Patrick, our Kids to Kids (K2K) Program Coordinator, recently took a trip down to Costa Rica to visit K2K projects and meet with our Peace Corps partners in the capital, San Jose. He traveled over mountains, down into valleys, and through the tropical rainforest to meet with Peace Corps Volunteers, Community Leaders and kids who’ve benefited from the support of Kids to Kids. He even met up with a group of K2K Members from Westport, Connecticut who were participating in an international service trip in rural Costa Rica!
K2K Program Coordinator with Peace Corps Costa Rica Country Director, staff and volunteers
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be posting a series of blogs to share more of the pictures, videos and stories he collected from K2K projects that took place throughout the many diverse communities of Costa Rica. The goal of these blogs is to tell the story of each community through its K2K project. In the process, you’ll meet inspiring kids and learn how K2K has made an impact on their lives. You’ll also meet local Community Leaders and hear, in their own words, how K2K is making a difference for youth in their communities. Finally, you’ll hear from our Peace Corps Volunteers about how K2K has impacted their service and helped them to improve the lives of less fortunate kids through creative arts, sports, education and environmental projects.
We hope you enjoy the blog series! Please check back regularly to read the updates and help us raise awareness for Kids to Kids by sharing them with your friends. You can also support Kids to Kids projects by making a donation here!
BOOST Collaborative, short of “Best Out-of-School Time Opportunities”, featured Kids to Kids as the Program Highlight in its most recent newsletter. BOOST is is committed to creating opportunities for change in educational and social services agencies serving youth in the out-of-school time hours. They thought Kids to Kids could be a really neat option for all of the educators and youth development professionals they work with and decided to share. To read the newsletter, click here.
Thanks to the team at BOOST!
On a humid June 11th, Kids to Kids had its June 2010 grant review. Familiar faces sat around the table discussing ideas for the future of Kids to Kids and rating the many exciting new grants we received.
In this meeting, we reviewed 92 grant applications (our biggest batch yet!) from El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Belize, Rwanda, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Peru and the Philippines! Projects were rated based on their level of fun, which provided a valuable educational experience and which would benefit and impact the kids lives for the longest and to the fullest extent.
Other then rating and reviewing the many grants we received, we also discussed the future of Kids to Kids. With the new countries now involved such as Morocco, we began to discuss the possibilities of our future. My particular favorite grant proposal was one from Morocco. It was about screen printing and how the kids were interested in making their art into something they and many others could benefit from. We also discussed the our online voting option on the websiteand pushed for more voters before the polls close on June 30, 2010.
It all started with one soccer ball…In 2006, 4 girls from Wayland, MA took a trip to the Dominican Republic. While visiting an elementary school, they were stunned to find hundreds of kids at the school with access to exactly ONE piece of sports equipment: an old, well-worn medicine ball that the kids used to play soccer. It was that experience, and especially that ball, that the girls continue to use as a symbol for talking about how Kids to Kids Members can change the world by raising awareness and funds in their communities for Kids to Kids projects.
Every 4 years, the World Cup captures the attention of kids and adults all over the world. It shines a spotlight on soccer (futbol!) and exemplifies the ability of sports to build bridges between different cultures and nations. It also showcases the pride, passion, leadership, good sportsmanship and teamwork of the players, qualities that are vital to the development of youth around the world. Kids to Kids is dedicated to making sure EVERY kid has an opportunity to develop these qualities by supporting youth sports camps, teams and leagues all over the world. Kids to Kids’ sports projects provide so many kids with the opportunity to wear their first jersey, compete in their first tournament, discover a passion for new sports and develop those important qualities critical to their development and their future. With the world in the midst of World Cup fever, there’s no better time to acknowledge that kids and sports can, andDO, change the world. Who knows? Perhaps the next big World Cup star will get his (or her!) start in a Kids to Kids project!!!
To learn about all the sports projects that Kids to Kids supports around the world, click here.
We received a really neat thank you card from the “Start a Business, Start Your Future” project in El Salvador. The kids participating in this project sent us a thank you on a sample of the cards that they made for sale in their community!
Here is a photo of the card. The message is translated below.
Translation of message:
Dear people and children,
We thank you for your support of the creative small business project. We are thankful because we learned how to make a small business and we had a lot of fun because we went to a waterpark and ate a lot of food. This experience and adventures helps us to live together and get to know each other.
Thank you!
Kasandra, Cristina, Reyna, Mariana, Christian, Rene, Eduardo, Jairo & Carlos
Our friends at the Peace Corps office in Costa Rica recently sent Kids to Kids a care package of thanks including coffee, chocolate and a beautiful plaque. The package arrived at our office in Waltham, but we want to share it with EVERYONE involved with Kids to Kids!
The inscription on the plaque reads, “Peace Corps Costa Rica wishes to recognize Kids to Kids for its unwavering support in providing unforgettable opportunities for communities and children in Costa Rica.”
We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting kids in Costa Rica and thankful for our wonderful Peace Corps partners.
Since September 2008, Kids to Kids has sponsored 44 projects in 42 communities throughout Costa Rica, bringing more arts, sports, education and environmental projects to over 1,500 kids. There are new projects in Costa Rica currently up for voting, so cast your votes today!
The event was a celebration of the nonprofit sector in MA, a sector that supports the economy of the state and provides much-needed social programs to MA residents and beyond. The day opened with remarks from Governor Deval Patrick who spoke about being motivated by gratitude and generational responsibility and issued a collective call to action for all of us to give back. We saw the “world premiere” of a new PSA to air in MA in support of nonprofits by Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein and his brother Paul, a social worker and nonprofit advocate. We also heard from Speaker of the MA House, Robert DeLeo and this year’s Nonprofit Excellence Awards were presented.
World Connect’s own Julia Haney, co-founder of Kids to Kids, was the youngest nominee for the Nonprofit Young Professional Award. A photo of Julia with World Connect staffer Patrick Higdon is below. We’re so proud of you!
In May, the Kids to Kids Club at Bay View Academy in Rhode Island held a 2 week long CandyGram fundraiser in honor of National Kids to Kids Day 2010! The girls at Bay View sold CandyGrams (a couple of pieces of candy in a plastic bag, tied with a ribbon and connected to a personalized message) at both the middle school and the high school. Kids bought CandyGrams for many of their friends at school, and every CandyGram was hand-delivered by the girls in the Bay View K2K Club!
The Bay View K2K Club worked extremely hard preparing for their fundraiser. They met multiple times to plan, created posters to go up all over the school, and worked hard to get the word out to all the students at the two schools. They even welcomed Kids to Kids to a meeting where they prepared all the CandyGrams! Teamwork, passion, energy and creativity always leads to a great fundraising experience, and the K2K Club at Bay View Academy has it all!
To see more photos from the Bay View K2K Club, click here.
“Art for Peace” is a movement in Costa Rica that teaches youth the power of peace and non-violence through different art forms such as painting, photography, theater, dance and poetry. Kids to Kids is proud to have supported many Art for Peace projects in Costa Rica throughout the years. Recently, one amazing group of kids in Costa Rica, supported by a Kids to Kids Grant Award, participated in a Regional Art for Peace Conference with other kids from around the country. They learned about non-violence through creative workshops with other youth and won “best dance” at the conference!
These inspiring kids didn’t stop when they returned to their community. They brought what they learned through Art for Peace back to their community and utilized their Kids to Kids Grant Award to plan, design and create a large mural in the center of town, celebrating and sharing their experiences. The mural is beautiful – have a look for yourself (see below)!
This Art for Peace project has motivated more local kids to get involved and even caught the attention of the national media in Costa Rica!! You can watch the news segment (in Spanish) about the project, including interviews with several of the participating kids here. VIDEO: Art for Peace in Costa Rica
Eco Club Cambita
