Dear Friends and Family of IPODERAC,

I hope this letter finds you well in good health and spirits. On behalf of IPODERAC, and in particular all of the boys and girls who live there, l’m writing to express our sincere gratitude for all of the donations received this year and for your overall commitment to transforming the lives of children.

Dear contributor to the Campaign 105 initiative at IPODERAC,

My name is Frankie Martinez. I've been a supporter of the kids at IPODERAC since 2009, and in that capacity, currently I serve on the board of the IPODERAC's Children Fund.

Happy holidays and happy New Year from IPODERAC and ICF!

Click to see holiday greetings from the boys and girls at IPODERAC.

Covid-19 has made for a very tough year at the IPODERAC Boys' Home and at the IPODERAC Girls' Home. All the children and all of the staff have been quarantined since March. With very little exception, no has come to either campus, and no one has left. Together, they’ve supported one another, and they’ve made it through the year, but it’s been a long, difficult, and isolating time.

Friends and family – We are reaching out again this year requesting your support for the higher education of 12 young men at IPODERAC, the home for homeless and abandoned boys in central Mexico. Many of you have supported these scholarships in the past and we are making this important ask of you again. (You can donate here.)

Please support the 2019 IPODERAC’S Children Fund (ICF) Scholarship campaign.
 
ICF is raising $22,000 to fund 12 full scholarships for young people living at IPODERAC in Atlixco, Mexico. These young people completed their high school and are pursuing advanced education to acquire the academic knowledge and job skills to help them be self-sufficient, live independently, and lead productive lives.

(To read IPODERAC's full newsletter in Spanish, click here).

On April 30th, IPODERAC welcomed the first 12 girls to IPODERAC Niñas! 

Visitor's Day is a coming of age story about a 16 year old runaway named Juan Carlos who is working to overcome the trauma of neglect by his father.

This summer, a group of 19 Montview members and friends visited IPODERAC to spend time with the boys, celebrate their school graduations, and get to know the organization. Below are letters from three of the travelers.

Read ICF's recent newsletter with updates on the girls' and boys' programs as well as changes in the cheese factory here.

Francisco Martinez-Oronoz (Frankie) who volunteered at IPODERAC 7 years ago, alongside ICF board member August Ritter, returned recently to IPODERAC to implement an 8-week mindfulness-based curriculum for several of the older boys. Frankie developed this curriculum as part of his practice and research as a doctoral candidate at Florida State University. His message to donors and friends of IPODERAC after his recent work with the boys is clear:

For the past four years, Kid’s Christmas Fund has worked with IPODERAC’s Children Fund to make sure that every kid at IPODERAC wakes up to a Christmas present on the morning of December 25th. Recently, IPODERAC has partnered with a hair salon in the local town to ensure that each boy receives a fun present this holiday season. So this year, Kid’s Christmas Fund and ICF are asking our friends and family to help us with one of the most important aspects in setting the young men of IPODERAC up for success – scholarships for a post-high school education that helps them obtain work and self-sufficiency.

We are excited to announce Visitor's Day at the Denver Film Festival!

On September 25^th, IPODERAC celebrated its 50^th anniversary by thanking all of the people who have helped IPODERAC with donations and services throughout the years. The celebration was held in a garden at IPODERAC that was beautifully decorated by Eli Couttolenc and was accompanied by a casual brunch of cheese, grapes, bread, and wine. 

The 50th Anniversary of IPODERAC was celebrated with “Somos la Familia que Elegimos”, an event that was attended by more than 300 friends, family, supporters, staff, volunteers, and boys who were reunited after many years.

“Somos la Familia que Elegimos” (We are the Family we Choose) will be a celebration where we gather all the boys who have graduated, and volunteers and workers who have been an important part of IPODERAC. Join us!

Following a showing of Visitor's Day, and a question and answer session by Nicole Opper and Ignacio Pérez Mondragón, attendees gathered at The Hamilton to celebrate and discuss the film.

We are excited to announce the Premiere of Visitor's Day!

Members of the Lodo Rotary Club and their family visited IPODERAC to celebrate Día de los Muertos with the boys and tour the land for the new girls' program. 

IPODERAC came in 9th place in Mexico in the #UpgradeYourWorldMX contest and won $50,000!! Thanks so much for your votes and your support!

Microsoft is donating $50,000 to each of the 10 organizations in Mexico that receive the most votes. Vote every day until September 23rd!

I had the privilege of joining 27 other MOBsters , and 7 chaperones- including our fearless leader “la pastroa” Sheri Fry- on an amazing trip to Mexico. We worked at the organization Ipoderac, nestled in the heart of the city of Atlixco. Our time was spent working with livestock, cleaning, clearing land, and most importantly- playing, learning, and interacting with resident Ipoderac boys. 

My mission trip to IPODERAC last month was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was one of the first times I have been away from home on my own and the very first deep into a foreign country. Thankfully I know some Spanish, so it wasn’t as much of a shock to my system as it might have been.

A few weeks ago, while I was on business in Mexico City and was walking into an elevator at a government office in Mexico City, a young man rushed up to me just as the doors were beginning to close.  “Jim, Jim,” he said, “do you remember me?” 

Over 150 people, along with reporters from Puebla’s TV stations, gathered on Saturday, November 29, 2014 for the historic groundbreaking of IPODERAC’s new program for girls.

Groundbreaking for the new girls' program will be Saturday, November 29, 2014 in Atlixco, Mexico.

Between high school graduation and college, Nicole Opper, one of America’s rising filmmakers and film educators, volunteered at IPODERAC.

For several years, friends of ICF have joined the IPODERAC boys for their annual Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, celebration.

Thank you for your submissions of poems that represent the essence of IPODERAC. The winning entry is....

February 2012
Bill Ritter, Jr.

This past Christmas, my wife Jeannie, my four children, August, Abe, Sam and Tally, and August's fiancé, Perri, decided to forgo a typical American Christmas and do something a little different to celebrate the Yuletide holiday.

During this holiday season, ICF would like to share with you a special story of thanks:

For those of you who have been following the progress of the volunteer house, the construction is complete!

Courtney and Mimi Pullen were looking for a philanthropic project that they could do with their family, which includes five teenage kids.

Every boy who arrives at IPODERAC is at a disadvantage compared with his peers when it comes to academic, intellectual, and cognitive skills as well as motor abilities.

When IPODERAC was created 44 years ago, the founders were committed to making the organization self-sustainable.  One of the biggest on-site workshops that allows IPODERAC to cover most of its own costs is the cheese factory.

When I told people I was going to Mexico, there were two responses: “Which beach?” since my standard vacation preference usually involved sand, or concerns over the recent violence in the border and tourist towns. The city of Atlixco was fortunately far from all of this and gave me a completely different perspective of Mexico and its culture. 

During the summer of 2009, I searched for a volunteer opportunity in South America or Mexico.  Before long, one found me. A family friend told me of a home for abandoned and homeless boys in Mexico called IPODERAC.  This seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, so in September, I packed my bags and headed south.