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California Kindergarten Connects
With Costa Rican Indigenous
A kindergarten class in
Clarksburg, California, recently
sent a "hand banner" from their
classroom to a group of Bribri
kids in Puerto Viejo de
Talamanca, Costa Rica. The
Bribri kids responded by making
a "hand banner of their own,
sending it back to California to
connect with "hands around the
world."
The Hand Banner was rolled up
and included in a box filled
with coloring books, bottles of
blow-them-yourself-bubbles, and
crayons and shipped to The
Bridge in Costa Rica.
The children at The Bridge
appreciated the gifts.
Craig and Nancy Kirchoff, in
Clarksburg, California for
engineering the gift package.
The kids are having a ball with
it. Alejandro especially likes
holding the soap-bubble thingie
in front of an electric fan. In
seconds, he can fill the whole
porch with bubbles. Each time,
he laughs like it’s the first
time he’s seen it.
When we showed the rolled up
handprint banner to the kids, we
knew immediately that they’d
have a good time putting THEIR
handprints on a roll-up banner.
Here’s what happened next.
Barry and Nanci Stevens,
co-founders of The Bridge in
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa
Rica, were happy with it too.
“This is a very creative
approach to generating community
support”, they said. “And Thank
you! to Craig, Nancy, and Emma!”
The Bridge provides food,
educational assistance, and
microloans to indigenous people
– the Bribri Indians – in the
southeastern part of Costa Rica.
The goal of the organization is
to help people help themselves
to self-sufficiency. The
organization currently serves 29
families with supplemental food,
serves over 75 individuals meals
in a three-day-a-week soup
kitchen, has placed 26 children
in public school this term, and
has made 15 microloans. It has
aggressive plans for growth,
which include construction of
service and teaching facilities,
course development in health,
nutrition, job training, and in
the Bribri language and culture.
The Bridge is a project of the
US-based Serendipity
International Foundation, a
non-profit based in Carlsbad,
California.
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