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 News from Around Banderas Bay | May 2007 
Many More Smiles for Tots
 Peter Gray - PVNN
| What better way could there be of bringing the local and expat communities closer together than working together to bring a smile to the face of a child?
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Puerto Vallarta - On May 1st, which is Children's Day, a playground for small children was inaugurated on an open space at the side of the DIF building in Colonia Aurora, Delegacion Pitillal. This has been officially named the Toys for Tots Parque Juegos.
The scene at the official opening was entirely dominated by scores of excited children. The swings and slides were literally submerged in a crowd of happy youngsters, grateful that they at last had a space dedicated especially for their age group.
The declared aim of Toys for Tots to bring smiles to the faces of local children was clearly and magnificently accomplished on this day. Up until now, the Toys for Tots main effort has centered on the distribution of thousands of toys to children in the poorer areas around the Bay of Banderas on Three King's Day.
Now, the generosity of many sponsors has made it possible to embark on this new initiative of providing playgrounds for small children in areas where the need is greatest. To implement the program in Puerto Vallarta, an alliance has been formed between Toys for Tots, the Municipio and the Desarollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) governmental agency.
The benefit of this cooperation was abundantly clear at the inauguration ceremony at which the City Mayor, Javier Bravo and his sister Aleyda Bravo, who heads the Desarollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) and Esther Carrillo, were joined by Jeffrey Miltenberger, president of the Navy League and Lita Aguire representing the CasaMagna Marriot hotel. Recognizing that this alliance embraces both the local and expat communities, opening speeches were translated from Spanish to English and vice versa, as needed.
It is common that one good initiative leads to another. In addition to the playground, a planting of trees will be undertaken to provide a park-like setting. The first step was taken when mayor Javier Bravo planted the first of a quantity of young trees gifted by the Marriott Hotel. The local community has accepted the responsibility of maintaining this area. A very nice touch is that one neighborhood child will be given personal responsibility for caring for one of the planted trees.
After the opening ceremony and ribbon-cutting, a number of toys, supplied by Toys For Tots, were distributed among the children.
The Navy League was responsible for providing the playground equipment, which was purchased in Guadalajara at a cost of 65,000 pesos. A work party including DIF personnel tackled the work of building a wall around the play area and providing a sand platform to ensure soft landings, Fred Piontkowski headed the Navy League team working on this and simultaneously on another playground project to be opened in early May, in the small village of Guamichil, a small distance off the highway to Guadalajara, in the neighboring State of Nayarit.
What better way could there be of bringing the local and expat communities closer together than working together to bring a smile to the face of a child?
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