Letters, October 20, 2006
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Editor,

First, I must say that I do not own a car, so what I am writing about is not my problem.

Last Wednesday, I was walking on calle Cardo a couple of times. What I saw I consider ludicrous—the city is supplying two traffic police to keep people from parking on this wide street, which could accommodate quite a number of parked cars. 

I know the history of this situation, but people who go to St. Paul’s Church to volunteer, to consult, or whatever, are now forced by police to park in the new garage, which is some walking distance from the church. Not all volunteers or people having things to do in St. Paul’s are “spring chickens.”

Isn’t having two traffic police on duty carrying our next-to-last mayor’s commitment a little too far?


Reggie King 

Editor,

It is that time of the year: We’ve begun the annual collection for the Christmas shopping spree for children housed at the local orphanages. Each year we take the girls from the Casa Hogar Don Bosco and Casa Hogar Santa Julia orphanages, plus the boys from the Mexiquito orphanage, on a pre-Christmas shopping spree. 

There are approximately 100 kids in these facilities. These children live in shelters because their families cannot support them; some have been abandoned or actually orphaned. Casa Hogar Don Bosco houses girls from age 11 on up at Sollano 14 in the center of town. Casa Hogar Santa Julia houses baby girls up to the age of 11; it is located at Chipiros 5 in Col. Santa Julia. Boys of all ages live in the Mexiquito residence; it is located right off the Salida de Delores in Col. Mexiquito.

We hope to collect a donation of 500 pesos (or US$50.00) for each child’s Christmas spree. Once the money is collected, we schedule an adult volunteer to chaperone and guide a child’s shopping spree. We take groups of kids to the San Juan de Dios Market so that we can keep the money within the community. At the same time, the local merchants offer discounts as their contribution to the event. Each child chooses to buy whatever he or she wants, with helpful tips from the chaperone (“ah, maybe you don’t want to spend all your money on candy”). Through the hard work of the nuns and other generous donations the individual houses provide the children’s basic needs. However, many of these children never have the opportunity to buy new clothes or make purchases of their own choosing. With 500 pesos most of them can buy a complete outfit, as well as something less practical but more fun.

There are four ways to make a donation: You can make a check payable to San Miguel Educational Foundation, which insures a tax-deductible donation, or make a check payable to Suzanne Paris—or put cash in an envelope—to be placed in box #221 at La Conexión. Or you can make a deposit directly into the account set up expressly for this purpose at Intercam, San Francisco #4, contract number 4087. All monies collected will be initially deposited to this account; funds are then drawn out in the first or second week of December to fund the big spree. 

The first step is to inspire donations for each child. The second step is to schedule the volunteer chaperones. The third, and final, step is to take these kids shopping! 

Susan Sergeant