A host of youth clubs has joined forces to help children close to home and internationally.

By Mary O’KEEFE

The CV High School Key Club, the Academy of Science and Medicine and the Rosemont Middle School Camp Firework are hosting a Grande Burrito Breakfast fundraiser. Also partnering with the students is The Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children. The “grande” event takes place on July 14 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Rosemont Middle School. Tickets are $5.

“The burrito breakfast is a twist on the [traditional] pancake breakfast,” said Laura Rivera, Rosemont Middle School teacher and club mentor.

The event is a fundraiser for the Kiwanis International Pediatric Trauma (PTP), Project eliMiNaTe and Project Alajuelita.

The Kiwanis Cal-Nev-Ha Foundation supports PTP with a mission to reduce the number of children in our district who are killed or injured by trauma. The project works closely with hospitals, nurses, doctors and first responders.

Project eliMiNate (Maternal and Neonatal tetanus) works to eliminate this deadly disease that kills about 60,000 infants and women each year. In an effort to combat the disease, the project’s mission is to immunize over 100 million mothers and fetuses. It will take an estimated $110 million to supply the vaccines, syringes, safe storage and support staff to complete this goal.

Project Alajuelita is a teen pregnancy prevention program in San José, Costa Rica. Although a portion of the proceeds from the breakfast will go to another country, Project Alajuelita has a strong tie to Crescenta Valley through Mina Pashayi, a 2006 CVHS graduate.

“I spoke to Laura about doing a fundraiser when I was in Costa Rica,” Pashayi said. “I was supposed to be there for [a few weeks] but ended up being there for five months.”

Pashayi is Project Alajuelita’s ambassador. She has been in Costa Rica working with the project, which was founded in 2002. Originally Pashayi had planned to join the Peace Corps, requesting to help in a Latin country like Costa Rico.

“I was sent to Africa,” she said.

She then looked into other organizations and found this project under the Foundation for the International Medical Relief of Children. While in Costa Rica, she worked with teens to help educate them on teen pregnancy prevention.

“The average age is 12 year olds that are having sex,” she said. “Although there are not [clear] statistics.”

She added the country takes a census but even that is not exact. What is clear is the young children are having sex but have no idea of the consequences.

Pashayi does speak Spanish, however learning the language in a classroom is completely different than speaking it in the local villages. She said she also had to learn how to navigate the waters between science and religion.

But soon she was able to work with the children in an education program that first began by reaching out at city hall but now has moved into the classroom.

The July 14 fundraiser will help the project move toward helping the children with education and supplies at local clinics.

Tickets are available at the offices of CV Weekly at 3800 La Crescenta Ave., #101 in La Crescenta and at the door.

  Mary Okeefe