Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Wednesday, November 9, at 9:30 am will be the scene of many Vallartenses meeting, greeting and eating at the delightful seaside bistro, Vitea, in support of Becas Vallarta’s scholarship program.

In the fall of 2007, Becas Vallarta decided to try to raise funds by mounting monthly breakfasts in Vallarta’s finest restaurants. Negotiations began with La Palapa, River Café, Daiquiri Dicks, Coco’s Kitchen and Trio to see if they would prepare breakfast for as many as 150, keeping the ticket cost at a reasonable $150 pesos with a 50/50 split with the restaurant.

These generous restauranteurs readily agreed and have been sponsoring our breakfasts ever since. Chefs Bernhard Güth and Ulf Henriksson, of Trio, had just opened their new Malécon restaurant, Vitea, and suggested that it would be a better venue for our breakfast, and so it was! On a personal note, I had fallen, broken my wrist and was in the hospital for this first breakfast, but heard nothing but grand reports of the event.

Coming full circle, we are back at Vitea in 2011 looking forward to Chef Ulf Henriksson’s delightful menu which will have something to please each of us. Tickets are still only $150 pesos and we have added a fabulous raffle and silent auction of prizes donated by local restaurants and businesses.

As always, tickets must be purchased in advance from any member of Becas or from me at (322) 223-1371 or 044-322-182-0215 or at phvicars(at)gmail.com. If you are a follower of Becas activities you know our breakfasts are usually a sell-out, so get your tickets soon.

The funds derived from our breakfasts will go toward funding almost 400 scholarships this school year, 8th grade through university. In August the members of Becas, in two days of meetings at the Biblioteca Los Mangos, met with all scholarship students.

On the first day we met with our students from each of the 14 junior highs. President Mariel de Fregoso talked with them, congratulating them on their past performances and urging them to keep up the good work as many of them had maintained grades of the highest level. Then they were given vouchers for their school and gym uniforms, school and gym shoes and huge bags of school supplies from calculators to erasers.

The following day we met, one on one, with each of the more than 200 high school and university students to give them their semester stipend of $2750 pesos for high school and $3500 pesos for university, which they can use for their most pressing needs. This year Alfredo Cruz, Manager of BanBajio, is helping us by issuing debit cards to the students for their stipends as well as for any savings they wish to make.

Mariel Fregoso shepherds the high school students and Buri Gray the university students. They, along with their dedicated helpers, speak to and listen to each student in order to know of their triumphs and any possible problems.

We were thrilled to learn that a great many students had earned perfect scores of 10 during the previous year. What a joy it is for us to get to know this group of young people who are working so hard to get an education under the hardest of circumstances and who are so grateful for the little help we give to them. They inspire us and hopefully you as you continue to help fund them by attending this first 2011 breakfast at Vitea on November 9. See you there?