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Youth Charity Program in Cabo San Lucas Helps Kids
Mundo Star and Y.E.S. or Youth Education Sports are two of now several large and smaller charity organizations working together in Baja, Mexico to help feed, educate poor children through sports as well as help eliminate graffiti. Stephen Mills is how it started for me by meeting the founder of Mundo Star a soccer education program here in Cabo San Lucas even from England,I met him here in Cabo and he explained his Youth Soccer programs for the poorer children of the Los Cabos region.
Stephen had fallen in love with Cabo years before as many have and decided to bring his soccer expertise, as a licensed soccer coach and sports journalist from the U.K.to create Mundo star in Mexico. He still supports the coaching of soccer to underprivileged youth in the U.K but visits Cabo for 5 months a year continuing to grow the Mundo Star soccer program. Mills had met up with Alfonso Avila, director of the Pedregal Soccer Academy and the project now had a year round representative and growing support.
Mills already had England’s’ F.A. (Football Association) donating soccer equipment as well as a sponsor Quicksilver Messenger who was shipping the goods to Los Cabos for free. Stephen very enthusiastically explained how he now after several years of frustration had met up with Ray Thomas of the Y.E.S. program in La Paz and that coalition allowed for the almost free delivery of donated sports equipment from the U.S.
Ray Thomas, director of Y.ES.; really has showed up in a very big way not only obtaining the assistance of the current governor of Baja Sur, Narciso Agundez to create the way to get these shipments of donated sports equipment to Los Cabos more efficiently. Thomas also has many more sponsors and supporters from his already existing youth sports programs.
Mils insisted I meet with Thomas who has been a long time resident of La Paz, Baja California, Sur as they both seem to have a tiger by the tail. I met Ray Thomas that week and found out he was working on several programs including the he and other supporters had begun building a recreation center as well as a program to feed poorer children breakfast 6 days a week as well as an anti-graffiti program in La Paz. The Sports center is to be opened by April 16th with limited facilities as the rest of the construction will be finished in the following months.
An Anti Graffitti program is something that we are in desperate need of here in Los Cabos as well and they are planning more programs for feeding the students, athletic programs and the construction of more recreation centers in colonias of Cabo and San Jose del Cabo. YES / Mundo Star also offer programs for soccer and baseball in the Todos Santos area with plans to really expand over a great part of Baja.
These organizations are getting something done for very little money. For example a donation of $150.00 usd annually, feeds a child breakfast 6 days a week for a year! This is because they rely heavily on volunteers from schools, government and businesses. In the feeding programs mothers associated with the schools do the cooking and serving and the schools provide a location for these meals.
There is an incredibly fast growing list of sponsors and supporters starting with those of the Mundo Star Project which include local businesses such as Los Milagros, Stoplight Restaurant, La Trattoria, Lazy Gourmet, Cookies n Cakes, and the Coffee Planet to name a few. Mundo Star also has international sponsors such as the fore mentioned Quicksilver, F.A of England and also McDonalds of the U.K.
The Y.E.S. organizations are working with Nike, Cabo Mil, McDonalds of Baja Sur, Comex, The Palapa Society and many more foundations and philanthropist like the founder of burger king that lives in San Jose del Cabo. There are many more joining in support and I hope to have a current list of all soon albeit it keeps growing very fast.
It has been a pleasure to meet Stephen and Ray and now we are hooked. We plan to assist these organizations and we are appreciate your help in continuing to do as much as possible to get the word out and obtain more sponsors and volunteers.
For more information contact YES at info@youtheducationsports.org
or contact Mundo Star email: millss7@hotmail.com
Publisher's Note: The BajaInsider provides free publicity for charitable events which support causes to which the publishers are sympathetic. We do not investigate the validity of our contributing charities and encourage our readers to check out any institution before making significant contributions. We also wish great success to all charities with sincere motivation.
Background Infomation on YES
201 Hoffman Avenue # 1, Monterey, CA 93940
(831)375-7848 phone/ (866)312-4713 fax
www.youtheducationsports.org info@youtheducationsports.org
501c (3) Tax ID # 59-3770966
Youth Education Sports was founded by the President of Y.E.S., Ray Thomas in 2002 when the interests of Children of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico grew and began to expand into other parts of the world.
During an annual trip to La Paz, a simple remembrance video was made for those who joined us on the trip by one of our Grupo members. A copy of that video somehow made it into the hands of a Nike employee who shared it with fellow employees in Oregon. With a staff of over 3,000, Nike called and requested another copy of video to replace the one they had worn down. Shortly thereafter, Nike accepted our program for sponsorship.
In March of 2003, Nike delivered 19 pallets of sports equipment along with 28,000 pairs of soccer, baseball, & basketball shoes. This wonderful donation sent us off on a mission to distribute equipment, old & new, and shoes to many of cities & kids will grow as our fundraising efforts improve and we can reach out to more kids in need. We partnered with Boys & Girls Clubs, PAL, the CHP, and Parks & Recreation Departments all over the state, as they've assisted in setting up leagues & clinics.
2006 started up our Education part of YES, which includes some after school programs and our Music & Industrial Arts Scholarship programs for grammar school children, providing music lessons & instruments. We also provide extended educational programs for deserving high school seniors to continue their education in the trades. In 2007 we collected 3 truckloads of used & new equipment to distribute in Mexico.
YES and many other sponsors including Mundo Star,
Our efforts continue to grow with the support of our communities & sponsors and it brings joy to be able to open up the world of sports to generations of these great kids.