Amicis Italia Donation Success

November 27, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

For the last few days my friends and I have been busy purchasing food and school supplies for the teachers and students of Cariñositos Preschool and Amicis Italia Elementary School. Thanks to your incredible generosity we were able to double the number of notebooks, pens and pencils for each student and to fortify the teachers’ food baskets. In total, we spent $550 on the following items:

For Individual Students

• 150 notebooks
• 300 pens
• 300 pencils
• 150 pencil sharpeners
• 150 boxes of crayons

For the Classroom

• 2 double-sided, laminated posters (ABC’s and math)
• 4 staplers
• 4 boxes of staples
• 12 rolls of masking tape
• 18 Spanish textbooks/story books
• 4 reams of white paper
• 10 books of colored construction paper
• 12 dry erase markers
• 4 dry erase board erasers
• 12 pairs of safety scissors
• 10 bottles of non-toxic glue
• 12 rulers
• 1 large, plastic storage bin with lid (to keep things dry!)

For Each of the 10 Teachers

• Washing Tub
• Rice (5 lbs.)
• Beans (5 lbs.)
• Sugar (5 lbs.)
• Salt
• Cooking Oil (1 liter)
• Coffee (1 lb.)
• Oatmeal
• Spaghetti
• Tomato Sauce
• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Cookies
• Laundry Detergent
• Shampoo
• Soap
• Toothpaste

Additional Goodies

• Clown Piñata filled to the brim with candy (Amicis Italia students)
• Note: The piñata also supported a young man in the neighborhood, who is deaf and mute and earns his living making piñatas.
• Freshly baked donuts and orange juice (Cariñositos students)
• Transportation for purchasing and delivering the food and transporting the musicians, who volunteered their time and talent to play for the children.

As promised, I took lots of pictures in order to give you the play-by-play:

Here are my good friends, Douglas and Garry, who have been helping me every step of the way in my own work and on this volunteer project. We filled two of the largest carts to the brim with food for the ten teachers.




Reorganizing the three giant boxes of school supplies that we bought for the children of Amicis Italia.

Douglas and I fought the chaos at the market to purchase the washing tubs and storage bin for the school supplies. The entire family helped me purchase, transport and assemble all of the food baskets.

Loading up the truck in the morning.
The three guys sat in the back to take care of all the supplies.

Me and the very elaborate piñata. We purchased at least ten big bags of candy to fill it.

Here are Milton, Garry, Douglas and Josue. All four of them volunteered their time to perform for the children. Part of your donation will support these young men and several more of their friends in starting neighborhood music lessons. They are all success stories of such a program and want to provide the same opportunity for the youth in their communities—an opportunity to escape gangs, drugs, and violence and to learn to create something beautiful and to build discipline and self-confidence.

Here is Douglas teaching the preschool students about the different types of flutes.

Josue, Milton, Garry, Douglas and Manuel performing.

Passing out donuts to the children. They were SO excited!

After a beautiful speech by Douglas, I read the card translated below and passed out the food baskets on behalf of all of YOU back home:

Esteemed Teacher,

It is with much pleasure that we present this food basket for you and your family. Your dedication to the children in your community inspires us.

Although it is not equal to your work, we hope that these gifts support you and that, at the very least, you know that there are people thinking about you.

Your fight against poverty and on behalf of the learning and empowerment of the Nicaraguan children is touching the lives of people in the United States too. May God bless you.

With Love and in Solidarity,

Your friends at Caledonian Insurance Group (Mercer Island, Washington, USA), Anthony & Jenny Cowan (Bellevue, Washington, USA) Jill, Larry & Nicole Maloney (Wenatchee, Washington, USA), Nick, Julie & Randy Beckner (San Francisco, California, USA), Bill & Judy Grotjahn (Shoreline, Washington, USA), Cathy Grotjahn & Eric Bay (Shoreline, Washington, USA), Peter & Dee Wheatley (British Columbia, Canada), Douglas Flores (Managua, Nicaragua), Garry Morales (Managua, Nicaragua), Kelly Bay (Providence, Rhode Island, USA)

The students at Amicis Italia waiting patiently for the activities to begin.

The teachers and parents wait patiently too.

I’m still not sure who had more fun with the piñata:
Ernesto, my host dad, or the students.

With a little help from the school principal the piñata finally breaks.

One of the students kept the clown’s head as a souvenir.

The children eagerly eyeing all the school supplies beforehand.

Here is one extremely happy young boy with his new notebooks, pens, pencils, pencil sharpener and box of crayons.

After the piñata and school supplies we handed out the very heavy food baskets to the teachers of Amicis Italia. Here the school principal gratefully receives her basket and holds the certificate that I presented to the students. She spoke for quite a while about how much it means to her to have our support. She said that she never imagined the response that their story would receive. She sends all of her love and blessings to all of you back home.



Me with some of the “muchachos.” One of them gave me a huge hug on arrival. I must have heard “Buenos días!” and “Gracias!” a thousand times.


One of the mothers made a tearful speech thanking all of you for your kindness and generosity. She cannot thank you enough for your kindness and asked me to send you her thanks and many blessings. “May God bless you all,” she said.

Before handing out the school supplies, I presented the students with a certificate translated below. I also told them about the many people who contributed to this donation. The children, teachers, and parents were particularly touched by the hard work of my dear cousin, Nick, who is walking dogs to raise money for their school. The school principal was at a loss for words.

In Recognition of the Students of
Amicis Italia Primary School

November 25, 2008

It is with much pleasure that we present these school materials to support you in your studies. We hope that they help you to learn the necessary tools so that you can choose a life of dignity, peace and happiness.

Education never ends and it is central to the quality of life everywhere in the world. Your hard fight to learn inspires us a lot.

May you never lose your desire to learn and God bless you.

With Love and in Solidarity,

Your friends at Caledonian Insurance Group (Mercer Island, Washington, USA), Anthony & Jenny Cowan (Bellevue, Washington, USA) Jill, Larry & Nicole Maloney (Wenatchee, Washington, USA), Nick, Julie & Randy Beckner (San Francisco, California, USA), Bill & Judy Grotjahn (Shoreline, Washington, USA), Cathy Grotjahn & Eric Bay (Shoreline, Washington, USA), Peter & Dee Wheatley (British Columbia, Canada), Douglas Flores (Managua, Nicaragua), Garry Morales (Managua, Nicaragua), Kelly Bay (Providence, Rhode Island, USA)

As I mentioned before, your response has been overwhelming. Because we have been able to collect so much more than I had ever imagined, I would like to propose the following: In addition to reinforcing the school supplies for the Amicis Italia students, as well as the food baskets for their teachers, I would like to spread your generosity among two other very worthwhile projects.

One project involves two of my good friends, Douglas and Garry. Douglas and Garry are best friends in their early twenties. They are themselves success stories who exemplify how a little financial support can change a child’s life forever. They both grew up in very poor and dangerous neighborhoods but were introduced to music through a cultural center supported by North Americans and Europeans. Now they are both accomplished musicians and successful university students. Douglas plays the viola and Garry the oboe in the national orchestra, and they volunteered their skills to play for the children at Amicis Italia when we delivered your gifts.

Now Douglas and Garry want to give back to their community and to help other local youths escape gangs, drugs, and the cycle of poverty. They have been working with several of their friends to organize their own cultural center for Douglas’ neighborhood called “Chispas Musicales” or “Musical Sparks,” whose slogan is “Vos haces la diferencia!” or “You make the difference!” They would like to offer free, weekly music lessons, as well as English and chess lessons.

I have watched them work over the past two months, pricing materials and instruments from vendors across the city, drafting mission statements and meeting with city councilmen, presenting their proposal before the municipal budget committee, and networking with other non-profit organizations. They already have permission from the mayor’s office and the principal to use space in the local primary school every Sunday. Although they have been promised a donation of guitars from friends in the US, they are still in need of many other instruments and supplies.

A second project to which I would like to draw your attention is Enmanuel Mongalo y Rubio Elementary School located in Estelí, Nicaragua (my second research site after Managua). Although the infrastructure of this school has benefited recently from the Luxembourg government, like Amicis Italia, most of the students here are extremely poor and many are child workers. As a result, they are also in dire need of basic school supplies.

In addition, the principal asked me if I knew anyone willing to donate a used computer, DVD player or digital camera to use in the school. While we cannot imagine our lives without computers, most of these children have never used one before. Without access to the Internet, textbooks or science equipment, it is amazing what a difference it could make showing an educational film on DVD to the students. Although it is cheaper to purchase basic school supplies in Nicaragua, these electronic items are much more expensive in Nicaragua and are much scarcer. Thus, I would pack any electronic equipment with me when I return to Nicaragua in January in order to deliver it personally to Enmanuel Mongalo y Rubio. However, I have not promised anything to the teachers or students in Estelí.

Again, I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Your generosity has made such a difference in the lives of some of the poorest children and teachers in the world. (Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the hemisphere behind Haiti, and these two schools stood out as the poorest among the poor.)

I will be in touch again in the coming months to let you know how your generosity has supported these last two projects as well. But I hope that you have been assured that your money is being well spent and is making a tangible difference in the lives of these children and teachers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Warmest Regards,

Kelly Bay