| The
village of Parcelas - high near the wind turbines at the west end
of Lake Arenal - is much closer to repairing and upgrading its water
system thanks to the Ladies of the Lake fund-raising party on July
23. According to Ladies of the Lake (Las Damas del Lago) President
Roberta Ward Smiley, about 200 people showed up for food, drink, games,
and Bob Benjamin music at the party house on the Mauricio Herrera
finca in La Tejona. The result was a 200.000 colones profit, most
of which will go to the water system fund in Parcelas. Many of the
Parcelas residents joined the party, at least seven of them leaving
with raffle prizes. Also from Parcelas came Peace Corps Volunteer
Mara Mordini, who has made improvement of the water supply a special
project. More money for the village water system is due to come in
through an arrangement made by Helen Hollenbeck with local Banco National
officials, who have expressed an intention to match other funds after
Mara makes a report and a committee studies the situation.
The Guanacaste Province Animal
Welfare Foundation sponsored a spay/neuter clinic in Tierras Morenas
on Saturday, the 29th. This was, according to information from Sandy
Shaw, another community-based clinic in that community leaders helped
raise funds to
|
pay
the vets. In addition, Movasa, the wind company, supported the event
with snacks and refrescos, and also picked up the difference between
what the community raised and the actual cost.
Other clinics are being planned
for Quebrada Grande and Parcelas de Quebrada Azul, according to
Judy Reisman. She also reminds us that we can support the clinics
and educational initiatives by buying the organization's t-shirts,
available in two styles for 6000 and 6500 colones. To buy them,
contact Sandy Shaw at sshrae@racsa.co.cr. Judy says that the medium-range
goal is to purchase a used mobile vet unit. Judy is also involved
in a Bethesda, MD, fundraiser, a silent auction on August 11 to
raise money for G-PAW, as the Guanacaste Province Animal Welfare
Foundation has been cleverly abbreviated by some creative animal-lover.
Anyone interested in helping with the clinics or other activities
should contact Sandy (see address above) or Judy at judyreisman@mindspring.com.
The Arenal Blog, which should
be a great communications tool for the Arenal area is getting little
activity so far. It's now up to 34 members, but there's been very
little posting recently despite the many useful categories. It's
located at www.arenalblog.com.
|