Soon Panama will be losing a couple who has made tremendous contributions to the District of Boquete, Chiriqui Province and Panama as a whole. Mr. Philip Palmer McGuigan and his wife Alicia will be relocating to the United States.
Phil has been involved with Fundacion Amigos de Boquete since 2007. Phil joined with Jack Bute and Dallys Dennis and quickly became an awesome addition as he is a doer and a leader. | | | With Phil's guidance, Amigos de Boquete went from helping three schools with nutritious school meals to thirteen schools today in the district of Boquete. We now feed an average of 1,500 students' lunch and fund the Parents Associations in each school to pay the cooks. Phil was able to introduce Amigos de Boquete to the | | | | non-profit organization MATTER (www.matter.ngo). This partnership with MATTER has helped Amigos bring containers into Panama with $2,000,000 of humanitarian aid. That year Amigos worked with Wilkes Community College to bring students to Boquete to put a new roof on the Escuela Granja Arturo Miro (a boy's home, school and farm in Potrerillos). With the help of Matter, a tractor and other farm equipment were brought down to Arturo Miro. Also, a lot of equipment was brought down and donated to Boquete Health and Hospice. | |  | | Phil unloading Manna Packs |  | | In 2014 MATTER helped Amigos receive donations of Manna Pack rice from Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). FMSC is a Christian non-profit organization committed to feeding God's children. Volunteers hand pack meals specially formulated for malnourished children. These manna packs are sent to partners around the world in over seventy countries. Amigos is the distribution partner in Panama. Amigos 2022 container contained 272,160 servings. | | Current recipients are Hospital Obaldia, Asilo Ancianos, Padre Adonai, Nutre Hogar Chiriqui, Medalla Milagrosa and Floating Doctors. Past recipients include the Boquete Handicap Foundation (FPI) and Buenos Vecinos de Boquete.
The Handicap Foundation of Boquete is especially grateful to Phil McGuigan for his very generous donations at a time when it was in serious need of economic assistance and outside support. It was a special treat when he joined us for a social event. His generosity will always be remembered. | | | | | Also in 2014, Phil brought a fire truck to Panama with the assistance of Matter. This fire truck held water and was to assist the Boquete fire department to put out fires where they did not have access to water. Another fire truck was brought in to honor Phil's Aunt Kathleen who retired as the Administrative Officer of the Office of the Controller of the Canal Company. |  | | Phil excited about the fire truck. | | This was a joint effort with the Rotary Club of David. This fire truck went to support the City of David.
In 2015 Phil became aware that a generator was needed as backup electricity for the Boquete Police and Boquete Fire Department. With his connection to MATTER, he was able to bring down a 20 KW Generac generator donated by City View Electric (a supporter of MATTER).
In 2016 Phil reached out and made another amazing connection with Dr. Benjamin LaBrot the founder of Floating Doctors. Floating Doctors has their clinic in Bocas del Toro. Amigos de Boquete and Phil contacted Globalstar to help Floating Doctors with satellite communication. Now Floating Doctors, with the help of Globalstar, can keep track of the exact location of their medical teams and the medical teams can contact the clinic. | |  | | Phil with two of the Floating Doctors Team. |  | | Phil enjoying lunch at the floating doctors camp. | | | Phil and Amigos helped Floating Doctors with the purchase of a 75hp Suzuki for their 47-foot cayuco and funding to make the cayuco shipshape. He also arranged for the donation of the Calypso. | |  | | Phil was also a giving heart when it came to the dogs in the district of Boquete. He has donated hundreds of bags of dog food to animal rescue organizations. He built a dog pen and gave two dogs to Nutre Hogar so that the children could be exposed to loving animals. He also worked with the founders of Dog Camp to help them set up a foundation. As a result, Dog Camp has become an amazing asset to the community in their efforts of rescue and adoption. | |
Philip Palmer McGuigan will be missed. With his ability to form working relationships with Nutre Hogar Chiriqui, MATTER and Floating Doctors, he has helped thousands of Panamanians. | | |  | | Alicia with Ruby | | | Alicia McGuigan, Phil's wife, has given much to Fundacion Amigos de Animales de Boquete. Alicia started with Animales in 2009 and served as the organization's President until 2022. Alicia has guided the all-volunteer organization in educating the community about animal health, resulting in the neuter-ing of 25,000+ animals, and has been an unflagging supporter of the animals of Chiriqui. Alicia worked tirelessly for many years to bring the Animales Venta de Patio to many successful conclusions, raising money to support the sterilization of dogs and cats throughout the area, since Amigos de Animales does not turn away pet owners for lack of funds. | |
During her tenure as President, she also helped start an education program in local schools to broaden understanding in the community of the negative impact uncontrolled animal births have on both pet and human populations. At every fundraising event, monthly clinic, vaccination clinic and outreach program, Alicia has been there supporting the organization and providing her unique style of leadership! | | | She is an amazing leader and the volunteers at Amigos de Animales can't imagine the organization without her.
Both Philip and Alicia will be greatly missed - together, they have helped thousands of Panamanians and expats and we wish them much happiness as they start their next chapter in Virginia, USA.
| | | Written by: Cary Gordon Trantham with help form Sheila Strunk and Susan Peterson. | | | |
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