Volunteers From Vida Vacations Change the World for Four Puerto Vallarta Charities Team Angels - PVAngels
June 13, 2013

Wow! The phrase "what a difference a day makes" describes what the 54 Vida Vacations staff of volunteers accomplished on Monday, June 10, at four of our local charities around Puerto Vallarta. The first in our four-part series will focus on Pasitos de Luz.

"What a Diff'rence a Day Made" is a popular song originally written in Spanish by María Grever, a Mexican songwriter, in 1934. Originally, the song was known as "Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado" ("When I Return To Your Side"). The song is also known in English as "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes", as popularized by Dinah Washington.

Our on-the-spot reporter, Lorissa, says "It was a great day and we were able to help 100's of people. I believe the total amount spent by the volunteers for this one day was 48,000 pesos!!"

Part 1: Vida Vacations Staff Volunteers at Pasitos de Luz Day Care Center for Special Needs Children

Lorissa continues with the Pasitos de Luz experience:

"The first group headed to Pasitos de Luz met at Costco. They also met the Videographer, Ray Dion from PromovisionPV  who graciously volunteered his time and expertise.

The group went in to buy supplies to take to the day care. Supplies included oil, pasta, pasta sauce, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, diapers, cereal, tuna, bread and much more. Also purchased was paint for the tables and walls.

Walking into the facility is a bit overwhelming, and some people were overcome with emotion seeing these beautiful kids all unique and beautiful, but struggling with disabilities.

The volunteers made name tags for themselves and all the kids, it is so nice to be able to call the child by name.

The kids with lesser disabilities enjoyed drawing, dancing, singing, and playing puzzle games with the volunteers. The kids with severe disabilities we were told they just like to be talked to and touched.

Most of the kids are in one room all lined up side by side. It is a very cramped room with white walls. The volunteers decided to move the kids to another area and paint flowers, butterflies, suns, clouds and goofy cartoons, all in bright colors. It is nice for the kids to have things to look at for stimulation we were told.

Other walls in the facility were painted along with tables and chairs.

There we 20 volunteers so the kids had a lot of attention.

Some of the volunteers spent time picking up donated bricks at another location to bring to the daycare, otherwise they would not have been able to pick them up, as they are quite busy and already lacking manpower.

Extra notes:

• 122 children attend the day care

• There is a doctor and physiotherapist

• Huge variety of disabilities, each child needs different special care

• Kids are brought here to be bathed because they may not have running water at home

• A lot of the kids can not walk and need massage and stretching to keep their muscles and to help with digestion….this takes a lot of time

• Some kids take 45 minutes to feed!

The volunteers felt this was an amazing experience, and would come back to help out again."

Pasitos would therefore like to extend a personal invitation to you to meet them and the children in person, to understand more about their work, and their mission and vision for Pasitos de Luz. To visit, you can send an email to info@pasitsodeluz.org and get direct to Pasitos.

Stay tuned for the other heart-warming stories from PuRR Project No Kill Feline Shelter, Amigos de Bucerias/Tercera Edad Senior Citizen Home and Compassion for the Family/Banderas Bay Women's Shelter.

Read original story.

Read Part 2 at Senior Center.

Read Part 3 at PuRR Project.

Read Part 4 at Women's Shelter.

Vida Vacations Staff Volunteers at Pasitos de Luz Day Care Center for Special Needs Children (video by PromoVisionPV)

  Learn about Pasitos de Luz Day Care for Children

  Learn about PuRR Project No Kill Feline Shelter/Adoption

  Learn about Amigos de Bucerias AC

  Learn about Banderas Bay Women’s Shelter

  Check out Promovision Professional Video Services