Today is Día del Niño (Children’s Day) here in Costa Rica and I had the chance to celebrate with the kids, parents and teacher from the Escuela de Playa Hermosa Guanacaste in Carrillo. The Playa Hermosa School is a small school with 25 students in grades 1 through 7. It’s quite literally a “one room schoolhouse” run tightly and passionately by it’s headmaster (maestro) and teacher, Mr. Javier Rosales.

Mr. Rosales took over teaching at the school about a year ago and since then student enrollment has doubled, parent participation has increased, the level of student learning has increased, 24 new desks have been purchased with parent donations, a new copy machine valued at 600,000 colones has been donated to the school by Coopeguanacaste R. L. – and an English teacher, Mr. Mario Alberto Espinoza Torres, teaches English to the kids on Thursdays and Fridays.

When Sr. Rosales arrived at the school it was in dire need of a new roof and other rennovations: some plumbing, patching and painting. But the roof was most critical, especially with the rainy season on its way.  The Ministerio de Educación Pública (Public Education Ministry, or MEP), for whatever reason, is unable to provide enough money to maintain the school. So Mr. Rosales put together a School Committee made up of himself, parents and neighbors to address these and other issues facing the school, such as providing the students with lunches (another item the MEP can’t provide enough funds for).

One of the committee members and Playa Hermosa resident, Mr. Gary Lindquist, runs the Sardinal Backpack Program that provides marginal resource children in Sardinal with backpacks full of school supplies, shoes and uniforms through private donations. Mr. Lindquist figured if he could raise money for the kids in Sardinal why not do it for the kids in his own back yard here in Playa Hermosa? So he solicited local residents and businesses to donate the money needed to rebuild the roof of the school. Some of the materials and labor were also donated and within a couple of months, the school had a brand new roof on it. And just in the nick of time.

Mr. Lindquist also reached out to the Asociación de Vecinos y Empresarios de Playa Hermosa (Playa Hermosa Association of Neighbors and Businesses) – a non-profit community organization – for some help. Though the Association’s 2013 budget had already been approved at its 2013 General Assembly Meeting, the Board of Directors voted on and approved a letter written by the School Committee’s to the Association soliciting aid. So 5% of the Association’s 2014 budget will be set aside for the school maintenance, bare necessities and student outings. The Association also works with the parents and kids at the school on community projects such as a recent tree-planting/reforestation project (follow link for more info)  on the beach here in Hermosa spearheaded by Heather O’Connell, Chairperson of its Gardening Committee.

So today was a special day for the kids. It was truly their day. And they had much to be happy and thankful for, thanks to all of those mentioned above, and the generous, anonymous donations of neighborhood residents. I met Penny McDonald of Partners of the Americas at the event. Penny’s organization pairs states in the U.S. with countries around the world (in this case, her home state of Oregon with Costa Rica) and sends retired teachers and administrators to Costa Rica to help with English mandates. She worked on math and reading with the kids using flash cards and then read them a story in the U. S. educational tradition.

Then is was time for some Zumba with Aracely Alcocer. Ms. Alcocer has Hermosa Zumba and Yoga Studio in Playa Hermosa and volunteered her time to give the kids a clinic on Zumba to the music of Shakira, Sean Paul and Elvis Presley. By the time she was done with them they were laughing, panting and sweating. It was a great segway to the main event.

 

 

The kids gathered under a gaucimo tree from which dangled a child’s most coveted confection treasure trove – the piñata! Mr. Rosales manned the cord and pulled the piñata up and down while each blindfolded child took turns wacking at it with a mop handle. It was a tough piñata and it didn’t give up its precious cargo easily. But it finally succumbed to the beating and a downpour of candy hit the ground with the kids less than a milli-second behind. It was wonderful to see so many kids having such a great time on their own day!

The next project on the school’s agenda is to repair a decaying exterior wall of the school that is structurally unsound and could be dangerous if the school suffers another earthquake like the one that struck last September. Mr. Lindquist, Mr. Rosales, the parents and kids would like the work to be performed sooner rather than later. If you would like to donate your time, money or materials to help the school, please contact Gary at 2672-0023, 8869-7330 or via email at [email protected]. It would be great to see the school in top condition on Kid’s Day in 2014.

Mike Poynton is Owner/Principal of Paradise Social, a digital marketing, SEO and website design company in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste. He is also active in his community and serves on the Board of Directors of the Asociación de Vecinos y Empresarios de Playa Hermosa. He periodically contributes articles to the Costa Rica Star.