Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico – Here’s a story that will, I hope, lift your spirits. It’s about a couple of guests who have been supporters of the IFC Home Tours every year for the last twenty years, if not longer.
Jerry and JoAnne have been married for 55 years. They love to travel, have taken a major trip every year since 1967 and have visited ninety-three different countries. But they have a soft spot in their heart for Mexico, especially Puerto Vallarta.
JoAnne has always been interested in home design and decorating. She has used many artifacts purchased from craftspeople and artists in Puerto Vallarta and in other countries to grace their home, situated on a beautiful lake less than an hour from Detroit.
Wherever the planes, trains, automobiles and river ferries have taken them during their travels, Jerry and JoAnne have always returned to Puerto Vallarta for at least a couple of weeks each year. They first came there in 1979 and have stayed in many hotels over the years, from the Romantic Zone to Nuevo Vallarta. Now they make their home, while in Vallarta, at the Marina. And, every year, they make sure that they take an IFC Home Tour.
They are enthusiastic promoters of the tours and the work that IFC does in the community. While meeting new friends around the pool at the hotel, one of them will often strike up a conversation with someone new and suggest that they all take a tour together. Over the years, Jerry and JoAnne have taken over twenty of IFC Home Tours and have seen about 50 or 60 different homes.
They love seeing the new homes that IFC adds to its inventory each year and are always interested in talking to the owners who host the tours. The owners always have fascinating stories to tell about themselves and their homes. Bob and JoAnne have exchanged information with many other guests and still keep in contact with some. Not only do the tours provide interesting houses to see, but the people who take them are interesting too.
“We mainly continue to take the tours to see new homes and also to support the great work that the IFC does,” they say. And IFC has been doing great work in Puerto Vallarta for thirty-six years!
The International Friendship Club started offering its now-world-famous IFC Home Tours in 1986 to raise money for its cleft palate program. This program provides the money necessary to support the free assessment, surgery and necessary treatment of Mexican children in Puerto Vallarta who have been born with cleft palates or cleft lips. This program is still the flagship program of IFC.
However, as the Home Tours have grown, support for the children in Vallarta has also expanded. The IFC supports a couple of orphanages that provide love, beds, food, and education to children who have lost the support of their own families for a myriad of reasons. It also helps about twenty families, all of which have a child who has cancer and who need help with the cost of medicine, food and treatment in Guadalajara.
Education is a strong focus of IFC, so the club helps provide after-school education in Volcanes, one of this town’s poorest neighborhood. Pasitos de Luz, which provides care for children with disabilities from low-income families, also receives our help. In all, about fifteen charities and programs receive our financial assistance.
Jerry and JoAnne know that tickets for the tours are available online at ifcvallarta.com and that the luxury, air-conditioned buses will leave the Sea Monkey Restaurant at 10:30 every Tuesday morning until mid-April. A pleasant plan is to have breakfast or a coffee on the beach before you go. The tours take about three hours and visit three or four architecturally interesting homes tucked away in some secluded parts of P.V. Most tours involve climbing up and down stairs, so bring some “sensible” shoes and strong legs and lungs.
The International Friendship Club appreciates every single guest that supports us. But here’s “A Very Special Thank You” to Jerry and Joanne for your constant support over so many years.
Written by John Warren of the International Friendship Club.
The International Friendship Club is a registered charitable organization in Mexico listed as Club Internacional de la Amistad de Puerto Vallarta A.C. It is located at the northeast corner of the Rio Cuale Bridge above the HSBC Bank, Colonia El Centro, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, 48300. Phone: 322-222-5466. Website: ifcvallarta.org Email: info(at)ifcvallarta.org