Wow–there are no slow people in this group!

After a wonderful get acquainted and re-acquainted evening, the day started with devotions and a general planning meeting. Then the “manos y voces” team headed to Manos y Voces to begin construction of their projects while the garden team and the sewing and crafts team got off to a flying start at planning, thanks to a lot of preparation from their leaders. The Casita equipment team took off to build some needed things at Casita Corazon, the house for therapy for children with disabilities, and the same house that last year was completely revamped from the roof down by Friends of Cozumel. Island life may be slow paced, but this group is on a mission (literally) to get lots of things done in a fairly short time.

The Gran Bazar drew a crowd anxious for bargains.

The Gran Bazar set-up team hustled off to Vida Abundante, the church location we used to sell some new and gently used clothing donations. Crate after crate of clothes, shoes and a few other miscellaneous things were loaded into every available volunteer’s vehicles and carted to the bazar site. It resembled a bunch of busy ants scurrying around, everyone with a load.

Then the real fun started! There was a long line of people waiting for opening time to sieze some of the wonderful bargains. The prices are set quite low to give families with limited resources access to affordable clothing. And it raises a bit of support for our project supplies. Some of our group had a blast making balloon animals, swords, hats, hearts, and flowers for some eager children. Popped balloons aside, we were pretty productive, if not occasionally startled by those noises. The group started learning how to make the balloon sculptures last night and made fantastic progress—well, at least enough progress to delight the children. Several more occasions are planned where we hope we can delight an equal number of kids.

This two-year old wanted to help the volunteers.

When the bazar closed, the many crates were packed with the unsold items and hauled by the same busy ants. The crates that remained empty stood witness to the great number of things sold. Even though we don’t know the monetary total yet, it should supply a goodly amount of funds for Friends of Cozumel to carry on their very generous work.

Everyone, hot, tired, and happy adjourned to April’s for Happy Hour, hopefully followed by a good night’s sleep.

If anyone wants a few lessons in organization, they should get acquainted with FOC’s leadership group. They are outstanding, and they do this year after year! ~ Shirley, a second-year volunteer from California

These two boys preferred the balloons over shopping.