The Great Lakes Friends (GLF) of Safe Passage will hold its eighth annual fiesta on Saturday, Oct. 19, to help the children and families living and working in the area adjacent to the Guatemala City garbage dump. The fiesta celebrates the commitment of the Great Lakes community to Safe Passage’s educational and nurturing programs, which are helping Guatemalan children find a pathway out of generational cycles of extreme poverty.
Local nonprofits Buckets of Rain and Great Lakes Friends of Safe Passage are organizing a “music marathon” next week in Traverse City which, if successful, will feature Woody Guthrie’s patriotic ballad “This Land is Your Land” sung, over and over again, for 72 hours straight. The performance will begin at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 17 and conclude at noon on Friday, Sept. 20.
On Oct. 26, Great Lakes Friends will host its seventh annual FIESTA to celebrate our community’s commitment to 550 children of families living in unimaginable poverty at Guatemala City’s garbage dump. Since 2005, Great Lakes Friends has raised nearly $170,000 to support the work of Safe Passage, a nonprofit formed in 1999 to bring hope and opportunity to these children.
Some of the poorest children in Guatemala City will be the beneficiaries of a special event happening at The Children’s House in Traverse City on Friday, Oct. 14, when Great Lakes Friends of Safe Passage host their sixth annual Fiesta in support of Safe Passage. The local event celebrates our community’s commitment to bring hope and opportunity to more than 550 children of families living in unimaginable poverty at Guatemala City’s garbage dump.
This Sunday, Sept. 11, the water access nonprofit 11 Oaks will hold its sixth annual Music Fest and Fundraiser, at Boonedocks in Glen Arbor. Featured bands beginning at 2 p.m. include Song of the Lakes, New Third Coast, Andre Villoch and Doug Zernow/Zack Light. According to 11 Oaks’ Chris Skellenger, technologies in extreme urban gardening and gravity fed drip irrigation will be on display for all to see.
Local Leelanau group 11 Oaks has been teaching subsistence farmers in developing countries how to use recycled water and simple drip irrigation to grow vegetables during drought. Since 2005, working in Africa and Central America, the non-profit charity has installed nearly 20 miles of pipe at orphanages, schools, hospitals, and in villages.
Great Lakes Friends of Safe Passage will sponsor the second annual Esperanza 5K run on Aug. 13 at 10 a.m. (registration at 9) at the Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City. “Esperanza” is the Spanish word for “hope”. Safe Passage is an internationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to bringing hope and opportunity to children of the Guatemala City garbage dump community.