20 Apr 2017

Día de los Niños (Children’s Day) is about more than just play

Día de los Niños may be Arlae Alston’s favorite celebration of the year. Which is saying something, considering she’s not a child.

In Mexico, when she was a little girl, Alston’s school celebrated Día de los Niños (Children’s Day) with games, music, decorations, and even a little candy for students. Teachers put time and effort into planning an event to make their students feel special.

It was better than Christmas, remembers Alston, who is Puente’s Family Engagement Project Manager. It’s the only day of the year where children don’t have to live up to adult expectations. They can just be.

“Día is not just a day for celebrating children, but to honor the fact that they exist as whole human beings,” Alston says. “It’s saying to them: children, you matter. And when you see adults sending that message, there are no words for that. It’s special.”

Now Alston gets to plan Puente’s annual Children’s Day, a free celebration Puente that is proud to present this Friday, April 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pescadero Elementary School. The head-spinning list of children’s activities conforms to the event’s special theme, a “books and science family night.” These include a science station created by volunteers at Stanford University; a playground from the Half Moon Bay Library; and art projects galore, including book-making, kite-making, face painting, crafting cool grocery bags out of recycled t-shirts; and a traditional Mexican Lotería.

Children from the Tonantzin Ballet Folklorico (sponsored by Puente in Pescadero and ALAS in Half Moon Bay) will present a special dance, representing the traditions of different states in Mexico. There will be live music and, of course, an enormous potluck. Grandparents, uncles, and aunts come – not just parents – and everyone brings a dish to share with their neighbors. The tables will creak under the weight of homemade entrees and desserts.

Local families run the activity stations, and outside groups are eager to pitch in.

It’s a true community event, united in celebrating the next generation.

“So many people come, and it’s because we all care about children,” says Rita Mancera, Executive Director of Puente. “This event is definitely one of the highlights of the year.”

Most kids are 13 and younger, but everyone is welcome – Anglo and Latino students, children in the local public school district as well as homeschooled kids and students who go to schools outside Pescadero.

“Regardless of the color of your skin, everyone has been a kid and everyone can celebrate together,” adds Mancera.

Some communities have summer fairs. Puente is adding twist to Día in the spirit of gearing up for summer. Families who attend will be able to enroll their children in swimming lessons at the nearest YMCA, along with the local Girl Scouts chapter, the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District Panther Camp, and other summer programs.

Since 1924, Día del Niño, or the Day of the Child, has grown as an annual celebration throughout Mexico. There is pride and empowerment in an event that celebrates the essence of a worldwide tradition – -and one that is celebrated by many South Coast residents from Mexico. In 1997, a group of librarians helped popularize Día de los Niños in the U.S. in conjunction with the theme of family literacy. The first the Día de los niños/Día de los libros (Day of the Book) events were held in Texas and New Mexico.

Puente brought Día to the South Coast in 2009 and it has been a success since it began. Last year drew 200 visitors — at least half were children. It’s a chance to come and play, receive books and school supplies, share a meal – and plant a seed about the delights of reading and science.

Basically, “everything is free, it’s fun, and it’s messy. There’s no pressure,” Alston says.

The timing of Children’s Day is important this year. With the current political climate, many children now bear the burden of worrying whether their parents are going to be deported. This is a way for Puente to demonstrate its continuing commitment to the entire community, regardless of legal status, amid all the stress and uncertainty.

One encouraging sign: for the first time this year, local mothers were the force behind Día. They formed an event planning committee and helped Alston put the whole day together. The same mothers will be staffing many of the activity stations this year, also for the first time.

“I think that when you come from a different place by celebrating people’s holidays, you make people visible,” says Alston. “You don’t have to hide; you know it’s okay to be you.”

Support Puente’s Coastside Gives campaign on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Your support will allow Puente to serve more youth with our Employment and Leadership program, as well as more families on the South Coast with vital services. This is a One Day fundraising campaign initiated by East Bay Gives taking the place of the very successful Silicon Valley Gives campaign that ended in 2016. Your donations to this campaign will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling your support to help Puente move its mission forward. You can schedule your donation in advance of May 4, 2017 at https://www.eastbaygives.org/puente — it’s easy and secure!

01 Nov 2016

Giving Thanks This Posada

At the end of every year around the holiday season, Puente organizes a gift giving drive for the members of the community who need it the most. Centered around Posada, a traditional Christmas celebration which involves a reenactment of the story of Joseph and Mary, the drive is a time for the South Coast community to celebrate the support we can both give and receive.

“For the past few years we have been running a special online drive for notebooks, pencils, socks, hats–what many would consider the essentials for school and for winter,” says Corina Rodriguez, community resource navigator and the coordinator of Puente’s holiday giving program.

“We understand that some of our donors really like the opportunity to give something that will be put to immediate use,” Rodriguez continues. “The online drive for winter essentials and gifts is a great way for the members of our community to receive the basics they need in the colder months and for donors to choose tangible items to be given.”

The drive, which started in the Fall, has climbed to 62% of its goal as of November 1, leaving exactly 16 days for donors and friends to help us get to 100%. You can select items and donate then online today.

Posada is the Spanish word for dwelling or lodging. Puente celebrates the spirit of Posada by focusing the gifts on items needed around the home–things like towels and body wash, storage containers and markers. Just as our Día de los Muertos celebration is an opportunity to promote help and support among our community, the Posada celebration is also a time for us to encourage each other and give thanks.

This year, the Posada celebration at Puente will be on Friday, December 16. The procession will start at 5:30 followed by activities for kids, family-style dinner and, as always, a special guest will arrive to give stockings to everyone.

For those donors who prefer to let parents choose what to get for their children this holiday season, there is also an opportunity to give a monetary donation that will go directly towards Puente’s purchase of gift cards. We are currently at about 40% of our goal for gift card donations. You can make a donation online for gift cards today—simply mark it with ‘Posada and Holiday Gift Cards’ in the special purpose drop-down.

“As the season shifts to the colder months, farmworkers are not working as much as they did earlier this year and therefore not generating as much income,” notes Rita Mancera, executive director of Puente. “This makes it even more difficult to budget for gifts for their children this holiday season.”

Parents register for gift cards with Puente and must meet income and residency requirements. The gift cards put the decisions in the hands of the parents. Check out this video of parents who have received Posada gift cards in past years:

Whether you want to choose the gifts yourself as a donor or empower parents in our community to make the decisions, we welcome and encourage you to donate to the Puente annual Posada holiday gift drive. In the spirit of being thankful, Puente thanks our donors, volunteers and friends for your ongoing commitment to and support of the South Coast community. We hope to see you at the Posada celebration on December 16!

26 Oct 2016

Día de los Muertos: For the Community, By the Community

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Do you remember a time in your life when you were missing your home? Perhaps you were away at college, relocated temporarily for a job assignment or maybe traveling for longer than a short vacation. Being homesick is a feeling many of us have had at some point in our lives.

Much of the Latino community on the South Coast of San Mateo County in California have established a home here and are also far away from their home land. The Día de los Muertos holiday celebration organized by Puente each year is a great way for our community to feel closer to their loved ones, their extended family and, in turn, to their birth home.

Ten years ago, a mental health professional at Puente brought together a group of three women who were feeling homesick to help support each other. This group of women brainstormed different approaches they could take to feeling less homesick and helping their extended community do the same. The idea of celebrating the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, was born.

Día de los Muertos is a holiday celebrated mostly in Mexico but also in other Latin American countries during which deceased loved ones are honored. The celebration can last one, two or three days depending the state of Mexico in which you live, and includes the creation of beautiful altars upon which offerings to the dead are made. The altars are decorated with candles, buckets of marigolds, bright red cock’s comb, fruit, plates of mole, loaves of bread, drinks, toys and other symbolic objects that represent the person or people being commemorated.

“We are so thrilled to be celebrating the tenth year of Día de los Muertos at Puente,” said Rita Mancera, executive director. “This program is a great example of what Puente does best—support our community members so that they, in turn, can support their neighbors, friends and family, in this case with a celebratory event.”

The first Día de los Muertos celebration at Puente was an effort to help the mothers of the community fight maternal depression. The women who organized the original event were able to focus on something beyond their immediate situation and offer comfort and support not only for each other but also other people. The celebration is a time for many to feel closer to their home country and loved ones and for others to learn something new about a culture and its tradition.

“This year our Día de los Muertos program ran through the month of October and included weekly workshops for attendees to learn about the history of the holiday and to prepare for the big celebration,” notes Iris Fernandez, Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). “Puente facilitated the space for workshops and materials for the projects, everything else was organized and led by members of our community.”

This year, three amazing women, Adela Chaves, Marcela Vargas and Leydi Cervantes, organized and ran the Día de los Muertos workshops. Each workshop boasted strong, consistent turnouts and resulted in a beautiful collection of sugar skulls, painted stones and clay figures for the altars and papel picado and paper flowers for the celebration.

Día de los Muertos is an event not to be missed! The community comes together and a feeling of family and warmth fills the air. Join us Thursday, November 3, at Pescadero Grown! farmers’ market. The market runs from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM, as always, and the Día de los Muertos celebration will begin with the start of the market. This is a special day because it is the final farmers’ market of the season and culminates with the Día de los Muertos celebration.

Special note: the final farmers’ market and the Día celebration have been postponed from the original date of October 27 due to weather reports indicating heavy rain and winds this week.