By: Dylan Book, Charlie Ni & Karina Lee
The 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group is a team dedicated to the success of Scouts Canada by realizing individual potential through leadership and management development. This is the mission that the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group has set out for itself. I have always felt that the core component of this mission is realizing individual potential. Each of our Rover’s works with their mentor to create their own Personal Development Plan to help them reach their goals. Our crew creates a supportive environment that enables Rovers to take risks and learn.
With this mission in mind, a contingent of Rovers and Advisors from the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group, along with Rovers and Advisors from 1st Rivorton in New Brunswick, will be heading on an international service project to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. A major focus of this project will be helping out the students of Volcanes Elementary School, in a nearby suburb. Volcanes Elementary School is a publicly funded school, but it is also heavily supported by Café Roma Kids, an organization started by a local business. Café Roma Kids has worked hard to make sure the school provides practical training that will help these students find work in Puerto Vallarta’s largest industry: tourism.
Further to that goal, Café Roma Kids recently partnered with the Isa Mundo Foundation. Isa Mundo is a Vancouver based not-for-profit focused on education and environmental projects to improve the lives of children and families around the world. English, Math and Computer skills are essential to working in the tourism industry in Puerto Vallarta so Isa Mundo recently built a new learning centre focused on these skills. To help this learning centre, the contingent has been collecting school supplies and laptops to take to Volcanes Elementary School.
We often don’t recognize how essential the tools are to help us reach our goals. The pen you chew on and the paper you write on are crucial to your everyday productivity. You can’t realize your potential without these tools. School supplies can be expensive and many of the students at Volcanes Elementary School supplement their family’s income by scavenging from the local dump. Without donations of school supplies from organizations like Isa Mundo, Café Roma Kids or our Scout Group, these students may not have any tools to work with.
The contingent’s hope is not to simply provide the students of Volcanes Elementary School with school supplies and laptops. Our hope is to provide these kids with a means to realize their own potential. By doing this we can fulfill our mission not only in Vancouver but also in Mexico.
We are putting a call out to all our readers for donations of new or old arts and craft supplies, notebooks, and educational materials, so that every child will be able to learn! Your gift will give the students a chance to learn for years to come. The last day we’ll be collecting school supplies will be Feb 28th. Please contact Jeremy Tam at [email protected] and let us know if you have anything you can donate!