Preparing and serving breakfast, a fruit snack and lunch everyday for 500 kids is no small feat; even the busiest restaurant in town does not serve that many people on a daily basis. While the school did have a couple of good stoves, the amount of food being cooked definitely warranted something more industrial, as the regular stoves could not properly handle the work load.

Enter  Tony and Ginger Rogers of Texas, a couple who volunteered at Holy Cross this past summer. Ginger was helping with literacy and remedial reading while Tony assisted with building. During their stay, they asked the school what was needed most and were told a heavy duty stove. They went back home to Texas and and set the wheels in motion to raise the money needed to buy a quality stove of the kind most restaurants possess.

After raising the funds, Ginger and Tony were able to get the stove to Amarillo, Texas to Pastor Tim Tam from the Word at Work Ministry. Transportation from Texas to San Pedro was generously provided by Belize Natural Energy Trust (BNET), headquartered in Belmopan. Last but not least, Sterling Vorus of Island Ferry stepped up and volunteered to get the stove from Belize City to San Pedro.

This was definitely an event to capture for the school blog. I decided to ask my friend Mitch to come along to check out Holy Cross School, and catch the ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the new stove which was followed by lunch prepared by Chef Victor Nal of Sunset Grill. Among the people who came out to celebrate were Sterling Voris of Island Ferry, officials Sylvia Baumgart Laasner and Deborah Sewell from BNET, representatives from local papers and of course, school staff. Mitch told me afterward she was glad she went and got to see firsthand what the school was like, not to mention hear the stove story. She was also able to taste something cooked on the new stove by Chef Victor – Belize’s 2009 Chef of the Year and a frequent volunteer with the feeding program – and Miss Rosalia, head kitchen staff.

So you can see that all of these people were the drops of water that helped fill the bucket to get a much needed industrial stove for the school. And it’s a gift that keeps on giving – the kids will continue to benefit from the feeding program and get served two meals a day and a mid-morning snack, keeping their bellies full.

If you need some cash for your nonprofit or project but aren’t sure where to begin, here are ten fundraising ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

1.  Hold an auction.
For the past two years and counting, we have been running a Cinco De Mayo auction fundraiser for Holy Cross School. We set up a committee and get local businesses to donate prizes, and have the newspapers help promote the event.

2.  Host an event at a local restaurant or bar.
Most businesses are willing to help support local organizations and fundraising efforts by holding events and even donating a portion of the proceeds to the cause.  The curry cook off at Lime  and and the July 4th pool party at Pedro’s are both good examples where the involvement of local businesses can make a difference.

3. Organize a community yard sale.
Friends of the Humane Society periodically organize community yard sales in the park. People pay for use of a table to sell their goods, and the money raised from tables plus the $1 entry fee goes to the local humane society, SAGA. This type of fundraiser is always a big hit here in San Pedro.

4.  Sell raffle tickets.
Selling raffle tickets – which is very common here in Belize – is a great way to raise money. At $5 – $10 a pop, it’s easy to sell tickets for great prizes such as a cell phones and iPods, which are often donated by people visiting on vacation.

5. Get out the barbecue.
Doing a community barbecue and getting local businesses to donate food is a delicious way to raise money. We did this when we needed to fundraise medical expenses for Gaspar, one of the Holy Cross kids who had been having back-to-back seizures.

6.  Organize a torch run or walk.
Organizing a torch run or walk is a great way to get people together. San Pedro has an Annual Torch Run/AIDS walk that has been successful in not only securing funds, but creating awareness.

7.  Set up a school fair.
In Belize, when a school has a “fair,” it is commonly known among locals that this is a fundraiser for the school done by the teachers, parents and kids to include the broader community in its money-making efforts. Holy Cross School uses calender events such as Halloween and Valentine’s Day as great excuses to host fairs.

8.  Become active on Facebook groups and message boards.
Since volunteering at Holy Cross School, I have found that members of the Ambergris Caye message board are more than willing to help from afar. They love the island and the people on it, and have stepped up to the plate on numerous occasions to help when money or various items were needed. Same goes for people who have joined our Facebook group, Holy Cross Journey of Hope.

9.  Approach bigger businesses for donations.
Our good friend Joanne started a company in Canada called Direct Abundance, which is working toward using the resources available in Canada to help those in Belize who need it most. They do this by securing donations from different businesses and organizations who are willing to donate.

10.  Contact schools back in your home town.
Heather, a teacher at Greenholme School in Canada who is also involved with Direct Abundance, has taught her kids who do not have a lot themselves the importance of helping those less fortunate. She has gotten them to donate school supplies for kids in Belize, and they are also planning a program where the students are required to complete 40 hours of community service work before graduating.  Through activities such as selling chocolate bars, the money raised will go to sponsoring a student’s high school education in Belize.

Whether you are volunteering abroad or want to help from afar, I hope you find the ten ideas listed above a useful starting point in your own fundraising efforts.

Mr. Daniel Jones and his class

Miss Colette is one of my expat friends here on Ambergris Caye. An avid volunteer for many organizations, she saw a need within the community and decided to start her own program, Be Kind Belize, which resolves to teach kindness and empathy to kids. Humane education programs such as these help children develop stronger interpersonal skills – speaking and listening, for example – and can help to improve attitudes towards caring for others. Respect for all life is one of its core values.

Currently, Miss Colette is looking for volunteers who are interested in setting up programs at individual schools here in Belize. If you’re not in Belize but want to help from afar, she is also looking for volunteers to secure donations for prizes for the kids. (Animal-themed items are preferred, but any cool kids’ stuff is welcome.)

Another great place to volunteer at is our local humane society, SAGA. Founded in 1999, Saga is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to help homeless and suffering dogs, cats and other animals. Most of the stray dogs and cats on the island and other areas of Belize are not neutered, and many are undernourished and ridden with disease.

Saga Society is working on raising money to build a better animal shelter on the island. They are also in the process of establishing a subsidized neutering program with the hopes of eliminating the current Health Department approach to animal control, which is the use of strychnine poison.

When volunteering, consider what interests and skills you have to offer and how you can adapt them to the local community you choose to volunteer in. There are so many great organizations in Belize that will welcome extra hands. Lan Sluder a well known writer and authority on Belize, has highlighted many of them on his Belize First website, in addition to giving great tips for getting the most from your volunteer experience.

Michele volunteering in Playa del Carmen

As a full time blogger living abroad, I have noticed a common bond among other bloggers and their willingness to help promote each other’s volunteer efforts. In some ways, it’s simple for bloggers to volunteer because they can help spread the word about a particular event or charitable organization no matter where they are in the world. My friend Michele who lives in Playa Del Carmen in Mexico, for example, helps support Holy Cross school by writing about it whenever she can (my island was the subject of her Blog Action Day post last year).

Recently, Michele was one of the organizers of Mexico’s first annual Taste of Playa. A portion of the proceeds from this community culinary festival went to Ak Lu’um International School for their food program, and provided the school with safe, clean drinking water for the upcoming year.

Peanut Pet Shelter fundraiser at Luna Blue

I thought Taste of Playa was reason enough to take a “volunteer vacation.” I could spend time with friends, and help out with the event in person. While in Mexico, I also had the opportunity to go to the “Leave Your Wallet At Home” fundraiser for the Peanut Pet Shelter, a no-kill animal shelter in Playa Del Carmen devoted to rescuing and finding good homes for injured and abandoned dogs and cats. It was a fun event and I’m glad I was able to attend.

While volunteering in Belize, I have found that expats are often creative at organizing interesting, new ways of raising money in their new communities. Sometimes this can be in the form of a smaller, intimate event like the “Leave Your Wallet At Home” fundraiser. Sometimes it takes the form of an International Food Festival like Taste of Playa, where the proceeds go to providing drinkable water for a not-for-profit school. There are so many people in need that the weight of it can seem overwhelming. But coming together with a group of people and enjoying an evening out while raising money for a worthwhile cause makes it more fulfilling, not to mention fun, for everyone.

While San Pedro, Belize and Playa del Carmen, Mexico have many differences, the sense of volunteering within the community feels very much the same. It may not be like that everywhere in Latin America but I am glad that I have been able to find a like-minded spirit in Michele, and it’s great that we can support each other’s causes.

Mabogota’s post this week – Teaching English with a Fake Degree I Bought off the Internet – is a good example. Reading his post got me thinking about how having to sometimes ‘wing it’ is a universal occurrence. I think all too often people (myself included) sometimes feel they need things a certain way in order to proceed in a particular direction.  But as volunteers we do not always have the luxury of taking the proper steps towards doing something, and often, we have to opt for the ‘wing it ’ approach. We do the best we can with what we have on hand.

The kids here in San Pedro are very adaptable and creative, and watching them has been a good learning experience for me. I have seen them construct their own fishing rods using empty pop bottles and fishing lines; use pieces of Styrofoam for floats; and find a way to somehow bring broken boats back to life, providing hours of entertainment in the process. When Holy Cross School first started there were no desks but it did not matter – the kids happily sat for their lessons and took nap time on the floor using their backpacks as pillows. They didn’t worry about what they were missing, but rather, accepted where they were and made the best of the situation.

I think we could all take a lesson from the kids around us and cultivate the creative, adaptable spark that lies within. From what I see around me, I think it is important to feed that fire more often.

But the school does more than educate underprivileged kids – it helps a community of people who are in serious need a lifeline.

After visiting the area of San Mateo (next to the school) and having the chance to interact with some of the local residents living there, I definitely have a strong sense of their appreciation of having the lifeline of Holy Cross School. It’s a school whose goal is to help build up the community, from providing kids with an opportunity to get an education and proper medical attention to leading marches against violence through town.

They also encourage parents to be involved with their kids’ schooling, and form a stronger bond with the community. They empower parents by providing them with opportunities to get ahead, such as holding ESL and computer classes, and stocking an adult section in the school library with inspiring and motivating books.

While formulating ideas for this post, I found myself thinking back to Emily’s entry last week about The Highs…and the Lows she has seen volunteering in Nicaragua. It was a good reminder to me that other people are going through similar, but different, experiences and even though some of the lows are pretty low, the highs are what help keep me moving forward towards helping this community any way I can.

But it was not long after volunteering at Holy Cross Anglican School that I started noticing little differences between the kids in Belize and in Canada. Belize is still a developing country and many kids who live here grow up with a different way of life. They are presented with less options, which was made very apparent to me at one school party we helped plan. I had a big bag of candies – donated from people coming to San Pedro on vacation – and the kids were taking their time picking through the sweets. I couldn’t understand what was taking so long. But then it hit me. They were simply overwhelmed by the amount of choices.

Things that I might take for granted are new and wondrous to them.When I took the picture of a boy holding two bags of marbles, I was struck by the look on his face, as if he were holding the latest Xbox. There are no Wal-Mart or Best Buy stores in Belize, and kids are not used to getting the hottest new toys for Christmas. You also won’t see kids riding the bus to school with iPods in their ears. In fact,  there is no school bus and the kids either walk, bike or hitch a ride on a golf cart. And although you can buy an iPod on the island, it comes with a hefty price tag which many  in the school can’t afford.

Another striking technology difference is the use of cameras. In Canada, it is not such a big deal for kids to have their picture taken. It’s the norm. But in Belize, many children are in awe of cameras and love having their picture taken – especially when they get to see the image afterward. Often, I start out taking a picture of one or two kids and end up with five or so in the shot.

I can honestly sat that the experience of volunteering at Holy Cross Anglican School has made me think about living life in a different, much simpler way. While some things definitely make my life more comfortable (e.g. my iPod shuffle), I do not really need as much stuff as I had back in Canada. I have come to appreciate the little things, and  finding an occasional marble on the road serves as a reminder of this.

It is a charming, quirky, fun place where most people use golf carts, bicycles, or go on foot as modes of transportation. I am constantly surprised at how well people use bikes to double people or carry things most would not even imagine trying to transport on a bicycle.

There are so many things I love about San Pedro. Everyone smiles and says hello to each other on the street. I can walk out the door and be at the beach in ten minutes. I often refer to going out and about in town as taking a walk on Sesame Street – I am always guaranteed to see people I know and often end up sidetracked on fun adventures like iced coffee with friends or the beach. As a result, going for a five minute walk to the store can potentially sidetrack me for hours depending on who I run into.

On my walk down memory lane I am thinking back to our first apartment and our first experience volunteering in another country. We were still starry eyed at having landed on a tropical island and did not really know anyone yet. Paul and I luckily found a one bedroom – mostly furnished – apartment in town. It was on the small side and we did not have laundry but we were so happy to have our first place even if it meant sometimes washing our clothes in buckets and hanging them to dry on the veranda. I used to joke about it and say we were experiencing a taste of what life was like in the pioneer days. In reality I knew we had a lot going for us compared to some.  I did not quite realize just how much but that will come in a future post.

I have to admit we did not move here with volunteering specifically in mind.  It was an ad in the paper for registration of a new school called Holy Cross that got me thinking we could volunteer to help us meet people as we settled into our new community. I emailed Miss Francis, the volunteer coordinator, and she said to drop by on registration day and they would be grateful for any help we were willing to offer. I had no idea what to expect as we walked through town and across the bridge to a small building they were using to register children for the upcoming school year; I just knew this was a step in the right direction. As it turns out we were lucky enough to experience getting involved with the school from the ground up: with just over a month to get three buildings finished for the start of the new school year, there was a lot to be done. You can see pictures of the school being built on Holy Cross School Blog.

But first, let me start by giving you some information about the island past and present as well as bit more about my life here. Ambergris Caye is the largest of some 200 cayes (pronounced as “key,” meaning an island) along the coast of Belize. It is about 25 miles long and a little over a mile wide in some places and four miles at the widest point. Ambergris Caye is located on the Caribbean Sea just off the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Being on the barrier reef makes the island a popular spot for snorkeling and divers. It is 190 miles long and is home to the second largest living coral reef in the world.

Back in Mayan times, Ambergris Caye was a trading post and the Maya dug the narrow channel that separates Mexico and Belize to provide a trade route from the bay of Chetumal to the Caribbean. Following the Maya were whalers, pirates and the ancestors of present day residents,  many of whom were fishermen and worked in the coconut plantations.

Two reasons why we chose Ambergris Caye were 1) everyone spoke English and 2) we were easily able to find a furnished apartment that was a mere 10 minute walk from the beautiful blue Caribbean sea.  I came as prepared for our new life as I could be, and packed everything but the kitchen sink. I could only fit so much in four suitcases and I stuck with the essentials – cutlery, pots, sheets, books and all the little things we needed to establish ourselves in our new place.

We arrived in January 2006 and I was in heaven. We had finally moved away from winter and ended up in a fun, quirky and tropical place. I felt at home immediately. There’s nothing like trading in snow and winter boots for sunshine and flip flops to make a girl happy.