Call to Action:
Destroyed Non-Profit Work Vehicle: A Fundraiser. (Baja Norte, Ensenada, Mexico)
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On the evening of Thursday, September 17th, Owner/Founder of UNIDAD DE TRATAMIENTO FRANCISCO DELGADO, Juan Jose Delgado Martinez, nearly lost his life. "Unidad" is a 12-Step-Based drug and alcohol treatment program with two facilities in Baja North, Mexico: one in Colony 89, Ensenada; the other being in San Vicente.
A critical piece to our remaining solvent and being able to provide quality treatment to the poor and homeless is through what is called, down here, "service in exchange for blessings". Juan Jose had just landed a 5-man service contract with a grape and chile farmer, but those fields are far away from our center here in San Vicente. Therefore, in order to get our client-servers there and back everyday, Juan Jose had to buy a new work vehicle. It was a 1998 Plymouth Voyager, . His mechanic checked it out, everything seemed good, he paid, and he left off from Ensenada for The Ranch up in the mountains. About halfway there, the engine started smoking.
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( The newly-purchased work vehicle started smoking while owner/founder Juan Jose was driving her back from Ensenada. )
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Juan quickly pulled over and jumped out, as the smoke was now pouring out of the vehicle. He started to race up to it, pulling some of his son's things out, then jumping back, then running again to the truck to retrieve more. Then he saw fire flicker up from the engine. As he jumped back at the last second, the Plymouth basically blew up. Thank God he's ok. This is one of my mentors, jefes, patrons. This guy is helping a sh*t-load of people down here with their addictions, helping to put myriad families at ease, providing parents with the long-needed sleep deprived of them by the actions and behaviors of their drug- or alcohol-addled loved ones. Juan Jose comes out of his own pocket all the time; virtually everything that comes in, regardless of ways and means, goes right back into the improving of our two facilities, to enriching the clients' treatment experience, to providing quality food and livable quarters, to populating every nook with something loving or thoughtful; our centers are so much more than just brick and mortar. Everywhere, in both centers -- but especially at The Ranch in San Vicente, the center we are focused on regards this fundraiser -- you'll find art and birds and snakes and pigs and beautiful plants and trees and turtles and chickens and palms and elephant ears and cacti and little gardens and on and on...
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(
Now she's really smokin'. Notice, also, how flames are developing
underneath the vehicle. She's about to go.
)
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But when something like this happens, there is no room for extra grub at either facility. No room for movie nights and ice cream and free cigarettes for the guys and gals as a reward for their hard daily service. No newly-planned amenities, no luxuries; quality and quantity suffer in general. We have to really start watching our water, both potable and non. When something like this happens to us, it's a major gut shot. It hits us on so many levels.
Pertaining to this particular sh*t-storm, well, first-of-all: we lost a work truck we had literally just bought (Mexican insurance is not as, say, "the same" as ours up north of the border, and plus, Juan had just driven it off the lot; also, legal recourse regarding something like this in Mexico would be a slow, tortuous process). In addition to that misery, five guys - five excited, expectant, recovering guys - lost the new employment, at least for now, that the Padrino had procured for them; they're crushed. Additionally, we are losing the daily pay that these guys were going to be able to bring in for the organization. And the boys are still broke -- SO excited about finally matriculating to the "client-server" program -- making nothing, not getting their piece of the blessing, which affords clients to live much more comfortably, while giving back to the community, and feeling good about themselves after a hard day's work. I think, for me, the saddest part of this deal here are the dashed hopes of this little group of guys. What a torpedo!
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(
The work vehicle is licked up in flames...Complete and total loss.)
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As stated, the work truck was a 1998 Plymouth Voyager. It was just at 100,000 miles, but well taken care of. I checked out this particular whip (yeah, whip) on BlueBook:
"Blue Book 1998 - The Official Kelley Blue Book - KBB.com
KBB.com Provides Fair Prices and Reviews For Purchasing New & Used Cars.
How much is a 1998 Plymouth Voyager worth? The value of a used 1998 Plymouth Voyager ranges from $987 to $2,415,
based on vehicle condition, mileage, and options."
Juan got a solid deal on this -- as he always does -- and was able to buy it for just over 30,000 pesos, which is $1,349USD as of the moment I'm writing this, so that is where it will stay. This fundraiser is for $1,349USD in thirty days to replace our destroyed vehicle.
We need to get these boys to work ASAP. We can actually turn this tragedy around pretty quickly if folks will donate just a little here and there. If you guys do what y'all did on this last project with Phase 1 of the new Women's Center, well, shucks, we'll be in great shape quickly. Hell, I'm donating from my own work check from The States all the time, and a family member of mine has already committed to donating $250 dollars on this the minute we get it posted and a live link up. So, we're already up and moving into the solution. The boss returned to The Ranch via a following company vehicle and when he arrived, to me he looked ashen. He came to my room and debriefed me and then, kind staring off into the distance, he almost fell over physically; he had to kind put his hand against the wall. Like, this incident knocked the sh*t out of him at some level. It shook him. I said: "Boss, who gives a sh*t. It's just a car. You're okay. We'll get another vehicle. I promise you that. We'll get those boys out there. I'm just glad you're alright."
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( Marcos: one of the new "client-servers" so affected and disappointed by the loss of the new work vehicle. )
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I used top be addicted to the problem. Now everything for me is about "solucionando". One of my best friends in the world, who also happened to be the owner/director/"Padrino" of his own "centro" in Houston -- Steve Boon, who owned Extended Aftercare, Inc. with his wife Julie before his passing (RIP Big Bro) -- taught me that brilliant, simple flip: don't marinate in the problem; move into the solution as fast as you healthily can. People see this incident that befell us as a tragedy and, on some level, it is -- or it definitely could have been. I see it as just another opportunity to serve by getting into the solution. What's the solution? Buyin' us another truck, STAT.
I know that we just ran a fundraiser for the Women's Facility, and that was just for Phase 1. We hit our target number fast, thanks to awesome, giving, loving, more fortunate souls -- mostly from up north -- and once that phase has been completed, we will be launching the Women's Center Phase 2 fundraiser. But we are absolutely not fundraiser sl*ts. Not by any stretch of the imagination. A part of me felt like that needed mentioning.
I'm a worker. I believe in work. So, while many "Centros", or Mexican treatment centers, just put client-servers out on the corners and intersections with jars-in-hand, our guys are earning their keep, earning their stay and their treatment, and usually earning at least some kind of wage. I think in the last year we have only run four, possibly five (I feel like we maybe ran one under another account when we first started doing these). And I'm still learning how to do this fundraising thing, it's a new deal to me. So, a part of me feels like we're going down some kind of beggar's path when we do a fundraiser. But, then again, they're just so damn poor, and up there we're not. Anyway, that total includes this emergency one we're running right here and now: the "Destroyed Non-Profit Work Vehicle Fundraiser." So, we really haven't had our hands out too much -- which is how we want it.
Wouldn't be doing it guys if it wasn't an emergency, we're just not like that. We are primarily self-sufficient due to all the "service for blessings" jobs the owner of our drug & alcohol treatment center, Juan Jose, looks for vigorously and finds.
Blessings to y'all. Thanks in advance just for reading this, and considering some type of contribution. Contributions are not exclusively comprised of cash money. Simply sharing our FundRazr link on your FB timeline is like gold. Let's do this, y'all. Let's get five hard-working, excited, and talented Mexican workers out to their field so that we can help these guys in their recovery, we can feel better about ourselves, the center can remain more self-sustained, and we can feel like we did our part in taking care of our brother, our neighbor...Mexico.
