McAllen Adoption Awareness Picnic

Hello Fellow Rotarians,

On Sunday May 18th, Area 11 McAllen Rotary Clubs sponsored the Adoption Awareness Picnic at The Zone Action Park on Expressway 83 McAllen, TX, and hosted 60 foster children along with 15 Adoptive Families. Over 100 InterAct kids assisted with the event. We had IBC Bank sponsor the water and had their bank volunteers passing out water. Lone Star Bank was there with their bank volunteers passing out Cowboy Cash dolls and Wells Fargo Bank sponsored the meal, 2 slices of pizza and a drink. McAllen Fire Department showed up with a team of Firefighters and fire engine and U.S. Customs Border Protection made an impressive entrance with their helicopter. We passed out Rotary International "Service Above Self" backbags to each foster child and InterAct Volunteer.

A special photo is the one with an adoptive Mom and Dad that just would not detach themselves from a set of twins; look at that hopeful Mom's smile. (This was the only picture with actual foster children-I got special permission from the Social Worker). The photo with the Firefighters is with 2 of our Youth Exchange Students from Belgium. As a result of our Youth Exchange student volunteering, his Host Parents contacted me wanting to know more about this event and want to ADOPT! I referred her to Florencia Saenz, Texas CPS Worker.

Tentatively, I am scheduling this same event on Sunday April 19th, 2015.

President-Elects, as you are preparing your budgets, please include a line item for this event as we were tight this past year. Next year's upcoming event, we plan to bus all the children in from the RGV as the Social Workers commented to me that they bring in the children with as many as they can fit in their own cars :/

I sincerely hope that you will participate as this is a VERY WORTHY PROJECT and as Rotarians, we are Service Above Self.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have further questions.

Phone# 956-343-6666 or via email.

Yours in Rotary,
Betty Lara