Summer Newsletter from Pasitos de Luz Daycare for Special Needs Children Pasitos de Luz
August 8, 2016

The mission of Pasitos de Luz in Puerto Vallarta is to support low income families with free daycare for their disabled children. Pasitos offers these children a caring and loving environment, with nutritional food, medical services, orthopedic equipment, and occupational and speech therapy.

Read on about all the happenings and success stories at Pasitos de Luz.

New Logo

We are so happy with our new logo and hope you are too!

We believe it embodies the absolute love of our children!
 
Missouri Truman University
 
At the end of May, the Pasitos children were treated by special visitors from Truman University. Students from the university have taken programs specializing in communication disorders. They provided the staff with excellent information and new ideas on how to communicate with the children. They spent time in the facility with both staff and students, and the children learned new activities and enjoyed the play and learn. They also spent the day in the school grounds with the kids who enjoyed learning to use a hula hoop, playing on swings, playing ring-around-the-rosy and more. Their affection and enthusiasm helped the children have a day to remember! Gracias!

Chicago Aztec Tourz Group

A group of students from Chicago who work with special needs children were on an Aztec Tourz in Vallarta and visited Pasitos de Luz on Monday June 6th. Many of the Pasitos children enjoyed a great day at a park where the students played games with them and helped them with fun on equipment. Especially fun were the wheel barrow races and sliding on the slides! Thanks to all of our Chicago student visitors for giving our kids such a great day!
 
Harkness Institute

Students from the Harkness Institute spent a morning with our kids in July. They also brought many items from our list of necessities using funds raised from their exposition and annual art auction in June. What a great example group of students and teachers. Thank you!
 
Jordan & Oliver

 
The objectives to be achieved with Jordan were to strengthen hip muscles, achieve balance in a standing position and increase socialization. Jordan has successfully undertaken a consistent exercise program involving muscle kneading and re-education movements to achieve balance in positions of crawling, kneeling, semi kneeling and standing.
 
Currently Jordan is a child who, with the help of his therapists, has managed to learn to walk independently and to get both on and off the floor without any help. On the socialization side, Jordan has been integrated into a special education classroom and has shown social capacity thanks to the confidence he has gained from independent mobility achievements. The staff continue to work with Jordan to gain more physical ability and emotional stability. Today Jordan has become an example of what can be achieved through strength and determination.

Like many of our children, the primary objective set for Oliver was to help him learn to walk and move more efficiently based on his ability. Oliver has been working with therapists who use balls and rollers that have helped to get his attention and remove the fears he has had related to movement. Oliver's hard work has paid off and he is gradually achieving the goals.

Currently Oliver is using weights to strengthen himself. He has started in a classroom and integration with his peers is being achieved. We can't wait to see what comes next as we are confident Oliver will surprise us again soon with another accomplishment!

Summer News  
 
Celebration!!!

On July 12 we were so happy to celebrate the conclusion of a successful year with many of the children reaching or exceeding personal goals! Thanks to the parents, families, staff and especially our donors who help make these successes possible. Special thanks to our sponsors for the day of celebration for achieving goals - Los Mangos library for the space, Pasta Fresca for the food and Trouble Town for the music and  entertainment .                            

Rounding Up Campaigns

Pasitos de Luz is very fortunate to announce that we are the beneficiary of two "rounding" campaigns this year - Soriana occurred in spring and Oxxo is happening now!

Soriana Rounding: To all our friends who agreed to round up and donate their pennies in the Soriana rounding campaign this spring, we would like to say THANK YOU. We received $93,589 pesos! All of the Soriana stores in Puerto Vallarta and the Bay of Banderas participated. We would like to recognize the store managers and cashiers for who were integral in our success through their promotion of the campaign to customers. Their enthusiasm took us above and beyond our dreams by supporting the work of Pasitos de Luz.

Oxxo Rounding: Oxxo has also identified Pasitos de Luz for their August, September and October rounding campaign. Please support our cause by saying YES to rounding when shopping at the Oxxo stores in Puerto Vallarta through these months!
 
Miracles in Action Campaign

Thanks go to so many of you who have donated auction items for events, donated clothes, donated time and/or donated money. As summer approaches, many of our charities miss the influx of high season and can use extra help. Pasitos has begun a campaign - Miracles in Action - with a goal of getting 300 donors at $25 dollars per month. This money goes to therapy, nutrition, education, medicine (and more) for severely disabled kids in the Bay of Banderas. Please spread the word to help Pasitos reach their goal. Tax deductible receipts are available for Canada or US or, if you don't need a tax deductible receipt from Canada or US, you can donate through PayPal. Tax deductible receipts are available for the United Kingdom through New Lifeline (mailto:philippa@newlifeline.co.uk).

Please see the Pasitos Campaign page

If you have questions or want more information you can contact Anne-Marie Haynes from Canadian Children's Shelter of Hope who facilitates Canadian tax deductibles, Arturo Ayala director of Pasitos, Teena and Peter Oudman whose dream was to build Casa Connor for Pasitos in memory of their grandson (oudmanp@hotmail.com) or Philipa. Gracias!

Some history

In 1998 learning from personal experience what it means to provide special care for a member of the family, and how hard it is to offer the treatments when there is no abundance of resources, Yolanda Sanchez founded “Pasitos de Luz” (Little steps of light) from a house that her family owned.

For eighteen years her family has donated the use of the house to help disabled children, providing free services of Nutrition, Physical Rehabilitation, Special Education, and more, Yolanda herself has not taken any wages or benefits. During this time the special needs kids she serves has grown gradually up to 120 children. This has been accomplished by alternating days between children. Pasitos de Luz has outgrown the current premises and can no longer squeeze in any more children. Thanks to the generosity of a Mexican family who donated land and the many generous donors and volunteers, construction was started in September of 2011 to build a new 22,000 square foot facility for Pasitos de Luz (Casa Connor). Now completed we are focusing on furnishing and operating costs.

Last year through donations and the great dedication of staff and volunteers Pasitos de Luz operated at a cost per year, per child of $1,500 CDN or $1,125 USD or 18,000 Pesos, a very remarkable accomplishment. Your generosity of a monthly donation can help sustainability to meet our operating costs!

Upcoming Dates to Hold for the Winter Season

• Fashion Show with Deja New and Alexander A Salon - Saturday January 14th

• Sixth Annual Riverfest - Saturday March 4th

This content was submitted by a member of the community. We'd like to hear from you, too! To share stories, photos, video or events, please send them here.

  Learn about Pasitos de Luz Day Care for Children