Message from Mike Koehn, President

Our 2015 – 2016 season rapidly became the most ambitious of our ten-year tenure.  Requests for help increased our project list to include several surrounding pueblos, and our President then, Chris Geyer, proposed an ambitious schedule to address several projects simultaneously. We solicited support from fellow Rotarians in the States to help us rebuild the albergues in two nearby pueblos. Their response was inspiring. Members of five clubs from California arrived in March and immediately began work on the albergues and our healthy water projects.

 

Our project list included renovating albergues (dormitories) in nearby pueblos; providing healthful water filtration systems and training to outlying pueblos and families; Lord of the Wind – the most successful LOW ever; a new Rotary Interact – teenage members of a Rotary Interact visited from Madera, CA; and Carnaval – our 2016 Carnaval featured the largest parade and fiesta in the history of Los Barriles. Throughout our season, visiting Rotarians worked with the families and children who live here. Rarely do we get the chance to work alongside those who need, and just as rarely those who receive help become empowered. But the result of working together is that we make friends, not dependents, and everyone benefits.

 

Often clubs like ours go dark through the hot, humid summer months, when many members retreat to cooler homes up north. Our club used to slow down June through September, but with an increase in local membership and more of us living in LB year around, two major Rotary projects were completed last summer. Our Los Barriles elementary school now has a new kitchen, new covered seating and a sanitation station. And now our Cancha has new banos for our children and for public use as well.

 

The grand opening of our new banos was celebrated at the Cancha at the Quince de Septiembre Fiesta, or the celebration of El Grito de Dolores, the call that Miguel Hidalgo made for the people of Mexico to rise up against the authorities of New Spain on September 16, 1810, in the town of Dolores, near Guanajuato, initiating Mexico's War of Independence. This event is commemorated every year in Mexico on the night of September 15th. The grand opening of the new bathrooms was appropriately timed, as the stands and chairs in our Cancha were filled with happy families.

 

As returning members fill out our ranks this fall, many of our regular projects will be renewed, such as support and maintenance of the Tech Center next to our Cancha, and our maintenance of the town Fountain.  Once again this coming season we’ll see members of stateside Rotaries coming to work on projects benefitting East Cape communities. Ongoing projects include a return to San Antonio to complete the renovation of their albergues, the distribution of healthful water filters to hundreds more outlying ranchos and small pueblos, and full support of the Lord of the Wind international kiteboarding competition in January 2017.

 

We also have a couple of new projects. We are supporting a new Rotary Interact Club being formed at our local high school, and the same Interact Club that visited last year from Madera, CA, now plans to return. The ease of the cultural exchange between the teens is stunning. We’re also initiating a new program called "Turnout Gear", that provides firefighting equipment for local personnel. The first sets were delivered last summer.  And just for fun, we will be assisting the Los Barriles Delegado, Francis Olachea, with the planning and production of our new expanded Carnaval Parade and Fiesta.

 

Come join us, for a breakfast meeting, a celebration, or a project.

We’re Club Rotario de Los Barriles and all are welcome.