. Donations of "mochilos", backpacks, a much desired and expensive item in Puerto Vallarta, started pouring in, along with an abundance of school supplies and children's clothing.
Another CNV employee, Linda Matonovich, wrote to Kathy saying, "I want to help and I especially want my children to appreciate what they have in Canada and to learn sympathy and humanity for others in need." She and her son Nicolas, a student in Mrs. Marg Keitel's Grade 1 Class at Ross Road School in North Vancouver, posted a request in his classroom for the Children of the Dump in Puerto Vallarta. The response was generous, with more backpacks and small size shoes and a dentist parent's donation of toothbrushes and toothpaste.
On a recent vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Lorraine arrived with two extra suitcases bursting with stuff for the kids. This past Monday, Lorraine joined the regular volunteer group along with Rotary visitors from Alaska and Minnesota and visiting entertainer Kim Kuzma. Kim, originally from Vancouver, is now based in San Francisco and is currently headlining at The Palm in Old Vallarta.
Lorraine said that it was "a very emotional experience to meet and visit with the moms and kids" and "very rewarding" to see the donated goods go directly into the hands of the people who need them the most.
The donations continue to flow into the boxes at North Vancouver City Hall. If you plan to visit Puerto Vallarta sometime soon, why not carry an extra suitcase or two over the Bridge of Love?
Contacts:
Kathy@banderasnews.com
lsym@cnv.org
lmatonovich@cnv.org |
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