Project Amigo Fireside

Dora E. Zúñiga, the donor guidance director of Project Amigo, will talk to the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay during a Fireside Chat Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 5:30 until about 7:30 p.m. at Flat Fish Lodge, 57745 Taku Ave.

Our food plan: Pizzas will be provided. Rotarians are asked to bring their own beverages. Coffee, tea, and sodas will be available. If you have not already signed up, please text Lori Evans (907-399-7767) that you plan to attend, so there’s enough food.

Directions: Flat Fish Lodge is located at 57745 Taku Ave. Head out East End Road for 5.7 miles and turn left on Portlock. Portlock turns left and becomes Taku. Go about .3 miles. The lodge is on the left. Rotarians are asked to carpool if at all possible. If you need a ride, please text Lori at 907-399-7767.

About Project Amigo: Project Amigo is about “ending the cycle of poverty through education." The main emphasis of the project is to promote education from primary school through university. Children are sponsored by “madrinas” and “madrinos” (godparents), and the funding helps provide them with books, school uniforms, supplies, and transportation to school. It also provides computer labs and homework clubs. The children need to maintain their grades to stay in the program and the madrinos are encouraged to maintain contact with their “becarios” (scholars) through written correspondence and hopefully visits to their towns.

Project Amigo has service weeks that individuals or groups can attend. They are cultural immersion visits and when you attend you see a side of rural Mexico that you would not see as a tourist. The hub of Project Amigo is in Cofradia de Suchitlan in the State of Colima. 

Alaskans, especially in Juneau and Seward have been big supporters of Project Amigo, but Rotary Clubs from around the world come for service weeks and sponsor children. There are also non-Rotarians that are contributors. Lori Draper of the Rotary Club of Seward has been involved and will be at Wednesday’s Fireside. She has seen first-hand the difference this program can make in the lives of the children, their families and the communities that they live in.