Project Amigo
Posted by Tonya Gamble
on Apr 6, 2011
Help Support our International Service Project to bring literacy to children in remote Mexican Villages.
As most of you have probably already heard, during last year's district conference, Pete, Brad, and I sat down with the Project Amigo people and talked to them about Eagle River Rotary doing a work week at Project Amigo. The result of our discussion was that we reserved the week of March 5-13, 2011 for a literacy work week for our club.
This is going to be an amazing trip. We are going to be building book shelves in schools in the state of Colima, Mexico, the poorest state in Mexico and delivering these bookshelves along with books to establish libraries in some area schools.
The current status of the effort is that our grant request has been received by Rotary International and is under consideration. We have 14 people signed up to participate; we have room for and need several more participants. Please consider joining our Team and pass the word around to friends you think might be interested. You don't have to be a member of our Club or even a Rotarian to participate.
In regards to our trip, here are the details: We are committed to being there from March 5-13, so to incorporate travel time we will probably be gone from March 4 - 14, 2011.
Each person is responsible for their own travel costs, but I will work to try to get the best deal possible for us as a group. There is also a $1200 fee/person to Project Amigo. This includes airport pick-up and drop-off, lodging, meals, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks, entry fees to archeological sites and museums, and a donation to Project Amigo.
We can have up to about 32 people. They have 19 guestrooms, double-occupancy. Thirty two is a good target and easy on their end. Depending on how people bunk up (couples, same-sex singles who can share a twin room, folks who are willing to share a bathroom, etc), they could even house up to 38.
A deposit will be requested in the coming months, I am waiting to hear how much they want from us and when, but for now I am trying to get an idea of who is interested and to get a list started. Other clubs who have gone to Project Amigo rave about what an incredible experience this is.
To participate in this work week, our club will be responsible for raising $4,200. We have submitted a grant and through district designated funds and the Rotary Foundation, we should be able to turn our $4,200 into $15,000. That will fund the work that we will be doing at Project Amigo.
In the coming weeks we will also talk about sponsoring some of the Project Amigo kids. Some of us in the club have been doing this for a few years and it has been rewarding to get updates and letters from the student we have been sponsoring. We will get to meet our student when we travel to Mexico.
This is going to be an amazing trip. We are going to be building book shelves in schools in the state of Colima, Mexico, the poorest state in Mexico and delivering these bookshelves along with books to establish libraries in some area schools.
The current status of the effort is that our grant request has been received by Rotary International and is under consideration. We have 14 people signed up to participate; we have room for and need several more participants. Please consider joining our Team and pass the word around to friends you think might be interested. You don't have to be a member of our Club or even a Rotarian to participate.
In regards to our trip, here are the details: We are committed to being there from March 5-13, so to incorporate travel time we will probably be gone from March 4 - 14, 2011.
Each person is responsible for their own travel costs, but I will work to try to get the best deal possible for us as a group. There is also a $1200 fee/person to Project Amigo. This includes airport pick-up and drop-off, lodging, meals, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks, entry fees to archeological sites and museums, and a donation to Project Amigo.
We can have up to about 32 people. They have 19 guestrooms, double-occupancy. Thirty two is a good target and easy on their end. Depending on how people bunk up (couples, same-sex singles who can share a twin room, folks who are willing to share a bathroom, etc), they could even house up to 38.
A deposit will be requested in the coming months, I am waiting to hear how much they want from us and when, but for now I am trying to get an idea of who is interested and to get a list started. Other clubs who have gone to Project Amigo rave about what an incredible experience this is.
To participate in this work week, our club will be responsible for raising $4,200. We have submitted a grant and through district designated funds and the Rotary Foundation, we should be able to turn our $4,200 into $15,000. That will fund the work that we will be doing at Project Amigo.
In the coming weeks we will also talk about sponsoring some of the Project Amigo kids. Some of us in the club have been doing this for a few years and it has been rewarding to get updates and letters from the student we have been sponsoring. We will get to meet our student when we travel to Mexico.