New Mexico Mercury

Last week, I had the opportunity to be with volunteers from New Mexico who were bringing holiday cheer to thousands of needy Mexican children.

On Thursday, I met up with a non-profit named Amigo Fiel, a program which provides care and education to children at risk in Juárez or, to put it another way, a “home away from home “ program.  It was started by Carlos Garcia of Santa Fe and his brother, Hector.  We spent the night in Juárez at their compound together with a group of volunteers, the Albuquerque ones led by Jesús “Chuy” Flores as well as a group from Arizona.

In addition to his work with Amigo Fiel, Carlos is in charge of the Mexico part of Operation Christmas Child, a non-profit that has been distributing Christmas gifts to needy kids in about 130 countries. These gifts come in a shoebox and include basic items like a comb, soap, toothbrushes, pens and notebooks as well as a Christmas gift. Operation Christmas Child has distributed 10 million of these shoe boxes since it began the program in 1993.

Carlos is in charge of the Mexico portion of the program which starts in about April of every year and includes gathering the gifts at a warehouse in Aurora, Colorado, sorting them by age and sex and then delivering them to Mexico in about 70 semi-trucks. He also trains pastors to help with the distribution and will distribute between 700,000 and 800,000 gifts this Christmas season.

On Friday, we were at the Centro Comunitario Bertha Chui early, setting up chairs, blowing up balloons and getting ready. At 9 AM, buses began arriving and kids came pouring into the building. Each one had a wrist band or “pulsera” for identification.

At 10 AM, the program started with balloons, a clown and a short play put on by kids from Amigo Fiel. Then the gifts were given out by sex and age group: 2-4, 5-9, 10-14. The noise of these shrieking, happy kids was deafening but they were extremely well behaved. About 1,000 kids had a special moment of happiness during that first shift and another 1,000 would participate in the afternoon.

When Carlos first told me about this project several years ago, I was skeptical. Gifts for 2,000 kids in one day? So I went with him in 2011 to both Juárez and Ascención and quickly became a believer.

One very positive note. Unlike 2011, we didn’t need any armed guards. Fortunately these towns are now much safer.

On Saturday morning, Carlos’ plan was to get up at 5 AM, take the volunteers 280 miles southwest to the town of Casas Grandes and repeat the process there. Instead of going with him, I was seventy miles west of Juárez in the small town of Palomas for the Christmas party hosted by a coalition of churches from Santa Fe, Silver City and Durango, Colorado, led by Jim and Pat Noble and Eunice Herrera from The Light at Mission Viejo in Santa Fe. Some thirteen years ago, these churches founded an orphanage in Palomas called La Casa de Amor Para Niños. Now they are caring for 15 young women ages 12-16, young women who are too old for adoption and who also need to learn some life skills.

They also have a scholarship program that involves 130 local kids whose families cannot afford the costs of going to the public schools and they drive down to Palomas on the second Friday of every month and bring food which is distributed throughout the town by a coalition of local churches. This is not an easy task, given the often-ruthless behavior of the Mexican customs officials.

Last, they hold two big community events every year – Mother’s Day and Christmas. This particular Saturday was the Christmas celebration which would feature games for the kids, music provided by a band from the city of Chihuahua, performances by many of the kids, Christmas gifts, a Santa Claus named Randy Murray from Santa Fe (he has been doing this for ten years.) and a meal. The event is open to the community and about 1,000 people attended.

It’s hard to imagine what events like these are like without being there to participate in them. The efficiency of the leaders like Carlos, Hector and Chuy; imagine getting 70 semis with 700,000 to 800,000 gifts across the border and then distributed throughout Mexico. The persistence of the Casa de Amor volunteers; one of them, Margie Acuña from Santa Fe said that she had only missed 6 of the monthly trips in the last thirteen years.

Most important, the sheer happiness of these thousands of kids , most of whom don’t even have those basics like toothbrushes, no less a Christmas gift.

As another year ends, I want to say thank you to all these volunteers and wish them well for 2014. It’s a great honor to be with them and to see their work.