The non-profit Lakeside School for the Deaf and Children with Special Needs requires more volunteer hands to continue providing the quality of care and education the 110 kids who attend the facility school have a right to expect.
Those interested in learning more about this critical and ambitious charity may attend the school’s annual general meeting at Panino’s Deli and Restaurant in Ajijic on Saturday, February 16, beginning at 10 a.m.
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The organization, founded in 1979 in Jocotepec, has recently been operating with a skeleton volunteer crew, according to vice president Cece Girling.The school was originally created for deaf children but for the last several years has also cared for children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia and visual impairment.
The expansion of the school’s mission has largely been made possible because the property owned by the school is leased to the Jalisco Department of Education, which, in return, supplies some of the teachers and administrative staff.
The volunteer organization is responsible for the running costs of the school, providing a hot meal to each child every day and providing volunteers to teach crafts and maintain and improve the school facilities.
The budget for 2012 was more than one million pesos.
Besides the kids in school (pre-schoolers to high school), Lakeside School for the Deaf and Special Needs operates an outreach program that helps more than 35 hearing-impaired children at other Lakeside schools, as well as 45 adults in the Lakeside area.
Funds are raised through the Case Nuevo Thrift Shop in Riberas del Pilar, the “Behind the Walls” house and garden tours, fashion shows and auctions, and an annual ball. The school is also thankful for help provided by the Rotary Club of Jocotepec, the Jalisco Department of Education, the So the World Can Hear Foundation, Norine Rose and the Schwartz family.