The executive committee of the Radisson Aruba Resort Casino & Spa with General Manager Rob Smith convened at the resort’s 8th floor Plaza Club for a check presentation.
The recipient of the funds, a local not-for-profit-foundation, Ban Uni Man Pa Cria nos Muchanan, was represented by its President John Fun.
Fun relates that the foundation started in 2002 with the goal of identifying school kids who for various social or economic reasons do not have any breakfast sent from home in the morning.
The idea was to provide them with a sandwich and a drink via a network of volunteers.
Research, Fun reiterates, shows that kids’ concentration and focus improves with breakfast and the group spearheaded by the Horacio Oduber hospital workers, set up a foundation designed to feed those kids under the name: Lets Join Hands to Raise our Children.
They started with just about 138 elementary school children, and today, almost a decade into the initiative 604 local school children at 40 island-wide schools enjoy a sandwich each morning, courtesy of this grass-root organization.
Radisson Aruba Resort Casino & Spa was the second local company to come on board, right from the very start, Fun explains. With voluntary salary deductions of as little as Awg 2.50, Radisson’s social-conscious employees collect a significant amount of money each month and transfer it automatically to the foundation’s account.
In addition, periodically, the company orchestrates corporate charity fund drives to help generate additional resources, which was the case this week, when Ban Uni Man Pa Cria nos Muchanan received an extra Awg 17,453.77 from the resort.
Also attending the check presentation Director of Human Resources Glenn Farro, Director of Operations Robert Curtis, Director of Finance Raymond Habibe and Director of Engineering Marciano Geerman.
Fun concludes that it takes about Awg 20,000 a month to keep the project alive, and during some months the foundation struggles staying afloat but somehow always pulls through with donations from the community and the service clubs, such as Kiwanis and the Aruba Way Foundation.
You too can become a sponsor via monthly bank transfers of Awg 25, by calling Rachel at Tel.: 587-4300