Community

White (sand) Christmas…

It all began with a typo.

We had been kicking around the idea of organizing some kind of fundraising event before Christmas rather half-heartedly until Mary sent that email saying that “maybe it would be interesting to listen to Jungle Bells in Zihuatanejo”. Jungle Bells???

That was it. Santa Tarzan was born, and it was suddenly clear to us that we should organize the first annual, natural, 100% organic, environmentally sustainable, cruelty-free Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo Holiday Bazaar, benefiting our three non-profits: S.O.S. Bahía, a grassroots organization dedicated to raising environmental awareness in Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa; EcoIxtapa, which focuses on solid waste management and recycling issues, and ProjectsZihua, a volunteer networking group promoting community involvement projects in Zihuatanejo.

Held December 3 & 4, 2004 our first Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo holiday bazaar was at Hotel Villa del Sol on La Ropa Beach on Friday and Saturday at Dorado Pacifico Hotel in Ixtapa. The beach area in front of the Cantina restaurant at Villa del Sol and the garden at Dorado Pacifico in Ixtapa were transformed into beautifully decorated, “tropical” Christmas markets. There were glittering lights under each small beach palapa, beautiful textiles, silver jewelry, Christmas ornaments and gifts glowing in soft candlelight, cookie and coffee smells in the air. As a general rule, fundraising in Zihuatanejo, no matter how good and important the cause, is hard. Outside visitors come to enjoy the beaches and the sun and not to think about the local issues or concerns, and many of the locals just barely manage to make ends meet. The overwhelmingly positive response to our Holiday Bazaar and the unanimously voiced request to make it an annual event therefore came as a nice surprise to us and served as motivation to start thinking about other events that could bring visitors and residents together in a common effort to preserve the natural beauty of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and give the communities most in need a helping hand.

Our first Holiday Bazaar would have remained only a wild idea if it had not been for the great work and dedication of all our participants. We would like to express our special thanks to the Locksmith “Galeana” who polished 150 coconuts and sacrificed an equal amount of his lucky “ojos de venado” to make our 100% original Jungle Bells; to Fermín Coria at CoCo&Cía who gave us special deals on our posters and flyers; to Roberto Perez and his maintenance staff at Villa del Sol who turned darkness into light in record time; to the Dorado Pacífico’s general manager, Jesus Garcia, and his capable maintenance staff who neatly set up the garden with tablecloth-covered banquet tables and were standing by with toolboxes and ladders; to Jorge Perez Cadena who donated hundreds of his incredibly beautiful miniature finger paintings; Joel Lidouren of Mic Mac and La Fuente in Ixtapa; Virginia and Rafa Monge of Arte Mexicano El Nopal and La Casa de Tierra; Nancy Lewis of Tribes Jewelry; Clara Gurrola of El Rincon Artesanal De Las Flores; Elizabeth Arroyo of Galeria Le Tulip; Guillermo Galeana of the Joyeria Cielito Lindo; Lee Kraft of Intermar Ixtapa Viajes; Anna Paola Kraft; Patricia Mendoza of Galeria Tendencias; Rocío Madrazo of Galart; Juanita Sanchez of Café Zihuatanejo who kept us all going with her delicious organic coffee; Grace Relfe who, in addition to selling the most beautiful handwoven silks from Asia, shared memories and pictures of her unforgettable trip to Cambodia and Laos; Noe of Pancho’s Silver; Rodrigo who sold his beautiful handmade candles; Elisabeth Ashe; José Bustamante of Valentina; Fruti Quiko; Adriana, Natalia and Enrique from Casa Marina; Sandalias de Cuerda; Dolores Vazquez Maussa; Isabel Fortune; Andrea Miller.

Our silent auction had some great things to offer thanks to Judy Brown, Club Intrawest Resort manager Susan Gomez, the Zi Restaurant at Club Intrawest, the Japanese restaurant Ebiman, Casa Morales, Coconuts, Bandidos, La Casa Café, Marina Café, the restaurant Kaukan, the Boutique Cactus, Barry and Maureen Wilson, Our Savior Lutheran, La Casa Vista Hermosa, the Catalina Beach Resort, Tata’s, Jim and Marjorie Dellecker, Heaven Sent, Viva Zapatos, and Richard and Gloria Bellack. A very special thanks to Cheryl Jameson who dragged boxes and boxes of stuff around for and with us; to Jennifer Manning who sacrificed some vacation time to help us make dozens of felt poinsettias; to Carol Lowe who volunteered as our very busy cashier; Linda Fox; Franca; Zip Creations who helped us spread the word; to Anita Hahner who produced kilos of the most delicious jellies and chutneys and was kind enough to use us as guinea pigs for her mouthwatering goods; to Alejandro Bello who invented and produced all the ingredients of our original “Battle for the Bay” board games, spent days and nights working on things for the bazaar and provided all of the necessary ideas, imagination, inspiration, motivation and comic relief to keep us going. Thank you, Carmen, for promoting the idea and organizing the events so successfully, and, of course, thank you, Mary, for misspelling Jingle Bells.

For more information about who we are and what we do, please consult
www.sosbahia.org for S.O.S. Bahía, www.projectszihua.com for ProjectsZihua and write an email to Carmen at ecoixtapa@hotmail.com.

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