California Kindergarten Connects With Costa Rican Indigenous



May 5, 2005 -- A kindergarten classroom in this small California town has extended its hands to a group of indigenous children in southeastern Costa Rica.

(Photo available)

The Hand Banner was rolled up and included in a box filled with coloring books, bottles of blow-them-yourself-bubbles, and crayons and shipped to The Bridge in Costa Rica.

The children at The Bridge appreciated the gifts.

(Photo Available - Bribri kids playing with coloring books and bubbles)

Our thanks to Craig and Nancy Kirchoff, in Clarksburg, California for engineering the gift package. The kids are having a ball with it. Alejandro especially likes holding the soap-bubble thingie in front of an electric fan. In seconds, he can fill the whole porch with bubbles. Each time, he laughs like it's the first time he's seen it.

When we showed the rolled up handprint banner to the kids, we knew immediately that they'd have a good time putting THEIR handprints on a roll-up banner. Here's what happened next.

(5 photos available, Bribri kids making hand prints)

Barry and Nanci Stevens, co-founders of The Bridge in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica, were happy with it too. "This is a very creative approach to generating community support", they said. "And Thank you! to Craig, Nancy, and Emma!"

The Bridge provides food, educational assistance, and microloans to indigenous people - the Bribri Indians - in the southeastern part of Costa Rica. The goal of the organization is to help people help themselves to self-sufficiency. The organization currently serves 29 families with supplemental food, serves over 75 individuals meals in a three-day-a-week soup kitchen, has placed 26 children in public school this term, and has made 15 microloans. It has aggressive plans for growth, which include construction of service and teaching facilities, course development in health, nutrition, job training, and in the Bribri language and culture.

The Bridge is a project of the US-based Serendipity International Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit based in Carlsbad, California.

Nanci Wright-Stevens has dedicated the profits from the sale of all of her art work to the operation of The Bridge. A limited edition print series of her wildlife art is being sold on eBay. You can visit the eBay store by going to http://stores.ebay.com/Taproot-Trading.

Donations to The Bridge may be made on the organization's website, at http://www.elpuente-thebridge.org.

Also available on the site: the organization's plans, operating budgets and expenses, as well as their "wish list".

Contacts:
Barry Stevens, toll free from the US to Costa Rica at 1-866-462-7585 do not publish.

Craig & Nancy Kirchoff 916-775-4938 do not publish.

Nanci Hartland for The Serendipity Foundation 619-994-2964 do not publish.

High-resolution JPG photographs available on request.





California Kindergarten Connects With Costa Rican Indigenous