Scarves from/for Ecuador

Saturday, April 28th

12 noon until 4 p.m.

156 Reimer Avenue

Scarves from the Otavalo Artisans Market will be sold at a giant scarf sale. Come and peruse the selection of spring and summer colours as well as formal and informal, new styles and classic ones, scarves for any occasion. Scarves sell for $15 each with all the money going toward soccer costs for Los Canarios in Puerto Lopez, a food and nutrition program for the players as well as student scholarships. To date scarf sales have helped to support the family who sends the scarves (particularly allowing for some very needed medical expenses), soccer registration fees, new uniforms, Christmas gifts and nutrition supplements and more.

Artists for Ecuador

On March 9th Judy Heinrichs and Sharon Froese organized a house concert at Larry and Mitch Peters place. A crowd of 40 guests enjoyed the fusion sounds of Hot Tub, the romantic ballads by Ryjan Pugoy and Kiko Altre, excertps from The Cold Feet Sessionsby Richard Inman, some folk songs by Dana Doerksen and her friend Mitchell and the awesome dancing of The Rice Crew. The show went so well, that people asked for more, so more is on the way.

Hot Tub

Richard Inman

Ryjan Pugoy & Kiko Altre

Kyle Zuebzon, Neil Seilvejo, Gene Francisco, Renz Vallarta of The Rice Crew

Isaac Loewen

Friday, April 20th at the Steinbach Arts Council (corner of Reimer Avenue and Second Street in Steinbach) is our next concert. We will reprise the sounds of KikoAltre’s voice and the spectacular moves of The Rice Crew. Dana Doerksen is back, this time with Elizabeth Grauer. Joining them on stage will be David Forde, Teagan Buchanan and Ryan Funk’s band. Doors open at 7 with the concert beginning at 7:30.

May – date to be announced. The biggest collection of performers hosted by the student council of the Steinbach Regional Secondary School for a benefit concert. Doors open at 7 with the performance to begin at 7:30. The whole list of performers will be announced soon.

June – exact date to be announced (but after June 7th). A number of willing performers are travelling Europe right now, so when they get home, there will be a chance for them to lend their voices and dance talents to the collection.

We’re Planning, Not Dreaming anymore

We have names, documents are being prepared, it appears that two boys from Puerto Lopez, Ecuador will spend the fall semester as students at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School (SRSS). Our soccer coach is not the only one excited by this news. We will also have a volunteer in our Spanish program for three months, so it just gets better and better.

Adrian Briones is an assistant coach with Los Canarios U12 and U14 and wants to become an English teacher. To help him toward that end, he will be a volunteer at the SRSS for three months. He will help our kids who are learning Spanish, so he will need to build bridges with English. He will also assist in the EAL program where kids from all over the world are learning English. Teaching is one of the best ways to learn!

Junior Parraga is going into grade 10 at the SRSS to complete the 10th course he will be beginning in a month in Puerto Lopez. He will be in one Spanish class where he will use his native tongue to access the English that is used to help our students learn Spanish. He will be in one EAL class and then take two more classes, which are as of now still undetermined. Geovanny Gonzalez is the same age, doing the same school work.

All three will be living with me, and for three months, Marlon, who is here from Nicaragua to learn English. It will be a very bilingual house where I’ll be working on my Spanish just as fast as they will be working on their Spanish. This is more than good news!

FUNDRAISING

There have been quite a few ventures undertaken over the past six months attempting to raise money for the Manitoba to Ecuador, 2012 project. Here’s an update of what is coming, and what has happened. Please contact the names presented if you have any questions, want to help out, want to buy tickets or somehow help the cause.

Saturday, February 25 – social at Norberry Glenlee Community Centre in Winnipeg from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Tickets are $10 and are available from Kristy Zabowski (792-9738; kzabowski@hsd.ca) or Mark Reimer (346-1942; marreimer@hsd.ca). If you want to support the project but can’t come, we have token tickets which allow you to buy social prize tickets too.

Saturday, February 11 – scarf sale at Ten Thousand Villages in Steinbach from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Scarves are $15 each and make great Valentine Day gifts.

Thursday, February 9 – Steinbach 55+ presentation were I will be talking about the Manitoba to Ecuador project and Karissa Bateman will be selling scarves.

Donations welcome – the Good News Community Church has adopted this project and will issue tax deductible receipts for donations. Please forward your donation to Kristy Zabowski or Mark Reimer and they will deposit it with the church. You will receive your receipt at the end of the year.

So Much has happened and continues to happen

Where do I start since my last entry was so long ago? Let me do a three part summary: scarves, scholarships, and food.

Scarves – I came home with 240 scarces from the Otavalo artisans market. I hoped to have them sold by spring break or early summer so I could bring down some extra dollars for Los Canarios. When Hector delivered the scarves to me at Hostal Tuzco, he joked that when these were sold and more were needed, he could always mail them to me. Well, the short story is that he’s made quite a few trips to Otavalo to buy scarves and more scarves and to the post office to mail them. This week (Feb 6th) I took delivery of scarf number 2510! We have had sales at various town’s summer fairs, sales sponsored by MCCs Ten Thousand Village store in Steinbach, sales sponsored by the student council at the high school where I teach and others sold by people from Iowa City to Winnipeg through Dauphin and soon more places too. The support for the scarves and for the Manitoba to Ecuador project has been incredible! Thank you to all the scarf buyers and sellers.

Scholarships – in early September I spoke with Randy Dueck, one of the assistant superintendents of the Hanover School Division (where I work), about my dream of eventually bringing young boys from Puerto Lopez to Steinbach, Manitoba for one semester of their high school experience. If those boys learn English really well, they have job opportunities that will enrich the lives of their entire extended family. When I told Randy I hoped we could have this in place for September, 2013, he said that gave him all the time he needed to approach and talk to the superintendent, a particular social justice concerns committee and the school board, to work on setting up the possibility. Well, the Hanover School Board put their money where their mouth is; they not only speak about global citizenship and responsibility, but they are now, or perhaps again, sponsoring it. Hanover has waived tuition fees for two people associated with Los Canarios for one semester of  high school every time Manitoba to Ecuador takes students from Hanover their in the summer! We are presently dialoguing with Fredy Soto, parents of some of the eligible players and their schools to confirm which players will spend the fall semester as students at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School.

Food – malnutrition was identified as a significant problem for the kids in Puerto Lopez. In an attempt to address that problem, one of the projects for which we are fundraising in Manitoba is to provide occasional food hampers for Los Canarios players and their families. From the proceeds of the scarf sales, we were able to send enough money to provide Christmas food hampers for all the players. We are hoping to be able to repeat that gift in the near future.

What’s been happening since our return?

August was filled with media requests – three radio stations, the local CHSM and Mix 96, and then CBC wanted to know what had happened. Steinbachonline.com carried the story, and then The Carillon carried a front page story letting many people know about Los Canarios and our volunteer work with them. And then there were the scarf sales. Lots of scarves were sold to raise money for Los Canarios, and more are being ordered to continue the fund raising efforts. Here are some of those scarves so you can see what kinds of scarves there are:

It´s No Longer My Project …

We're in this together

Freddy arrived at the hostal this morning for la ultima clase de español para ese año. We sat down for a few minutes before classes started and I told him I was sorry to not have invited him to our group´s highs and lows session last night. I told him what Katie had said (which I will attempt to paraphrase again) – I sort of don´t want to leave. I mean, I don´t mind going home, I am going home to my life and I like my life. But for the past three weeks we have been a bright spot in the days of these boys, most of whom don´t have many bright spots, and when we go, we take away those bright spots. I don´t want to take that away from them. (Could she be wiser? more generous and gold hearted?) I told Freddy many tears had already been shed and many of our group are anticipating our farewell meeting this afternoon with mixed feelings. It will be good to see Los Canarios one more time, but it will be hard for it to be over.

I told him he was running an amazing project, he was/is doing wonderful things for the boys and young men of Puerto Lopez, and as a result for the entire town. He said it was not his work alone. He was a tool of God´s in this world, and the work he did he does “to be the Jesus in the here and now” (to quote Archbishop Oscar Romero). And then he smiled, “and it is no longer my project, it is now our project!”

This is a big project that Freddy has been working on for quite a few years. This year 11 of us joined him in his project. I wonder what it will look like a few years from now. I wonder to how many people he will have been able to say “this is no longer just my project, it is now our project.”

If you are at all interested in becoming a part of this project in some way, or have ideas about what those of us already involved might do to help this project develop and keep working toward transforming dreams into reality, please contact me by one of the following ways:

Mark Reimer 156 Reimer Avenue, Steinbach, Manitoba R5G 0T8

(204) 346-1942

marreimer@hsd.ca

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