The Charity Drive!!
The Christmas Party was a Smashing Success!!
We would like to thank everyone who partipated in making this event a huge success! The Children of Madden Lake had a superb Christmas, and it could have happened without everyone's help. PCARA would especially like to extend a hand of thanks to those people who were not club members but gave a lending hand!
The PCARA would especially like to thank Argelis and Brad Fairman. They spearheaded this project and put a great deal of time and effort into making it a success. We would not have had a Christmas Charity Party for those kids had it not been for their hard work. Thank You Very Much!
Photos will be online as soon as I get them back from the Developers!
Some Highlights and Notes
Preparation
A vast amount of effort went into the planning stages of this event.
- October..Argelis and Brad find the schools of Quebrada Benitez, Peñas Blancas, and Quebrada Fea and recommend we do a charity drive there. They recon the site and bring back video.
- The club agrees and Argelis and Brad head up the effort.
- A web page is established and donations begin to be collected for the event.
- November...Many donations continue to come in. Many of these donations are from non-club members wanting to help out.
- Argelis Fairman and Eyda Carzola start pounding the streets of Panama looking for good, inexpenive presents. They manage to find a set of clothes and a couple of toys for each kid with just $15.00. Amazing. They spend several days doing this.
- December...Argelis and Eyda still collecting presents.
- The real challenge ... several men and women get together to wrap presents. This took several hours as the amount of presents they had collected were mindboggling. When we were finished, there were several HUGE bags of presents standing in Brad's living room.
- Argelis collects enough food to cook and feed the children of the three schools.
The Day Before
- Brad and Mack make an early trip to Madden Lake to carry supplies out there to lighten the load for Sunday.
- All the kids meet us at the dock to help us unload. There is a sense of excitement in the air because they know something unusual is going on!
- When we get back to the dock, we find that the man who promised to help us for "only $60.00" (a rip to begin with) decided he was going to make some gringo money. He decided that it would cost us $150.00 for 6 trips, or $100.00 and 10 gallons of gas.
- Brad and I figure we can buy every boat he has for that money, so we "kindly" tell the gentleman that we wouldn't need his services. We went to the the rec center on Ft. Clayon and rented a flatbotton boat. For $30.00 a day we could play Navy all day long and ferry folks back and forth.
The Party!!!
- Brad, Argelis, their family, and I leave Ft. Clayton around 0800 in the morning with two trucks laden with supplies for the Charity. All the presents and food are onboard, as well as a boat in tow.
- We arrive at Madden Lake around 0900, overload and launch the first boat, and make the 15 minute trip across the lake. All the kids meet us at the dock dressed in their best clothes. They are all very excited!
- Other members from the club show up and wait their turn to cross the lake. The lake is beautiful and is surrounded by beautiful mountains on all sides. It makes for a real pleasant journey.
- Several trips are made accross the lake ferrying people to the site. During this time, Argelis and her cooks are getting dinner of Arroz con Pollo prepared.
- Around 1200 we start the Christmas festivities. Most of the people that are going to show up to help have arrived.
- The Children put on several skits and sing many songs about Christmas. The festivities have all taken place under a little, thatch bohio. As soon as the children's performance is over, out comes Santa Clause, aka Manuel HP2ECP!
- Each school kid receives a couple of gifts, to include shoes, shirts, pants, socks, and a couple of toys. Many have obviously never had a present before because they did not appear to know what to do with it.
- Jacqueline Lee worked hard on the Atlantic side to collect presents above and beyond what we had gathered for the school kids. This worked out very well as she had enough gifts to cover all the children that were there but not part of the school. Every kid there got a gift.
- Once they open their presents, it is apparent that these kids were having a grand time! Brad managed to pump up some of their deflated soccer balls and it takes them a while to get used to kicking something other than a half full ball....many trips to the river chasing the balls are made!
- Argelis feeds 155+ PEOPLE!!!! This is much more than she intended to feed, but no one goes hungry. The food was great!
- Stalled by a thunderstorm, we wait to ferry folks back across the lake to go home. We finally start ferrying folks back in the afternoon. The last trip is made right at nightfall. Good timing too...the boat decided it was through for the day on the last trip! Almost had to paddle.....
- With everyone safely on their way, Brad, Argelis, and I leave the lake around 0900PM and make it back to Ft. Clayton safetly. The day had been a success and we were all ready to crash for the night.
It leaves a good feeling that we were able to come together as a club and give something back to the community. That is what Amateur Radio is all about! It is too easy to sit in our airconditioned homes and watch our cable televisions. However, this day is a shining example of what the membership of our Club is composed of.
This is Ham Radio in Panama.
de HP1XBG;
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