Rotary Clubs supporting Centro Educativo La Minga, Inc.
In 2005, when my project in Ecuador was only a seed, I had the opportunity to speak to the Boulder Flatirons Rotary Club. This club granted $500 to use towards education. The repercussions are this gift are still resonating today. At the time I was not a non-profit. The timing of this gift and the fact that this club had the confidence in me that I could really accomplish something with this grant has caused me to continue to raise the bar. A year later, this same club awarded me the Sparkplug Award (for sparking community service) along with a $1,000 grant. This was critical timing of the “watering of my little seed”. It gave me the ‘atta girl’ that let me know that I was on the right track.
In 2007, I met Eden Recor of the Winter Park-Fraser Valley (WP-FV) Rotary and since then he has become our Champion Rotarian. He motivated the four Grand County Rotaries (Granby, Grand Lake, Kremmling, and WP-FV) to support us.
In 2008, eClubOne began what has become it’s
annual financial aid – mainly earmarked for education in the form of scholarships.
In 2009, Eden wrote a Rotary International Matching Grant for Phase I of Irrigation. This motivated me to drive all over the state to speak to Rotary Clubs. We received financial support (both for the Matching Grant and other projects) from (in alphabetical order): Boulder, DTC, Durango, eClubOne, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Granby, Grand Lake, Kremmling, Latacunga (Ecuador), Smoky Hills, and WP-FV. In fact the Kichwa were so appreciative of Edencito (“little Eden”)’s support, that they had a plaque made for him. I had the honor of presenting this to him at one of his WP-FV Rotary meetings.
In 2010, eClubOne began its scholarship support; plus Golden and Granby made donations.
In 2011, eClubOne, Granby and WP-FV gave us financial support.
In 2012, Aurora matched one of its member’s contributions for Potable Water; Fort Colliins After Work combined with Cody Wyoming to fund Potable Water; plus eClubOne and Granby.
In summary, Centro Educativo La Minga, Inc. is very appreciative of the support of Rotary.
July, 2012, having heard ‘you are a Rotarian in spirit’, I decided to make it official and joined eClubOne.
Without this support we wouldn’t have the level of education for K-12 plus our Universitarios nor the Irrigation Project for Quinta Tunguiche nor Phase I of the Potable Water Project for Guantugloma, etc. Eden & I are now staging to write a Global Grant to submit July, 2013. We hope to be able to continue with our FABULOUS support from Rotary!
Pam Gilbert & Eden Recor
Rotary Club of Boulder Flatirons
Charter Night ‘06 scores another success
Pam Gilbert honored with 2006 Spark Plug Award
Winner of the 2006 Spark Plug Award is Pam Gilbert, founder of La Escuela La Minga in Malingua Pamba, Ecuador.The building of the school has grown and flourished as a result of Pam’s dedication and energy. The award carries a $1,000 cash prize that will be put to work in moving toward completing the construction of the schoolhouse. Pam will be returning to Ecuador in March and encourages anyone
interested to join her; it’s a chance to see first hand what wonders she has sparked. (See page 3 for a first person report from Pam about her networking activities.)
Another big winner Wednesday night was Jack Burson, recipient of a Paul Harris Fellow thanks to his wife Gena. It was a Christmas gift. You can get your spouse a Paul Harris Fellowship for $500 and 500 matching points from Boulder Flatirons Rotary. For more information, talk to Jami Plavec, RI Foundation Chair Of course, everyone was a winner Wednesday night, with good food, good company and a good cause. Three
individuals walked off with more than a warm glow, however. In the drawing, Barb Lutz won the golf outing with Plumridges, Sally Sandoe won a weekend at Carolyn Bradley’s Breckenridge home, and Kim Plumridge won the family portrait, a contribution from Mike Maloy and his daughter.
Successful events like this don’t just happen without hard work and planning. A huge vote of thanks goes to Voce President Terri Wolf and her team of supporting players, which included Peruvian Youth Exchange Student Tania Gomez, pictured at left with Sally Sandoe.
World Understanding in our club has been greatly advanced thanks to Tania and Spark Plus winner
Pam Gilbert. Pictured at right are charter night celebrants Justin and Judy Dituri with John Olson, past president, past area Assistant DG, and newly named Family of Rotary Chair for Boulder Flatirons Rotary. Justin is our program chair.
Pam Gilbert honored with 2006 Spark Plug Award
From Our Pamelita
It’s all about Networking
Upon arrival in Quito last November, our Pamelita swings into action trying to add a new cast of characters to her Support Team. Her inspiration for this roster of potential new members came after doing a presentation for the Flatirons Rotary Club. Last April, after nine months of pestering different Rotary clubs in an attempt to get on their program she was finally granted a time slot to give her presentation on her passion and progress in getting education to her indigenous community in Ecuador. This garnered a very nice contribution from the Flatirons Rotary Club plus the inspiration to find a “partner Rotary club” in Ecuador so that she might be able to get matching funds.
“How did life exist and flourish before the Internet?” pondered Señorita Pamelita as she Googled for Rotary Clubs in Ecuador. The only Ecuadorian Rotary Club that popped up in response to her query was in Quito. However, when emailed, the email bounced back. Never fear, our Pamelita is tenacious. Like a prowling alley cat she eventually found out that there was also a club in Latacunga, the county seat of the province of Cotopaxi, home of Escuela La Minga. So she dutifully wrote her query letters to the respective presidents
of the two clubs and they both replied that they would like to have a meeting upon her arrival in Ecuador.
On the first weekend in Ecuador our Pamelita met withJuan Prinz, president of the Quito Rotary Club, along
with his friend Fernando. He told her that Rotary’s current mission was to help with water issues (and hence sanitation) in rural areas. Santiago Sansur, President of the Latacunga Rotary, and his father were very interested in learning more about the “abonero,” the composting toilet. Instead of simply running water for toilet, sewer, and showers projects, it integrates the ideas of permaculture, e.g., piping the grey water
from the shower and kitchen to an organic garden as well using the by-products of a composting toilet.
Pamelita also contacted Byron Limaico, patron of Escuela La Minga as the official name of our school is
Carlos B. Limaico. (Byron’s deceased brother who was an educator). Byron will help leverage for a teacher(s). In fact, he had already contacted Dr. Juan Ulloa, director of Colegio a Distancia (Weekend High School). Apparently, there was NO budget in all of Ecuador for teachers EXCEPT for kindergarten teachers.
Belén DeVacas and her family of Conocoto in the south of Quito, plus her boyfriend Diego were standing in the wings to help in whatever they could. And they did, as you will see.
Sonia Solis, director of Colegio Integral and mother of Gabriela to whom Pamelita rented a house in 2003-04, provided 6 boxes of books and has more student desks ready to be transported to Malingua Pamba. There was also a quick trip made to observe the teaching done at Sierra Flor.
Last, but not least, Jean Brown, British by birth, but Ecuadorian by passion, Pamelita’s insightful advisor and grand networker coordinated the final stages of the rescue of the 27 boxes, 4 duffels, etc. from the Quito airport as well as masterminding their transfer (plus several more Quito purchased boxes of materials). She also has connections with Escuela Ecole which is a combination language-volunteer school which is seriously interested in linking some of their volunteers with Malingua Pamba. So, with this Support Team at the ready, our Pamelita is ready to plunge in to put all the pieces together.
Pam Gilbert, BFR’s Spark Plug Recipient 2006
