Author Archives: The Secret Gardener

FOB Donor List

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“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
― John Holmes

We are well exercised. Our List of Donors grows every year and as old avenues narrow, others reveal themselves and morph from trail, to street and perhaps to super highways.

In the last three months these EDM residents and friends of EDM residents have contributed a total of $8867 US dollars to the FOB CANAM scholarship and school construction funds. The bulk of the money will go to support high school students with scholarships that cover about half of their annual schooling expenses.
DJR (Dale Lyster, Jim Barnes & Rob Wright)
Cliff and Barb DuFrense
Rod & Terri Kaasa
Rob and Jayne Kenison
Dale & Lynda Lyster
Dick & Kris McGuire
Nancy & Bob Muzyka
Ron & Janice Ohmes
Rita Pacheco
Keith Prosser
Bob & Julie Wallace
Sunny Wong
Many thanks to these generous donors and to all those who care enough to donate their time and money to help these kids.

If you continue to read this blog, you will see what is in the works. And some of that is really exciting. Our new strategy is to incentivise you, the good and generous people of Estrella del Mar and their far flung friends and relatives to stay involved. Stay tuned here. Sign up to automatically get these posts. I promise to keep them short, sweet, business-like.

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. ”
― Kahlil Gibran
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
― Kahlil Gibran

2012 Annual Report

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The Friends of Barron Annual Report has been published and distributed. You can find it here on the “Annual Report” page (look at the top of the blog site and click on “Annual Report”) or if you prefer old fashioned paper, reports are on all the bulletin boards throughout the EDM complex. Please read them and return them to save paper and ink. If the report is missing from the bulletin board, just let me know and I’ll replace it. Thanks for your support!

Back to School Time!

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The 2012-2013 academic year has begun and our 35 scholarship recipients are busy studying, trying to maintain their grade point average so they might receive their stipend for the first semester. Qualified students will get MXN $2000 pesos on November 15 (the first of three payments) when they present their certified grades to our administrators. FOB CanAm is pleased to announce that we have expanded the scholarship recipient pool to include all EDM employees, both workers and administrators who do not live in Barron. In a special outreach, Kris McGuire spoke before the manager’s meeting in October to announce our expansion and explain the rules. EDM’s HR Administrator Tamara Fraire was our point-person to distribute and receive the completed applications. They were due November 1 and eight applications came in. Of those eight, all were qualified and have been accepted into the program.

Our total number of scholarship students stands at 35. Of those 35, eleven have been adopted by EDM residents and/or friends of EDM residents; eight by our friends and neighbors here and three by non-EDM owners. Please click on the “Adopt-A-Student” tab at the top of this page to review the incoming students and read their heartfelt essays. Twenty-four students still need your personal attention.

Great News!

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Thank you to all of you who attended the Friends of Barron Gala and Silent Auction Friday night. Your donations, purchases, and contribution of volunteer hours made this event a great success. Also, thank you to those people who donated to Friends of Barron but were unable to attend the Gala. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
We raised 80,000 pesos!!! We hope you enjoyed an evening of good food and entertainment while connecting with your neighbors.
Half of the money will be used for new scholarships for grade nine students attending high school in Mazatlan in the fall of 2012 and the rest of the money will go for the following infrastructure projects:
· · finishing the computer room at the junior high school
· · painting the exterior walls, fixing the roof and buying classroom desks at the elementary school
· · painting the exterior walls, providing shelving for the library and buying classroom furniture at the Kindergarten
· · providing tables and chairs, fixing the bathrooms and painting the “Adult Education” classroom, where 60 adults from Barron are attending evening and weekend classes to learn to read and write.
Thank you one and all.
For more information, please contact DLyster@shaw.ca or check out our website at fobnews.org.

Thank You Notes for Recent Donations

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Individual donations for December 2011 and January 2012 totaled $71,166 pesos. Forty-eight percent of these donations were earmarked for individual scholarship students. Thirty-seven percent of the donated funds went towards the General Scholarship Program to be used to support the remaining eight students who have yet to be adopted by an individual sponsor. The remaining 15% of donations went to finance ongoing construction projects at four schools in Barron.

Many thanks to the following donors:

Anonymous – Phase 1
Dave & Bonni Canary – Phase 2
Dave & Lindy Marvin – EDM guests from Colorado
Dick & Kris McGuire – Phase 1
Rita Pacheco – Homes & Lots
Bob & Mary Sanz – Phase 1
John Watson – Phase 1

Progress at the Primary School

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It has been obvious for a very long time that the Barron Primary School needed paint. The new principal, Norma, decided to do something about it. So she organized her parents into work groups, and using paint provided by Friends of Barron, has transformed the school. Look at the before and after pictures below. This lady is organized and motivated to improve the learning environment at Barron. She has also instituted a plastic bottle recycling program. Things are changing over in Barron! For the better!

Scholarship Program

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Friends of Barron is constantly growing and revising our methods. Our goal is to provide academically gifted students with an incentive to not only continue their education through high school, but to excel in their academic endeavors. After a year and a half of trying to help out these deserving kids, we have revised the program several times and recently we called a meeting of all scholarship students and their parents. Every one, with the exception of Janeth who had to work, attended the meeting. We were able to sit down and look these bright young people in the eye and see how they are doing, ask what problems they are having, gather needed data and generally come to a consensus agreement that we are on the right path. Portraits of these kids reveal their potential. Be sure to take a look at the Student Scholars page. There are 2011 and 2012 portraits of the original group of scholarship winners. See how they have matured. Study their smiles, their eyes. They proudly wear the uniforms of their various high schools. These kids are going to make something of themselves and they will be the ones to bring prosperity and development to their home town of Barron.

Ongoing School Construction Projects

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Elementary School – The next time you drive by the Barron Primary School, take a look… the exterior has received a much needed paint job. In keeping with the FOB’s rules of Community Development, after parents of the students volunteered to paint the school exterior, Friends of Barron agreed to buy the paint. Some fathers have also volunteered to re-roof two of the classrooms and we are currently evaluating a request to buy roofing material. We also have a request from the teaching staff to refurnish one of the classrooms. The existing desks are in such disrepair and so many have collapsed, they are forced to borrow furniture from the library in order to hold classes. We are not currently funded to address this request and although it is important, it is not among our highest priorities. FOB has spent $10,000 pesos on this project and we expect to spend another $8,000 pesos on the roofing project.

School for Adults – Barron has a program supported and sanctioned by the Mexican Government to provide elementary, middle and high school curricula to adult members of the community. There are also basic literacy classes for approximately 15 students associated with this adult school. In total, 65 adults are receiving equivalent education through the efforts of three local teachers who volunteer their time and effort to this program. The Mexican Government support consists of classroom materials, planned curricula and formal testing that leads to certification of the students as graduates. The problem facing the school is a lack of adequate classroom space and furnishings that allow classes to held during the evening hours. The town has provided a vacant two room building in need of much repair for these volunteer teachers to use as their classrooms. The teachers have approached FOB with a request to repair, paint and furnish these classrooms. From among the 65 adult students, cement masons, plumbers, electricians and groundskeepers have volunteered their time and skills to provide the labor necessary to bring this school up to a point where it is useable. Given the impressive rate of volunteerism on the part of both the teachers and students to improve the educational experience for the adult school, FOB has decided to assist them with the necessary materials and furnishings to compete the classroom renovation project. FOB will probably spend upwards of $20,000 pesos on this project.