Archive for July, 2009

Bingo for Beans and Babies – Week 4

Posted in Puerto Vallarta Charity on 07/31/2009 06:30 pm by admin

Bingo for Beans and Babies at bite me! beach club continued last night with over 50 players participating, and raising $8,830.00 pesos for Pasitos de Luz, and many donations to the area food drive. At the beginning of the night our guest caller, Chef Seth Cloutman, announced that he was going to spice things up by offering a special dinner created by him, to the loudest, craziest bingo caller. This honor went to Cheryl Sellers. Buen provecho, Cheryl.

The week’s winners were:

Game 1:

Tracy Lee Gehue

Game 2:

Diana Karen Rivera Ochoa

Robin Spencer

Casey Anderson
Aldo Padilla

Albert Fleming

Game 3:

Diane Tinsley

Game 4:

Diana Karen Rivera Ochoa

Tracy Lee Gehue

&

Dennis Smith

Game 5:

Ernesto Rhodes

Game 6:

Cheryl Sellers

Game 7:

Betty Beevers

Game 8:

Carole Fast

This week’s 50/50 prize of $1,430.00 pesos went to Pam Thompson.

Our door prize, a yoga mat and 10% off yoga lessons at Yoga Vallarta and a Nature Original Art plate from Bahia de Bravo were won by Marcel Lebrun.

Nina Goodhope (La Bodega De Nina) won our weekly give-a-way of a free pass to the Mad Hatter Party.

And speaking of parties…We are hosting a huge hat party Oct 1 to celebrate all of our great work. There will be free nibbles, compliments of bite me!, great music, dancing and a performance by the award winning singer Kim Kuzma. Check out (http://www.kimkuzma.com/) to hear a sampling of her fabulous voice. At the party we will be drawing our main raffle prizes. Raffle ticket can be purchased at the party and as there are literally $1000´s to be won you will want to buy a lot of them. Most prizes are more then $5000.00 pesos in value.

Don’t forget your hat, of course. Be it a bowler, a ball cap, a wedding veil or sombrero the craziest and most outrageous hat will win yet another terrific prize. So plug in your glue gun and start planning. “Mad Hatter” will be at bite me! beach club in the seaside lounge Thursday October 1st, 2009 7 pm until the wee hours. Ticket are $50 pesos only and available at PVRPV, bite me! beach club, Xocodiva and at our weekly bingo nights every Thursday. And of course the party is open to everyone, after all the more the merrier.

As always many generous businesses and friends donated to the cause. Donating prizes this week were:

Jose Morales, Ambiance by Marcia, Apaches Martini Bar, bite me! beach club, Xocodiva, Banana Cantina, Cassandra Shaw, Adriana Garcia Encore Boutique, PVRPV, Refri-Max, Heart Café, La Bodega de Nina, Sebastian Salon, Steve Fischer, Pam Thompson, Fishing with Carolina, The Botanical Gardens, Elle Salon, Coffee Cup, A Page in the Sun, Trattoria Michel, White Icker, El Sofa Café, D’Martha Salon, Maria O’Connor (Tropicasa), Benittos Deli, Casa Cupula, Dianita Restaurant, Bar Frida, Sea Me Eyewear, Los Veranos Canopy Tour, Paul Crist (Hotel Mercurio), Miralo Art & Gift Studio, Blue Seas Resort and Spa, Yoga Vallarta, Chef Seth Cloutman.

Many thanks!

Bingo for Beans and Babies will continue every Thursday night until October at bite me! beach club. As a special thank you, if you bring a friend who has never attended thus far we will give you one free bingo card.

bite me! beach club is located on Los Muertos Beach directly south of the Tropicana Hotel. For Reservations, call 223-1521 ext. 234.

 

Hugging Our Vallarta Close…Volunteers Get Busy and Break Records!

Posted in Puerto Vallarta Charity on 07/29/2009 04:07 pm by admin
Blog posting by Tracy Parks who is a freelance writer living part time in Puerto Vallarta.

I left Puerto Vallarta on April 14, 2009 for a three month return to the states. Beaches had been packed full of Semana Santa vacationers and a fairly good high season was winding down. Most everyone was happy that the recession in the states hadn’t taken too big of a bite out of the economy in Vallarta. There were problems at the border with narcotics violence that was having some effect on perceptions of other parts of Mexico, but for the most part, people were still visiting and enjoying Puerto Vallarta with gusto.

Then, it hit: swine flu (or the fear of it). Literally the day after I left the news broke, it seemed. Soon, most of the tourist trade was ordered shut down as safety precautions were taken. Schools were closed. Cruise ships stopped coming. Puerto Vallarta was very quiet.

Much has returned to normal in PV but families and business owners are still feeling the effects of that period. Many are not back to work. Tourism is still suffering. Things are looking better each day but there is still a huge need for the outpouring of donations and volunteerism that I witnessed and photographed on Tuesday, July 28 at the packaging party for the food drive now underway at PVRPV’s offices. Sixty-five wonderful friends of Vallarta stepped inside PVRPV’s offices and what we shared is hard to describe but it felt much like a sweat-lodge spiritual bonding. When we stepped out of the sweat lodge less than an hour later, we knew we had taken part in something very important and necessary. The feeling was awesome! We had completed 865 bags in forty minutes! The amount of work that had gone into getting us to that moment was mind boggling and we all hugged ourselves a bit for the accomplishment. The spirits are high in this town and friends are coming from near and far to take part in making sure everyone gets through it. It will really make you fall in love with this place if you hadn’t already. It sure made me aware of how many great people we have in this town.

Volunteers file into PVRPV’s offices on Tuesday, ignoring the humidity, to help out the Puerto Vallarta food drive that benefits DIF’s Child Protective Services Programs.

Ready to assemble! Bags (each with 1 kg of rice, 1 kg of beans, 1 kg of lentils, 1 kg of soup pasta and 12 bullion cubes) fill nearly every corner of PVRPV’s offices, waiting for the assembly line to begin.

Marianne, of Apaches on Olas Altas, talks about why she is helping in the food drive with Video Diva Productions reporter, Laura Gelezunas. Laura also does many stories for Banderas News who has been a huge supporter of this drive.

Special guest, Shrek, kept us smiling in the heat! Thanks to Juan Carlos from PVRPV!

Shrek supervises and jokes with volunteers.

Aldo and Gina, who were on vacation from Aguascalientes, helped the adults at the beginning of the assembly line.

Puerto Vallarta resident Maureen Power and her husband Francisco also attended.

Everyone’s best friend, Pam Thompson from Health Care Resources, tosses a bag of pasta that went astray to volunteers at the the end of the line.

Rick Hepting, from Vallarta Scene, tossed completed bags to the pile without ever losing a beat. He is one of the driving forces behind the success of this and other efforts to provide for those in need here in Vallarta. Last week, he drove to Toronto with his wife Sarah to attend another fundraiser for the Children of the Dump in Vallarta, hosted by the owners of Casa Isabel in Puerto Vallarta and Madison’s Toronto.

AMario Tobar volunteer from Casa Cupula gets busy.

The mountain of bags grows to the ceiling (we even had a small avalanche at one point and had to move to a new pile). Shown here in the background are Sergio and Fidel employees of Actinver of Puerto Vallarta, who have volunteered for the last couple of weeks.

Laura from Actinver and Lee Rose resident of Puerto Vallarta at the bottom of the stairs keep the bags moving down to the giant pile.

Don Pickens, of Casa Cupula, tallies each bag as it is completed. Over 800 bags were prepared on Tuesday night, July 28 at PVRPV’s offices in old town Puerto Vallarta.

John McCloud, new Vallarta resident and long time visitor, has been helping with the food packaging for many weeks. He’s also an avid Bingo supporter for the Bite Me Restaurant’s ‘Bingo for Beans and Babies’ Fund Raiser on Thursday nights on Los Muertos Beach.

James, one of PVRPV’s accounting clerks, assists volunteers in tying the bags, one of the many jobs on the food drive assembly line.

A surprise delivery of homemade cookies from Nina from La Bodega de Nina was a hit as volunteers left the building. Thanks for the treat…delicious!

Volunteers escape to the street, where the temperature had dropped quite a bit, thanks to a little rainshower that fell as we packaged.

Helping with the fun was much of the staff from Puerto Vallarta’s luxurious Casa Cupula Bed and Breakfast. Don Pickens (Owner), Fernando Vazquez, Mario Tobar and Oscar Benitez.

Bags ready to go and barely room for him to work, Tim’s office is full of bags ready to be delivered thanks to the kindess of 65 volunteers who showed up to help! 865 bags were completed in 40 minutes!

Ready for his much needed vacation next week, Tim Longpre, owner of PVRPV, reflects on the day after most everyone is gone. (Good job Tim and crew!)

 

Bingo for Beans and Babies – In the dark!

Posted in Puerto Vallarta Charity on 07/27/2009 10:36 am by admin

Thursday night´s Bingo for Beans and Babies at bite me! beach club continued despite a prolonged power outage. Nearly fifty guests played on by candlelight in support of Pasitos de Luz and the area food drive. Despite the wild weather and dim light, guest caller Jae Palsce, general manager of Banana Cantina, persevered and finished all 8 scheduled games in record time. Thanks Jae. In total we raised $10,080.00 pesos and collected tons of food for the drive. Game winners were:

Game 1 Richard Burns and Cesar Gabriel Sanchez Santiago

Game 2 Stephen Davis
Game 3 Aimee Rhoden

Game 4 Drucilla Desabrais

Game 5 Diana Karen Rivera Ochoa, the daughter of Dianita, one of our contributors

Game 6 Mary Devaney

Game 7 Ken Morrison

Game 8 Lina Longpre (This is one lucky girl. She has won every week.) Way to go Lina

Zac Campbell won our fabulous door prize, a hand painted cushion within a cushion donated by Lalo Morales and he also won our 50/50 draw of $1215 pesos which he generously donated back to Pasitos De Luz. What a great guy our Zac!

Ken Morrison won the free pass to “Mad Hatter” our closing party.

Speaking of closing parties, this one will be quite spectacular. As the name would suggest we are hosting a huge hat party Oct 1 to celebrate all of our great work. There will be free nibbles, compliments of bite me!, great music, dancing and a benefit performance by the award winning singer Kim Kuzma. Check out (www.kimkuzma.com) to hear a sampling of her fabulous voice. At the party we will be drawing our main raffle prizes. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the party and as there are literally $1000´s to be won you will want to buy a lot of them. Don´t forget your hat, of course. Be it a bowler, a ball cap, a wedding veil or sombrero the craziest and most outrageous hat will win yet another terrific prize. So plug in your glue gun and start planning. “Mad Hatter” will be at bite me! beach club in the seaside lounge Thursday October 1st, 2009 7 pm until the wee hours. Ticket are $50 pesos only and available at PVRPV, bite me! beach club, Xocodiva and at our weekly bingo nights every Thursday. And of course the party is open to everyone, after all the more the merrier.

The list of contributors continues to grow. This week´s prizes were donated by:

Piazzetta, Apaches Martini Bar, bite me! beach club, Xocodiva, PVRPV, Banana Cantina, Cassandra Shaw Jewelry, Fishing With Carolina, Adriana Garcia, Encore Boutique, Ambiance By Marcia, Andales, La Bodega De Nina, Bar Frida, Trattoria Michel, Pam Thompson, Restaurante Dianita, Jose Morales, Tropicasa Realty, Phebel Salon, Los Veranos Canopy Tours, Sea Me Sun Glasses, Lalo Morales Home Furnishings

Bingo for Beans and Babies continues every Thursday night until October 1 at bite me! beach club. Brought to you by bite me! beach club, PVRPV and Xocodiva.

For reservations, call 223-1521, extension 234

 

PVRPV Staff continue to help with the Food Drive / El personal de PVRPV sigue apoyando en la Campaña de Alimentos

Posted in Puerto Vallarta Banderas Bay Food Drive, Puerto Vallarta Charity on 07/18/2009 12:33 pm by admin



Spanish Version listed below / Versión en Español enlistada abajo



The following blog entry is from Pamela Thompson, Health Care Resources Puerto Vallarta



This week brought another 525 little smiles as food packages were distributed to the children in DIF’s Child Protective Services Programs. Arriving from various colonias throughout Puerto Vallarta, each bag containing 1 kg of rice, 1 kg of beans, 1 kg of lentils, 1 kg of soup pasta and 12 soup cubes. This is enough food to feed a family of four for one week. Each child attends a regular weekly meeting with various DIF programs that include Working Kids, Kids at Risk, Pregnant Teens, Open School and Children with Parents in Prison. Most lined up one hour before the set distribution time. These distribution times are important to each and every child and many arrive “dressed up” which in many cases means shoes that are too big & oversized clothing – the best that they have!







As we have said many times over the past few months, never, in our wildest dreams, did we imagine the outpouring of support for the Food Drive that was created to assist those desperately in need after the fall out of the flu, slow economy in the Banderas area – you name it – causing 1,000′s of locals to be laid off from their jobs (and knowing there is no such thing here as “unemployment/welfare”). We have successfully packaged the beans, rice, lentils, soup pasta and soup cubes and distributed to many, many in need via the Child Protective Services programs. People have rallied and donated like mad and as well, assisted in the “packaging parties” where in an extremely short period of time, because of many hands working together, the individual packages are put together, along with a whole lot of sweating and laughing!






As we reach the half-way point of the program (we want to stick to our original commitment of distributing through the end of September) we need a couple more big “pushes” to make that goal!




So, if you are able to contribute any of the following (listed in the order most needed) it would assist us in reaching that goal!



Lentils

Beans

Rice

Soup Pasta

Soup Cubes (like Knorr)



You can see updates at www.banderasnews.com and http://pvrpvblog.blogspot.com/. Without the hard work and determination from so many none of this would be possible. And, again, a huge Gracias to the staff of PVRPV for their dedication!






Donations may be dropped off at the various points listed in the articles above.

Please do not hesitate contacting me with any questions regarding this project.



Remember “It takes a village”.



With warm regards,

Pamela Thompson

HealthCare Resources Puerto Vallarta

Versión en Español:


 La siguiente entrada del blog es de Pamela Thompson, de HealthCare Resources de Puerto Vallarta





Esta semana trajo consigo 525 pequeñas sonrisas mas, mientras los paquetes de la colecta de alimentos fueron distribuidos a los niños del Programa de Servicios de Protección Infantil. Llegando desde varias colonias de Puerto Vallarta, cada bolsa contenía 1 kg de arroz, 1 kg de frijoles, 1 kg de lentejas, 1 kg de pasta y 12 cubitos de knorr. Esto es suficiente comida para alimentar a una familia de cuatro durante una semana. Cada niño, se presenta regularmente a una junta semanal con varios programas del DIF, que incluye, Niños Trabajadores, Niños en Peligro, Adolescentes Embarazadas, Escuelas Abiertas, y Niños con Padres en Prisión. Muchos, se formaron en la fila una hora antes de que empezara el set de distribución. Estos tiempos de distribución son muy importantes para cada uno de los niños, y muchos llegan “bien vestidos” que en muchos casos, quiere decir calzado muy grande, tallas demasiado grandes de ropa – ¡lo mejor que tienen!






Como hemos dicho, muchas veces durante los meses anteriores, nunca, ni en nuestros sueños más alocados, nos imaginamos el continuo soporte para la Colecta de Alimentos, que fue creado para asistir a aquellos desesperadamente necesitados, después del bajón como consecuencia de la influenza, lenta economía en el área de la Bahía de banderas – llámalo como quieras – causó que miles de locales dejaran su trabajo (y sabiendo que aquí, en realidad no existe tal cosa del “desempleo/benéfico”). Hemos empacado con gran éxito los frijoles, el arroz, las lentejas, la sopa de pasta, y los cubitos de consomé y distribuido a muchos, muchos que lo necesitan, mediante los Programas de Servicios de Protección Infantil. Las personas se han juntado y han donado como locos, así como también, han asistido a “las fiestas para empaquetar” en donde en un extremadamente corto periodo, por las tantas manos trabajando juntas, los paquetes individuales se unen, ¡junto con muchísimo sudor y risas!