Doug Vincent and gift boxes in Mexico

Hi Rotarians and Friends:

(written Jan 6, 2007)

I'm currently with a team of D7080 Rotarians in Mexico working on the Christmas Shoe Box Distribution with members from Tucson, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico. As part of the project many individuals and clubs donated funds which the team has used to purchase items and create many additional boxes . . over 1000 in total, plus 400 bags of groceries. The day prior to distribution, Rotarians visit the poor colonias and distribute tickets. Following is an account of that experience by team member Pat Dimeck, RC Waterloo.

"I came to Nogales to learn what it means to give service above myself, and participate with this Rotary team. My personal goals were to interact with the needy children that I had heard so much about and try to make a difference in any way I was able. The day we ventured into the unspeakably poor areas was a day that made a profound impression on me, and one which I recorded carefully in my diary as follows.

"I touched and blessed every child and greeted them warmly. Their smiles and attitudes filled the air around us with warmth and joy. With nothing but dirt to play with, and a shack to live in but they know no different and are happy. The mothers and grandmothers were gracious and well-mannered; we smiled, chatted and hugged. There was no reserve about touching or hugging at all and no thought of hand sanitizers.

They look up to us like we are angels but it is really they who give us a gift of innocent appreciation. We walk into and out of their life in an instant, hopefully giving them the respect they deserve. I am awed by their attitude of gratitude, their perfect smiles are sealed into my memory and as I feel emotions welling I simultaneously know that I must keep them in check. I am here to bring them gifts and greetings of blessing, not tears. But they have so very very little and I cannot remain aloof or impervious to the imbalance. We arrived in a fancy SUV, they are in rags. I have tried to be sensitive in plain denim and a T shirt, but obviously we are the rich and they are the poor, otherwise we would not be the ones handing out the tickets. I hear echoes of thoughts when I have felt impoverished in the past, when I have wished for more and I never will again look down at my feet and take my shoes for granted.

We cannot fix their economy, nor pave their terrible potholed streets; we cannot build better homes nor plant trees and flowers to make it all pretty, but we can warm a heart with these small gifts. We can show them that people care. Maybe not everyone cares, but the lady who laid a hand on their heads and blessed them, who tried to speak their language and held their little dirty hands, the lady and her friends in Rotary cared enough to come a long way to help. Rotarians know that poverty exists and they cannot ignore it.

The mothers know that by next week the food will be eaten, some of the toys broken; the paper and pencils will get used up and the brightly coloured shoe box may lie torn in a corner, but joy and generosity came knocking on their simple door and brightened this day. It taught a lesson to both givers and recipients, it planted a seed. Though the gifts will be gone, the message of love remains. "