By Elizabeth E. St. Germaine

This Rotary Club event took place at the Hotel Las Brisas  on February 18th and was once again a smashing success with more than 250 people in attendance. Dignitaries present included Huatulco’s Mayor, Lorenzo Lavariega and his Municipal staff, as well as the commander of the Naval Base & his staff. Over 50 raffle prizes and 7 major bingo prizes were awarded from generous businesses and sponsors in our community. The net profit was $115,000.00 pesos, up from $85,000.00 the previous year.

These funds supported such worthwhile community projects in our destination as: 75 cataract surgeries, the completion of a water well in the local village of El Derramadero, and Christmas posada materials to several nearby villages during the holiday season. Rotary also continues to support an orphanage under the auspices of the Agape Foundation through one of our members, Padre Domingo. As well, the Rotary mobile dental chair visits outlying communities providing children with much needed dental care. Rotary chartered a Rotaract Club in 2011 and mentors a group of 17 university students who aspire to be part of the Rotary family and who do projects that benefit the youth of the area. Proceeds from this year’s event will support these and other Rotary projects for the coming year.

A new feature at the “Have a Heart” event was the band a “Tripulacion Columbiana” who provided the energetic attendees with hours of salsa, cumbia and ballads. Another highlight of the evening, was a silent auction, made possible through the generosity of American artist Jim Spicka of two beautiful creations featuring tropical art constructed from tissue paper and acrylic on glass, as well as a copy of the book “Edge of Enchantment” from Carol Koenig.

The Huatulco Rotary Club was initiated in the late 1980’s but lost momentum and was later re-started by American Bradley Combs. Brad was a generous community supporter, facilitating bringing fire engines, wheelchair projects and much more via Rotary’s far-reaching efforts. Sadly Brad passed away this past year and is greatly missed. Rotary is part of a worldwide organization that serves in over 200 countries, with 33,000 clubs in existence & over 1.2 million members.

For further information about our organization, contact any one of our members. Please accept our sincere thanks to all for your ongoing support.