As she has done for the past 10 years, Pam Lathrop is hunting for sponsors for children living in Guadalajara’s Salvation Army shelter. And the approach of Christmas this year brings into focus the necessity of her work and its intangible benefits.
“I love the kids. I’ve grown up with some of them,” she says.
Although many of the shelter’s 66 children go home during the holidays to stay with their often distressed parents, “about six of them don’t have families to go home to. So I continue to visit them during the holidays. I play dominoes with them or take inexpensive prizes. I love kids and I don’t have any of my own.”
Every Wednesday morning, Lathrop spends a couple hours at the home, officially called Ejercito de Salvacion Hogar de Niños Evangelina, helping a group of second graders with their homework. “If for some reason I can’t go one week and the major forgets to tell them, the kids don’t forget! The next week they’ll say, ‘Where were you?’”
It’s gratifying to know she is providing a bit of continuity in their lives, Lathrop says. “My part is small. But I know the home makes a difference. Let me give a couple examples. One Christmas I was out there playing dominoes with the kids and a man in his forties came with toys. He lives in the States now — he’s a successful businessman. He told me, ‘I used to live here! Every year, when I come home to visit my mom, I always visit here.’ And the couple who are taking over as majors in January — the man used to live at the Hogar!”
Stories like that keep Lathrop going, she says, even though the Women’s Auxiliary that once helped support the Hogar has been defunct for some time and it has recently become more difficult to find sponsors due to the poor state of the economy.
“Of the 66 kids, 27 already have sponsors and a lot of them are my personal friends. But sometimes sponsors spring up when I least expect it. One man who had fought in World War II, called me from Lakeside out of the blue. He said he wanted to sponsor because he remembered what the Salvation Army did for him during the war — volunteers crawled out on the battlefield to bring him coffee. He said, ‘Other relief groups charged the soldiers for coffee, but the Salvation Army didn’t charge me a dime.’”
But Lathrop notes that the man cannot sponsor this year because of worsening economic circumstances.She tells a reassuring story about a friend who was closing a bank account in Chapala and moving back to California. “She gave me a very large quantity of cash in an envelope for the Hogar. So I called the major and we took the money out right then, and they gave her a tour.”
Speaking of the dedication of the Salvation Army shelter supervisors, Major Padilla and his wife Carmen Ribera, Lathrop says, “They live right there with the kids 24 hours a day. They’re not living in luxury. Can you imagine staying with that many kids running around and doing all the things kids do? I couldn’t do it!”
Lathrop says that she thinks the Hogar has recovered from the suicide of a young resident in 2009. “The major and his wife have done a lot to improve the home since then. And some American volunteers did a lot of necessary remodeling. It’s a lot more pleasant and functional now.”
Lathrop noted that, although sponsors receive a child’s name and photo when they donate 1,800 pesos (or 180 dollars), these funds actually go to help all the children. She added that sponsors and others are welcome to go to the home, which is on Guadalajara’s less affluent east side in the Tlaquepaque municipality, for a tour or to volunteer. Some Spanish is necessary for volunteers, she says, at least a translator to help set up the activity with the majors.
This Christmas season, the children are going to sing and raise money at Plaza Mexico, the Sam’s Club on Mariano Otero, and at Gran Plaza and Plaza Patria, from around 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. every night until Christmas Eve.
“Yes, they can be in all those places at one time because they go in groups of about 15 children each,” said Lathrop.
Ejercito de Salvacion Hogar de Niños Evangelina. Avenida Revolucion 2011, Tlaquepaque. (33) 3635-4192. Contact Lathrop at (33) 3647-4607 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..