American's Living in Mexico Do So Much Charity Work

By Beverly Arrowood On Dec 5th, 2018

Over the years of being in Puerto Peñasco, I have seen so much generosity from the American community that live here. It can be something as simple as adopting a family for the Christmas Season to adopting puppies form Barb’s Dog Rescue and everything in between.  The expats living in Mexico  are such a generous bunch.

One of the oldest charities is The Santa Claus Club in Cholla Bay and it has been spearheaded since it started in 1983 by John Fowler of JJ’s. The first year they had 40 children and fast forward to 2017 when they served 12,000 children.  Throughout the year, John works tirelessly in getting donations of clothes, blankets, etc. and distributing them in the barrio (poor) areas of Rocky Point.  He starts every year gathering toys and money to provide a meal and toys and bikes to hundreds of children from the area at Christmas.

The largest one would be the Rocky Point Rally. This year was the 18th anniversary.  The bikers make a donation when they register as well as funds from a local Poker Run and other things.  In November of 2018, the founder Oscar Palacio along with myself , Sami Rivera and Linda Plant, presented cash to our 8 local charities along with Mayor Kiko Munro.  The total funds raised came to $415,050.00 pesos.  This was a banner year for the monies collected.  We have 22 volunteers who spend 2 days registering the riders and that group of volunteers has been together for nearly 8 years.  They love to help the bikers and also are able to help them navigate the area.  The group of local riders and some from the USA also come down on King’s Day in January to pass out toys to the children in the poor areas of town.  When the registration notice goes out for the rally, there is also a note about bringing toys.  So think about this for next year.

A new charitable group has been formed and it benefits the woman who have been abused or need a place to stay and get their lives together.  This group is called “Women Helping Women” and was formed by Nancy Britos, a resident of Puerto Peñasco for a few years.  They had a shelter, that had been falling apart but with the help of the other volunteers and donations, they have been able to fix the roof as well as pay the electric bill ahead for the winter months.  On November 27th, the held their first fund raiser breakfast in the Sonoran SKY at Cielito Lindo Restaurant.  Here 80 women gathered to support the women who are so less fortunate than they are.  The attendees were served a wonderful breakfast while enjoying a classical guitarist.  This was followed by the raffle drawing, auction and Silent auction.  The sales from tickets was $1600.00 USD, sponsorships raised aprx. $1800.00 USD and Raffle ticket sales raised $2315.00 before some expenses.  A wonderful time was had by all and a heartfelt thank you to the volunteer team who made it possible.  This won’t be the the last you hear of this group.  The committee was headed by Nancy Britos and along with Linda Plant, Sylvia Cox, Susan Sharp, Charlotte Keller and Carole Robertson put in many hours putting this together. They will be making gift bags for Christmas so if you have anything you would like to donate, please let one of these ladies know.

Although not a fund raiser, the Las Conchas homeowners group, provide candy and other goodies for the children of Rocky Point at Halloween.  The homeowners dress in costume as do the local children and the look on their faces when they see all the candy is priceless.

People like Linda Plant also do a lot of buying of back to school supplies to make sure the children are off to a great start on the beginning of the school year.  Thanks to Linda and all the people who donate and bring the items down from the USA.  Another project of Linda Plant and Kris Nichols from the Satisfied Frog is to collect blankets for the needy.  This year their goal is 250 new or gently used blankets.  Also if you pass by a Dollar Store, it is amazing how much you can buy in toys for the children with very little money.  These will be passed out with the help of the Tequila Bar the weekend of Christmas.

Barb’s Dog Rescue, please stop by.The last group I will touch base on is Barb’s Dog Rescue, which has been in operation for 17 years in Rocky Point and was started by Barb Mumaugh.  This lady works seems to work 24/7.  The rescue is funded by donation and fund raising only.  Here again there are many volunteers that go out and help socialize with the puppies and older dogs by holding them and loving them, so that they know the kindness of humans, as they have seen the worst.  Every year she adopts out over 1100 dogs of all ages.  These dogs have been abused and abandoned not only in Rocky Point but other cities near by.  To learn of the horror stories these helpless creatures have gone through makes you cry.

These are just a few of the chartable groups in Rocky Point.  We hope you will help one of them.