| Buenos Vecinos Newsletter August 2018 What is a Buenos Vecinos de Boquete Food Drive and how can you help?
BVB conducts a Food Drive at Romero's twice a year with the store's generous cooperation. We staff an outside table and display the foods that we provide our clients, and we greet the public with ready smiles and bi-lingual fliers.  Our presence at Romero's is important in reminding the entire community of the very real needs of our clients. Local Panamanians shop in the store and return with the same basic food items they buy for their own families to give Buenos Vecinos as a donation. The expats and visitors generally give us cash; they understand that financial assistance goes a long way, because BVB purchases food wholesale, and our administrative costs are minimal. How can you help? Come by Romero's on Saturday August 18th 9am-3 pm. Look for our volunteers in blue. Or if you want to make a donation online by PayPal, visit out new website www.buenosvecinosdeboquete.com. Donations can also be made locally by contacting Louise Orr at panamaleo@gmail.com. 
Win a Beautiful Prize at the TMM
Look for the BVB Table at the Boquete Tuesday Morning Market to buy raffle tickets for beautiful home décor pieces. The proceeds will provide non-perishable food for some of the area's neediest families. Sylvette Day, a long-time and energetic member of our organization, is also a skilled quilter who has designed and created some of the area's most treasured quilt-art pieces. The raffle item she has created for Buenos Vecinos is a 60"x60" quilt fashioned from 100% cotton Indonesian batiks. This rich, exotic quilt would look great as a wall-hanging, a decorative bed cover, a TV-watching throw or simply draped over an armchair.
Germaine Sturtz, a long-time and generous member of BVB is also a very talented designer. She has crafted another of her stunning shell-encrusted mirrors for this raffle. The brushed-metal frame features sea shells in one corner. The finished piece measures 21" X 25," and weighs about five pounds. A focal point for any room, this beautiful mirror is going to attract a lot of attention in your home.
The prizes will be announced at the September 25th TMM and the winners need not be present to win.
Family of the Month August 2018
Meet Osiris and Noel
 Families care for one another and, in this case, a strong woman has stepped forward to care for two generations of family members. Elidia takes care of her daughter and her two grandchildren, Osiris, a 13 year-old girl, and Noel, an 8 year-old boy. All three suffer from developmental delays. Elidia also raised her husband's youngest children from his previous marriage after his wife passed away, and now Elidia helps care for two of their children. Elidia's husband is a trusted worker on the finca where the owner provides this family of nine a two room house with running water. The finca is an ideal setting for these four youngsters to explore and to play together. Osriris and Noel receive their formal education with the assistance of a teacher for the handicapped but, because their developmental delays are so severe, there is little advancement. Elidia also makes sure they have social activities and educational stimulation every Saturday at Fundacion Pro Integracion (FPI) also known as the Handicap Center. Buenos Vecinos works closely with FPI to make sure Elidia and her family get their monthly allotment of non-perishable food, and she expresses her gratitude for the help BVB provides.
How to help?
If you would like to help our clients and the efforts of Buenos Vecinos de Boquete, we would appreciate your donation of any size. It is important for you to know that we are a small all-volunteer force with no administrative or overhead costs. Every dollar of your donation goes to the purchase or storage of food for our clients.
When you make that important decision to help feed the less fortunate in our community, you have truly become a "good neighbor". When you donate $360 a year or $30 a month (about the cost of a daily latte), you will become a Coconut Foundation member as an acknowledgment of your concern and generosity. Donate Online: We use PayPal for easy and secure transactions.
 
If you prefer to donate by cash or local check, please contact Louise Orr panamaleo@gmail.com for arrangements.
Be sure to check out our website and Facebook page: Thank you! | 
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