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 Vallarta Living | June 2008 
CasaMagna Marriott Resort and Spa Donates to Agape Shelter
 Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Iran Casrto (C)who is in charge of full time operations at Agape with the two youngest girls accepting books for the facility library. | 
| | The girls all came to accept their gifts with grateful smiles. | 
| | General Manager Dennis Whitelaw explaining the program "Spirit to Serve" to the attendees of the Marriott conference. | 
| | Caty Huet (L), the founder of Agape with Josefina Naya, the Supervisor of Public Relations for the CasaMagna Marriott. | | |
Puerto Vallarta - The CasaMagna Marriott Resort and Spa held a three day conference for executives from all Marriott resorts, hotels and their affiliates from locations in Latin American countries this week. Although not every hotel send a representative all were represented by executives, many of which were from the United States.
There are 57 Marriott properties in Latin American countries which includes the Caribbean. Mexico has 13 properties and was represented as well in workshops dedicated to doing things the "Marriott Way."
On the final afternoon of the conference, General Manager Dennis Whitelaw dedicated an hour to the CasaMagna Marriott's continuous effort named "Spirit to Serve." For Whitelaw, his staff and employees of the Marriott Puerto Vallarta resort in Marina Vallarta, the word "serve" has a special meaning:
S - Shelter and food
E - Environment
R - Readiness for hotel careers
V - Vitality of children
E - Embracing diversity and people with disabilities
Dennis announced that special guests would be arriving momentarily, and no sooner than he'd said it, in came 21 young girls in uniforms. They were from Agape, a shelter in Puerto Vallarta that provides much needed services for abused young girls that come from dysfunctional family situations that are so bad that the shelter is a tremendous and much-needed upgrade in their lives.
Caty Huet, the founder of the five-year-old shelter, took some time to tell me about the miracles that occur each day the children remain there. The types of abuse that they are able to escape are physical, mental and sexual abuse by parents.
Iran Castro lives there full time and is in charge of day-to day operations of the 24 hour protected facility. Iran and the girls received donations of children's books from the Marriott attendees that were at the conference. They have a library and the books will be added to the facility.
Agape is not just a place where the kids hide out, but includes services such as full educations, healthy meals and life skills training. Professionals, such as doctors and psychologists donate time to Agape and the Colegio Mexico Americano provides scholarships to many in order for them to receive a quality education with the hopes of breaking the cycle of abuse.
The Marriott is a leader in support of charitable non-profit organizations that help those in need in Puerto Vallarta. They help provide shelter and food to Agape, Refugio Infantil Santa Esperanza, Arturo y los Hijos de Dios, Asilo de Ancianos San Juan Diego and Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Vallarta.
The environment that the resort supports are public beach and river clean up brigades, donations of trees and plants for schools and local parks, and a recycling program among others. The biggest, however, is the Sea Turtle Rescue program supervised by the hotel's Marine Biologist. Also there is a rapidly growing Sea Turtle nursery camp for the protection of nests. I have been to a few sea turtle releases and anyone that wishes to go can contact the hotel. Generally the releases are in the fall.
In 2007 the program grew to 796 total protected nests that included an astonishing 60,258 collected eggs and recently hatched baby turtles released into the ocean were 43,689 last year and have grown geometrically the last few years. The Marriott is now responsible for over 50% of the baby sea turtle releases in the Puerto Vallarta area.
The resort also trains local students for careers in the hotel industry that combines six months of classroom training with on-the-job experience. Students are accepted year-round from local and outside schools for internships in hospitality careers. The support of the Becas Foundation is also a part of their training program.
The Toys For Tots program is perhaps the biggest undertaking the Marriott takes partnering with the Puerto Vallarta Navy League and toys are donated to those in need in city areas as well as hard to reach rural and mountainous areas. The embracement part of the resort's programs are assisting those with all types of disabilities.
The Marriott is not stingy with their money in order to help assist those in need. In 2007, $231,000 USD was raised in cash and in kind contributions by the Marriott and they donated 710 room nights in support of charitable organizations. Employees that participated in programs in 2007 totaled 368 that logged a grand total of 2,632 hours of service.
On this Thursday, however, the guest stars of the day were the 21 young girls from Agape that accepted the books with big smiles that had cameras snapping and hotel executives cheering. For information on how to help in any of the programs, contact the CasaMagna Marriott at 322-226-000 and ask for the Public Relations department. |
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