Start the Celebration by Giving an Education

I want to start off by thanking the 103 different donors who raised $38,524 for this project, "Start the Celebration by Giving an Education".  Your support has been incredible!

To all of our donors, I want to give you a huge shout out, "We love you and we could not do this without you!".

Recurring donations help us to budget and are very much appreciated!  As you can imagine, the costs of providing free, high quality Early Childhood Education to financially challenged families rise each year. Each year in late Winter, we begin dicussion about the next school year.  Can we afford to add another class or do we need to drop a class? How can we continue to keep the school running?  Recurring donations help us make necesary projections which inform these decisions.

One-time donations are much appreciated surprises.  Sometimes these donations are thousands of dollars and sometimes they are smaller amounts.  Any amount is much appreciated because it all adds up to more than just financial energy.  When people give, there is a collective energy of humanity that builds momentum.  When we reach out to help others, we spread love. 

Speaking of love, take a look at these pictures of our latest graduates.  These little ones started early childhood education with us as 3 year olds in 2019.  They have grown so much! 40 graduates are now ready to enter 1st grade in Primary school.  We have equipped them well with Social-emotional skills, academic skills, self-confidence and encouragement.  Their families were supported through a world-wide crisis of the COVID 19 Pandemic and financial devastation.

Congratulations to our graduates!  We wish the best for you and your families.  You are all part of a global family and we will not forget you.

Thank you, our donors, you are part of a global family too.  

This project, "Start the Celebration by Giving an Education" began in 2020 and will continue a while longer.  Stay tuned for a new project for the 2022-2023 School year.  We are hoping to bring back the daycare but it will take a lot of fundraising to open up just one class.  Prayers, positive energy and financial support are much appreciated.

Muchisimas Gracias,

Tammy Kjos

Links:

• Centro Infantil de los Angeles website

Gracias!   You started the Celebration in November 2021 and you continue to celebrate with us in April 2022!

Buenos Dias to All of You!   We greatly appreciate all of the help you have sent our way.

Thanks to your financial support, Centro Infantil de los Angeles continues to provide high quality Early Childhood Education to the children of our lowest income families in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  We are so grateful for you!

The COVID-19 Pandemic lead to a very real financial struggle for most of the world and it affected us in many ways.  We were told to cease in-person Daycare and Preschool.  Of course, Daycare services cannot be provided on-line.

Throughout the pandemic we provided E-learning to our preschoolers. We found a way to provide the tools each family needed to participate in E-learning.  Eventually, we progressed to Hybrid Learning and just recently, we are completely in-person learning again. It is nice to see our classrooms full of smiles and giggles again!

Challenging Roads lead to new discoveries. We have discovered that we have a lot of passion to keep this organization rolling and serving. It must be a God thing because just when we think we don’t have enough funds to continue, funding comes through.

Words do not adequately express the deep gratitude we have for all of our supporters. Your donations in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, have given us hope. When those of us on the Board of Directors feel hope that hope and optimism spreads to the school Director, the teachers, our families and their children.

 I had the extreme pleasure of volunteering with three and four year olds at our preschool in March, 2022.  During this time, I witnessed multiple examples of loving, caring, nurturing interactions between the children and their teachers. As a retired Bilingual/ESL teacher this warmed my heart. I witnessed our teachers and school director, Patricia, in the moments. I can tell you, our teachers are well trained and work as a team. They listen to each child, understand their developmental needs and help them use their words to describe their own feelings, needs and wants.  I am so grateful to be part of this organization!

A New Home for the Preschool in 2022

Volunteers and parents helped Patricia, our director, and the teachers move school supplies and furniture to our remodeled CILA campo in January 2022.   Our CILA campo includes a Volunteer House, playground and a building which was once our Daycare facility.  A few rooms in the daycare facility were converted to preschool classrooms.  It looks great!  We held a very successful Open House on March 26th from 2-4 pm.  We had a great time raising awareness in the community.

Why Did We Move the Preschool?

As the Board of Directors, we are fiscally responsible to keep our Preschool operating. Preschool is mandatory in Mexico and our children, and their families, need our services.  We have been maintaining two buildings with classrooms, yet our Daycare building has been empty since the Pandemic started.   Our Preschool building was put up for sale.  Parents, Volunteers, and our Program Director packed and moved all of the supplies and furniture to the Daycare building. We now operate in one building.

Throughout the pandemic we provided E-learning, then progressed to Hybrid Learning and just recently, we are completely in-person learning again. It is nice to see our classrooms full of smiles and giggles again!

Future

It is our intention to raise enough funding to guarantee financial obligations to the Preschool and then open one class of Daycare by August 2022. More information on a new campaign will be coming soon.

Videos:  Our students and their teachers worked for a couple weeks to prepare a special performance to Welcome Spring. A link to the video is attached.  There is also a link to a video message from me.

Links:

• Dia De Primavera, Open House
• Message from the President