Puente student Jesus doing some heavy lifting, August 2011.
One of our favorite organizations working on this part of the California coast is Puente de la Costa Sur, a nonprofit in Pescadero, CA, that for over ten years has provided services to families living in rural San Mateo County, often migrant farm workers whose isolation in such rural settings makes life all the more difficult. See their website for information on all the terrific things Puente does for its community, including the dizzying array of services it offers, as well as the recently opened farmers marketrun by Puente.
The results of the summer-long Team Backpack campaign, August 2011
We at Earth Links were excited to participate in their wonderful Team Backpack drive this year, which will outfit 225 Pescadero and La Honda students – mostly the children of farmworkers – with school supplies, which are not only expensive but also difficult to acquire in such a rural and isolated region as south San Mateo County. Puente provides warm clothes, diapers, and other much needed materials throughout the year, but the 225 backpacks are certainly extra impressive.
Earth Links Executive Director Steve Leinau dropped by Puente this week and found the place a-buzz with supply-gathering and backpack-packing, just in time for school starting for the fall term. Congrats to the whole Puente staff for another successful year of giving Pescadero and La Honda students the tools they need to kick-start the academic year!