A healthy habit

Noted on March 2, 2009 by Natanya in

Early Saturday morning Amanda, another volunteer at the Casa de los Angles, and I set up a table at a local fair held monthly in the Instituto Allende near the center of town. Amidst booths displaying jewelry, handicrafts and beautiful artwork, Amanda and I sold goodies and t-shirts to raise money for the daycare. We spread information to tourists and locals about how the daycare provides free childcare to local women in the area. Some visitors to the market were excited about our cause: One lady from Texas told us that she understood about daycare and bought three child-sized t-shirts and two more for her husband and herself. Others weren’t so friendly, but by the end of the day Amanda and I were excited to have broken prior records and raised 4,000 pesos from sales at the Fair. Upon coming to the daycare I learned that the organization, which means so much to so many women and children, is just barely kept afloat by generous donations and fundraisers organized by volunteers. Fundraising is made more difficult as the Casa de los Angeles does not qualify for many U.S. grant programs and receives little support from the Mexican government. In order to operate the two daycare locations we must raise $3,000 a month, which goes to cover food, school supplies, taxes and teachers’ salaries. As Donna, the founder, often reflects, some months there is no money in the bank to pay for monthly expenses then a cheque shows up and ends suddenly meet. This happened last month when Saint Mary’s College made a donation so that all the kids could receive Three Kings Day presents, the Mexican equivalent to Christmas. One American man whom I met at the fair compared the charities in San Miguel to junkies constantly searching for their fix (i.e. donations) and always wanting more. Despite the fact that this man had probably never worked for a charity, at least not one outside of the realm of drug rehab, I found his description apt, my time at the daycare has made me a junky of sorts. Like a junky I work hard to support my habit: helping bake cookies to sell, advocating for the daycare at little fairs and designing jewelry and artwork to benefit the daycare. I once offered a lady the shirt off my back when we couldn’t find her a daycare shirt in the right size. Not to mention the silent auctions, gallery events and relationship with the Lasallien Association of Christian Colleges and the Chicago Marathon, which Donna and other volunteers have set up. The work pays off: a friendly tourist once nonchalantly handed me a two-hundred peso donation and a happy feeling rolled over me as I thought of the baby wipes and children’s tooth brushes that two-hundred pesos might buy. Everyday at the daycare is a hard won miracle… or maybe a high, made possible by the diligent work of Donna. As she accepted a person of the year award from the San Miguel de Allende Rotary Club, she reminded the audience that we should always express to those around us how much we appreciate them how important and meaningful they are to us. This ideal more than anything else is the daycare’s success. The organization shows donors, volunteers and mothers that they can make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others and this motivates all actors to be part of the solution. Through the course of the ceremony Donna received the proceeds of various fundraisers the Rotary club had put together in honor of her award and Amanda and I smiled to each other. There hadn’t been enough money in the account to pay the teachers that month, and now we would be able to.