Abriendo Mentes - now a partner of GoodSearch!

Here's a new easy way to raise money for Abriendo Mentes. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to our cause every time you do a search! This link will take you straight to our GoodSearch page:

http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=926253

In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 900 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to Abriendo Mentes as well. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to our cause.

To give you a sense of how the money can add up, the ASPCA has already earned more than $30,000!

Here's the web site — http://www.goodsearch.com. You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

Thanks for your continued support.

Happy Holidays,

Meradith & Drew and the AM team

Raise money for Abriendo Mentes just by searching the web and shopping online!

Search the web now!

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"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" Art Projects

With the help of Silvia Guevara, owner of CS3 Consultants in Costa Rica, Abriendo Mentes launched a new art project last month. This past Wednesday was the second installment of this "reduce, reuse, recycle" themed project, created by Silvia and her husband. Abriendo Mentes was fortunate enough to come in contact with Silvia in the first stages of her pilot project.

On Friday November 12th, 50 Abriendo Mentes students and mothers gathered in the Community Center to make plastic bottle mobiles out of used Coke, water and Fanta bottles and waste baskets out of used milk cartons and old magazines. The kids had a blast, the mothers loved having an art project to work on, and we all enjoyed seeing everyone so content.

Heybraham and Jason working on their magazine waste baskets

On Wednesday, November 24th 25 students came together in the new "Kids Club" in Potrero to use more recycled material to make Christmas trees.

There were heaps and piles of old magazines, jars upon jars of white glue (one boy tried eating it, there’s always one) and one piece of cardboard as a base. By ripping the sheets from the magazines and rolling them vertically and then rolling that, you get a colorful spiral. We dipped the spirals in glue and secured them on the cardboard.

We did this over and over again (except each new row had one less spiral than the one below it) until Christmas trees formed.

Mareyling, Dayana and Jennifer getting help from Silvia

Some children painted them green like a real tree, while others dressed theirs all up by gluing on buttons and sparkly and shiny things. And some of the kids trees didn’t exactly look like trees but they had a lot of fun anyway.

After everyone had their trees formed we put string through the top for them to hang it in their houses at home for everyone to see.

Emmanuel, Cesar, Barbabra and Valentina with their finished projects!

The hour was up and the 25 children said goodbye and ran off to show their families leaving behind one huge mess. Glue was on the tables, paper on the glue, paint splattered everywhere except the ceiling and scraps littered the floor. Luckily, there were seven volunteers who worked quickly to cleanup for the adult class.

This week is the last full week before classes end and we have more fun classes and activities in store for the kids. Silvia will be back with us again this Wednesday to make pot holders and baskets out of juice boxes and chip bags.

A hug thank you to Silvia for all of her creativity and wonderful ideas.

Goal 3 a Success!

By Jennifer Webb, Abriendo Mentes volunteer

The day we'd all been waiting for finally arrived! About 50 children, volunteers and parents met in front of the Abriendo Mentes office bright and early on Sunday November 21st before departing to Africa Mia Wildlife Preserve safari adventure!

A group of Abriendo Mentes students in front of the office all ready to go!

Las Catalinas development, here in Potrero (a new partner of Abriendo Mentes this month) kindly sponsored the transportation to Liberia (an hour from Potrero) to Africa Mia. Thanks to all the sponsors and supporters, our most dedicated students had a great, fun-filled day seeing all kinds of new animals, successfully fulfilling our third goal; the experiential learning excursions.

Fabian Barbara, Valentina and Luis, so excited on the bus ride to Africa Mia.

Although we said to dress casually and wear comfy shoes, the kids came all dressed up, excited for the big outing. Boys sported polo’s and button-ups and the girls were decked out in bejeweled jeans, fancy sandals and studded barrettes. And even though they were hyper, they were on their best behavior.

The three sisters - Joselyn, Melanny and Hilary - in matching tops!

Each child bought a bag of carrots for 500 colones to feed the animals. The beginning of the walking tour featured peacocks, pigs, deer, ostriches and more. They were all eager to give their carrots away to the deer and had to be reminded to save some for the other animals. The ostrich’s quick, snappy, pecks made the kids a little jumpy. Only carrots were snatched.

Good aim Jenifer, right into its mouth!

There were dozens of zebras but one was especially unique. In between its stripes were lighter beige stripes. On the other side of the road two other zebras were tumbling around and playing.

One of the beautiful zebras.

The giraffes were by far everyone's favorite. The kids held out their carrots and the giraffes long purple tongues reached through the fence and curled around the carrots before they chomped them down. We learned a giraffes tongue is so long they can actually stretch it all the way back to their horns. It wasn't demonstrated for us but we could all imagine.

Arturo marveling at the tongue .

Several times after our tour guide would turn around and start walking to the next animals to be featured, the long necked creatures would arch their necks all the way over the fence and bob their heads over ours for more carrots.

Ana Melissa staring up at the giraffe coming over the fence!

After the camels, oryxs and several kinds of antelope, we saw a baby giraffe and its mom. Another highlight of our safari adventure. After running around a little the young calf began to nurse. A fence divided the father from its family. We learned like many animals, they’re known to be jealous of their infant so the division is for the baby's protection.

The jealous dad.

This week we'll be reviewing all the cool things we learned about our new animal friends and learn their English names.

Thanks everyone for all your support!

The Goal of 3 comes to an end

After three months of fund-raising, the Goal of 3 came to an end in October. Thanks to all our dedicated supporters we raised $2375 in total! With these contributions we were able to complete our first two goals in the Goal of 3 during the summer, and we are excited to be able to complete our last goal this weekend!

Abriendo Mentes Goal of 3 Fundraiser Results:

1) Goal 1 - Improvements to the community teaching space: In late June, with the help of a group of MIT alumni, Potrero community members, A.M. students and volunteers, we gave the community center where we conduct classes a face-lift, painting the inside walls a rich terracotta color.

2) Goal 2 - Student material packets: In August, we supplied 33 Abriendo Mentes students with classroom material packets, including pencil cases, pencils, pens, notebooks, folders and more. We will continue this effort throughout the 2011 year as well, starting in February 2011 supplying required public school material packets to the needier students.

3) Goal 3 - Experiential learning excursions: On November 21st we will be taking a group of 50 Abriendo Mentes students, parents and volunteers to Africa Mia Wildlife Preserve, a safari adventure center located in Liberia, an hour from Potrero, to see many different types of African animals. We will emphasize endangered animals, which is in the English curriculum the students are studying this month, as well as African geography. This will be the first time that these children will have the opportunity to see these types of exotic animals, including zebra, giraffes and camels. We are very excited to offer this adventure to our most dedicated students! We have been keeping attendance cards for the past 3 months and the 30 students with the best attendance record have been invited to Africa Mia.

Stay tuned for pictures from the field trip this Sunday. A huge thank you to all of our supporters that contributed to the Goal of 3 and to Las Catalinas development in Playa Potrero for sponsoring the transportation for the trip to Africa Mia.

Abriendo Mentes student of the month!

Student of the month goes to… Arturo (who has recently changed his name to Jose).

Arturo coloring an octopus picture in class

If you know Arturo, you know he is an awesome kid and a really hard working student. Arturo was one of the very first Abriendo Mentes students. He started coming to classes at the age of 5, last June 2009, and has barely missed a class since. His English has improved by leaps and bounds since his first days in class. Always one of the first to call out the answer, and always the first to finish his worksheet, he is completely focused for only 6 years old, and just a downright sweet kid.

Thumbs up Arturo during our trip to Angelina's for pizza!

But the number one reason Jose Arturo is nominated as student of the month, is because he was one of 3 students from 5 communities selected for a full scholarship (K – 12!) at the nearby private nonprofit school, La Paz Community School. Abriendo Mentes works with La Paz school to nominate exceptional students from Potrero for potential scholarships each school year. We were so happy when we were informed that Arturo received a scholarship for the 2010 year.

Arturo painting his "don't litter" sign

Arturo started his first day on August 30^th, and absolutely loves his new school. Transitioning from Potrero public school and 3 hours of class a day to a full 8 – 3:00 day was a breeze for him. Arturo has worked so hard to get where he is today with his English. It was so wonderful to see all that hard work pay off, but we were also sad to see him go from our classes. It turns out this is not the case at all, Arturo still comes to AM classes every single day as soon as he gets home from La Paz school. What an awesome kid! Hands down Jose Arturo deserves this month’s award.

Womanars - Celebrating the Power of Women!

Tilde Guajardo emailed me in May, she had received my contact from another woman in the Potrero area - I was surprised and thrilled to get the email! When you first start an organization, and people start reaching out to you through different networks, it is one of the best feelings ever. Tilde was coming to visit Costa Rica and wanted to do an on camera interview about Abriendo Mentes. Tilde is the founder of Womanars, an online media company targeting women, with the mission to celebrate the "Power of Women" through fun, innovative and engaging videos. I was intrigued, Womanars had such a strong and inspiring mission, of course I said yes!

Tilde and Angee in the Salon Comunal

Tilde and Angee Phong (COO of Womanars) came to Costa Rica in mid-May, I met them in Tamarindo for dinner and we instantly hit it off. They were both such energetic, outgoing women with a lot of heart (not to mention we instantly bonded over our love for food). My first time interview nerves were at ease. Tilde and Angee came to Potrero and spent the better part of a day with Drew, me and the kids. They came to class with us in the Salon, bearing two suitcases stocked full of school supplies (thank you so much!!!). It was a great day!

Tilde, Angee and me with all the A.M. girls and their Womanars shirts

Tilde and Angee headed back to the U.S. and have been diligently working on launching Womanars.com throughout the summer; now is the time! They have planned what is sure to be an awesome launch party in Dallas, TX at the Tower Club, 48th floor of Thanksgiving Tower, 1601 Elm Street. The party is scheduled for Wednesday, November 10th from 6 - 9 pm. We are so incredibly honored to be included in this event, with part of the proceeds going to Abriendo Mentes to benefit the women and girls of Playa Potrero, Costa Rica!

Sweet Jenifer with her new Womanars shirt!

Unfortunately I will not be able to personally attend this event since classes are still in session in Costa Rica, but I am supporting from afar! If you are in the Dallas area, please support Abriendo Mentes and celebrate with with Womanars, as they showcase women's creativity and talents while giving back to those in need. There will be appetizers, drinks, door prizes & performances by:

Locked Out Comedy
Vero Voz
Elizabeth Wills
Reinventing Jude

We would love to hear from anyone who plans to attend the event, or hear your stories and see pictures after the event. Please help us support the "Power of Women" in the U.S., Costa Rica and the world. Visit www.womanars.com to purchase tickets and learn more about Womanars.

Many thanks!

Meradith Leebrick
Co-Founder, Abriendo Mentes
Opening Minds Latin America

Abriendo Mentes welcomes a new office AND a new classroom

And not in the same space!

Two new opportunities presented themselves to us in the past 2 months. A very generous man named Terry who owns an office in the Casa del Sol office complex in Potrero offered us the use of his office space! This has been one of our dreams from the beginning, to have our own private space to house all the supplies, do small classes and in the future, create a computer lab for computer classes.

Downstairs in the new office space!

It was a far off dream that would have taken a lot of capital, but Terry made this dream come true for us. He had the idea of donating the use of his unused office space for the benefit of the community, and of course we accepted with much gratitude. The space is coming together nicely, electricity just turned on, furniture slowly rolling in; it is becoming our own. We plan to start the pre-school classes there next week, and are collecting funds and computers (we already have one donated!) for our computer lab, slated to be up and running by the beginning of 2011. Thank you Terry for making our dream a reality.

The upstairs arts and crafts area

On top of this great news, Potrero also welcomed the opening of a new Youth Center this month. Built in the place of the old dilapidated Police Station, the Youth Center was built with funds raised by the Potrero Association within the community of Potrero and Flamingo. It is truly a community project. The new space is open, airy and bright; a great environment for learning.

Mateo, Sofia and Nayelli in the new Youth Center!

We are fortunate enough to be included on the list of groups that have access to operate in the Youth Center. We currently split our time between this new space and the Salon Comunal beside it. If nothing else, this building is a monument to the progress that Potrero is making and shows the community's dedication to enhancing education and opportunities for the future.

Drew, Geral and Brandon doing a worksheet in the new Youth Center

If you are interested in donating resources of money to support the creation of a computer lab in Potrero, or to help add interior improvements to the Youth Center (noise canceling wall fixtures are a must) please contact us at opening.minds.project@gmail.com or visit http://www.omprakash.org/partner_profile/p/65 to make a tax deductible donation.

Community art workshop with visiting artist Narda Boughton

During August, we were thrilled to welcome Narda Boughton to Potrero for a two-week long art workshop designed for the children of Playa Potrero and implemented in Abriendo Mentes classes.

Instantly, Narda captured the attention, minds and hearts of the students with her compassion, care, and knowledge of the fine arts. Adding to the success of the workshop, Narda's fluency in Spanish allowed her to explain the detailed art concepts to the children in Spanish, while incorporating English vocabulary such as colors, shapes, etc... into the lessons. The attendance was outstanding; we had students attend that had never been to Abriendo Mentes classes before, and thanks to the workshop, are still attending regular classes to this day.

Narda covered topics from sketching, making shapes and mixing colors, to drawing and painting self portraits, creating skin color, and paper mache. Throughout the workshop, Narda emphasized life lessons as well; the importance of taking care of your belongings, respecting your environment and respecting others.

To say the children enjoyed these two weeks would be an understatement. For a group of children that have never participated in a structured art class in their lives, this was a little slice of paradise for them. On the day we were drawing self-portraits, Melanny [an outgoing 11 year old girl] looked at her self-portrait in astonishment "I never thought I could do something like this, I am so proud of myself"...

What a wonderful collaboration that ended up exceeding all of our expectations, even the children's expectations of themselves. A huge thank you to Narda for her time, expertise and passion, and to Hotel Sugar Beach for sponsoring this art workshop.

~

In Narda's words

At the beginning of August, I had the wonderful experience of collaborating with Abriendo Mentes, offering a two week Art Program to the town of Potreros, Guanacaste.

Working with kids from 3-17 y/o's, we covered a lot of ground- from drawing to painting, learning about shapes and colors, self portraits to papier mache. All classes were conducted in Spanish with English words taught throughout. So, while learning about different aspects of art, they continued expanding their English vocabulary. The artwork they created was full of imagination and fun, beautiful and mischievous. We had a ball!

In a village of 1000 (or so) people- where the soccer field is at the very center of town and resources are slim, Abriendo Mentes offers a much needed program that touches the lives of kids and adults alike- beginning through education, but resulting in being an integral part of the neighborhood, caring about it's growth and expansion.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of this exciting project!

This outreach program is the result of the generous efforts and resources of Sugar Beach Hotel's owner, Sarah Pfeiffer, whose continued interest in community outreach for the town of Potreros has made this Art Workshop possible. Thank you!

Through the volunteers' eyes

Although we only spent a short time with Abriendo Mentes, we immediately sensed the students’ enthusiasm to learn as they flooded through the doors of the classroom with bright, smiling faces. Their dedication to expanding their knowledge is something we will never forget and are thrilled to have taken part.

This excitement, however, is largely a result of their mentors. The commitment of Abriendo Mentes’ teachers and founders, Drew and Meradith has inspired each of us. Their kind support and leadership provides a strong role model for these children, and helps them to expand their language skills, creativity and to foster new friendships.

We also had the opportunity to participate in a few adult English classes, where three working mothers devote what little free time they have to learn how to read, write and speak a new language. They worked patiently, hoping to gain skills that will improve their quality of life and set positive examples for their children.

In the small town of Playa Potrero where continuing education is not a priority, Abriendo Mentes emphasizes the importance of learning, and developing to ones full potential. The three of us have had a great experience working with this organization and encourage others to help Abriendo Mentes achieve their goals.

Thanks Drew and Meradith,

Stephanie, Meghan and Christina

Community Service Day with Tamarindo Surf

A little late on the update, but we wanted to share all the same since we just received the pictures.

On July 5th Abriendo Mentes teamed with Tamarindo Surf school - http://www.tamarindosurfschool.com/ - in Tamarindo to bring a group of teenagers from across the US to Potrero for a service day. They came, they ate, they taught and they played.

This was a neat group of teenagers; unlike some of their peers who would have signed up for the CR surf tour summer camp, they signed up for the package that included community service and Spanish lessons (with a little bit of surfing too). But honestly, I bet the time they spent with the AM students was equally as rewarding as surfing was.

This 4-hour long activity was kicked off with a picnic prepared by AM student moms, followed by English classes, songs, games, arts and soccer. It was a wonderful way to close out the first half of the 2010 year before vacation.

The following day, the same group reconvened in the Salon Comunal to give a face-lift to the trashcans in Potrero with an environmental theme.

Classes are back in action now, we will have an update soon of current happenings. But with 6 volunteers currently in Potrero and 5 planning to come over the next 3 months, we should be in store for some great activities and progress.

Pen pals in Potrero

Do you remember having pen pals as a child? You wrote back and forth through old fashioned snail mail; sometimes you sent each other pencils or little treats. I had a pen pal in Latvia (of all places!). I waited with bated breath for my friend to send me letters in her perfect handwriting and perfect English (I was not at the time studying Latvian).

So now imagine that you are an 11 year old girl, born and raised in a little village on the Guanacaste coast of Costa Rica, having barely ever left your small 300 person town. And you have a pen pal from the US who emails letters to you which you receive in Abriendo Mentes class AND you find out that your pen pal is coming to visit you in Potrero. Imagine what a cool feeling that must be for a young child that rarely ventures out of town

After 2 – 3 months of exchanging letters, on July 1^st 4 pen pals from across the US came to visit 4 Abriendo Mentes students in Potrero. This is a wonderful cross-cultural program organized by Thompson Family Adventures and Unique Adventure Costa Rica. Abriendo Mentes is fortunate enough to be in collaboration with Unique Adventures who (with Thompson Family) matches up students in the US with AM students. Unique Adventures CR is a company that specializes in travels through Costa Rica that emphasize the natural beauty and resources of Costa Rica and personal interaction with the culture and people.

We worked with these organizations to plan an afternoon activity for the visiting families and the AM students. The pen pals came to the [newly painted] community center to meet their Costa Rican friends. They interacted through a “get to know you” worksheet which was in both English and Spanish, and then bonded over ice cream and a game of what could only be called indoor soccer, sans rules.

It was a great day for the families, and both sets of pen pals. We truly hope that we can continue and expand this program and match each of our students with a pen pal in the future. Who knows, maybe little Jenifer will go to North Carolina one day to visit her pen pal Rylan! Vamos a ver.

June 30th 2010 - Farewell Kate and Todd!

As a tribute to our dedicated Abriendo Mentes volunteers Kate and Todd, on their last day of classes we planned a carnival for the A.M. students!

When Kate brought up the idea of a carnival, we were thrilled! We got a little carried away (dunk tank? Where can we find one of those in Guanacaste?), but Drew and Todd brought us back to reality (no pie toss girls).

The carnival was our way of sharing the celebration of U.S. Independence Day with the students, as well as an opportunity to involve them in all the awesome carnival games we knew as kids.

We had everything from pin the tail on the donkey, to water balloon toss, to a make shift cake walk (brownie and rice krispy treat walk) to go fishing! It was a huge success. We all ate, played games, won prizes and learned about U.S. Independence.

Once again a huge "Thank you" to all of our wonderful volunteers from the month of June, Kate and Todd from Michigan, Mary and Sarina from Florida and Caroline from Massachusetts. You will all be missed!

Foot note: I can confidently say that this was the most organized balloon toss anyone could have executed in Potrero - ever.