End of Day 28: $4381.00

WOW!  Thanks to all of the amazing people that came out today to Zumba for charity, and to the amazing instructors for their energy, all the businesses and individuals that donated to the raffle, and volunteers that helped with the setup and take down of the event, we raised $1015.00!  AWESOME!!  An additional $30 donation bumped us up $1045.00 today!  Thank you to everyone who helped make this Zumbathon a success!!

Here are just a few fun pictures, and a video, from the event!

Now that you sweated for 2 hours of some amazing Zumba, come on out to eat on Monday, March 19th, to help continue fundraising efforts with the Dine to Donate Fundraiser:  Monday, March 19th. 11 a.m. to midnight.  Applebee's, 660 S. Whitney Way, Madison, WI.  15% of all food sales will go to the fundraiser (you can even order carryout to go)!  Applebee's put together the flyers, which can be printed from here and need to be brought with you when you go to eat out. 

Thanks again for continued support.  As usual, feel free to email me or post below for questions, comments, or to help host a fundraising event (stay tuned for another event coming to Davis, California)!!

End of Day 27: $3336.00

Tomorrow, Saturday, March 17th is the Zumbathon and it is going to be an amazing dance party!!  We have 7 Zumba instructors volunteering to bring you 2 hours of fun time (and we have a stage so you will be able to see them- cool!!).  We also have some amazing raffle prizes; cool Camarones Community Coalition t-shirts for sale; and yummy bagels, water, and other snacks donated!!  This is surely going to be a fun, fun time!!  You won't want to miss it!  Come early to register, or save time by printing the form and bringing it with you!  And don't forget to check out the Facebook Event page!

Thanks again for continued support.  As usual, feel free to email me or post below for questions, comments, or to help host a fundraising event!!

And, stay tuned for fun pictures from the Zumba event!!

End of Day 26: $3336.00

Same as yesterday, no official dollar change today, so now is really the time to find out how you can help! I hope to know how much was raised from the Pizza Pie Café fundraiser out in UT tomorrow.

AND, I hope you are getting excited for the Zumbathon this Saturday, March 17th, as it is going to be an amazing dance party!!  We have 7 Zumba instructors volunteering to bring you 2 hours of fun time (and we have a stage so you will be able to see them- cool!!).  We also have some amazing raffle prizes (two more businesses donated today!); cool Camarones Community Coalition t-shirts for sale that were donated (my parents rock!!), so 100% of the money for the sale of the shirts goes directly to the fundraiser!!; and yummy bagels, water, and other snacks donated!!  This is surely going to be a fun, fun time!!  You won't want to miss it!  Come early to register, or save time by printing the form and bringing it with you!  And don't forget to check out the Facebook Event page!

ALSO, stay tuned for a couple more fundraising events I am working on organizing with friends out on the west and east coasts of the US.

Thanks again for continued support.  As usual, feel free to email me or post below for questions, comments, or to help host a fundraising event!!

End of Day 25: $3336.00

So, no official dollar change today.  I say "no official change" for two reasons:  1.  I am still waiting to find out how much was raised from the Pizza Pie Café fundraiser out in UT; and 2.  I received a donation for raffle tickets today from someone who can't come to the Zumbathon this Saturday, but wants to try winning a prize and helping with fundraising, which is awesome!  But, I decided to keep a running total for the  Zumbathon event so I can give a total amount raised from that event on Saturday, rather than piecemeal.

So... now is the time to find out how you can help!  And check out the two fundraising events coming up if you want to Zumba or eat out to help with fundraising- check it out!

I always enjoyed learning new words in Spanish (or re-learning ones I had forgotten...) when I was down in Camarones.  I also love food, and learning to cook new things.  Combine them, and you have the day I learned to make tortillas de maiz, and learned the word for a woman who isn't very good at cooking or domestic things..... which is and was funny because I love cooking and baking, as those of you that know me know, and my friends in Ecuador knew too as I baked a number of cakes when I was down there, so it became a pretty funny fiasco.

This was actually the second time I had made tortilla de maiz.  The first time being after a baile I helped Doña Berna make some for breakfast, and that time they all turned out beautifully.  The second time, well, not quite as good.

Tortilla de maiz are really pretty easy to make, and I've made them since with slight modifications (as I didn't have extremely fresh cheese, straight from the cow, etc), but have found they work fine with corn flour, egg, milk, and sometimes butter (one recipe here that has more things in it than I usually use).  The difficulty came in waiting for the tortillas to cook...

 Mixing the dough for the tortillas

From husked corn

 To de-husked corn

 To de-kernaled corn

 To corn flour after grating the kernals

 Nicely cooked tortilla de maiz

 Burnt, poorly cooked tortilla de maiz.... 

Trying to repair the damage by scraping off the burnt parts

So, what are the keys to success?  Being sure to use corn flour, not corn meal or course corn flour (as I learned when I tried making these for friends with the latter...a little crunchy).  Kneading the dough well.  Then forming a nice ball in your hand, making a pocket, stuffing it with cheese (or all sorts of creative things I've tried), and then not rushing the cooking (either over an open fire, in the oven, or stove top... these are very versatile!).  Best of all, these are fun to make with family or friends (I've made them with my aunt and mom and middle school kids  at the Meadowood Neighborhood Center after-school program).   Have fun!  Here's another recipe idea:

Tortilla de Maiz 

Tortilla ingredients:

2-3 cups corn flour

1 egg

1/2 cup skim milk to start

water

1.  Mix the flour, egg, milk, and water in a bowl.  Add water or milk until texture of the flour is moist and packable.

2.  Can also add salt if desired.

3.  Knead the mixture well and allow to sit for 5 or 10 minutes before filling

Filling ideas:

One package Queso Fresco, crumbled

Chopped garlic

Chopped shallots

Tomatoes

Steak and cheese

Meat and cheese

Peanut butter and chocolate

End of Day 24: $3336.00

No dollar amount change today (though I'm still waiting to find out how much was raised from the Pizza Pie Café fundraiser out in UT)- now is the time to find out how you can help!  Remember there are also a couple more fundraising events if you want to Zumba or eat out to help with fundraising- check it out!

Some exciting news for today:  we have t-shirts to help with fundraising!  We will be using some for part of the raffle prizes, and then will be selling others at the Zumbathon this Saturday, March 17th!  The shirt is a shade of green, so it will be perfect for St. Patrick's Day on Saturday (and year-round, of course too!).

Front of shirt

 Back of shirt

Have a question or comment?  Please feel free to post below, or send me an email!

End of Day 21: $3236.00

Thanks for another wonderful and generous donation today!  I really appreciate the continued support and enthusiasm!!  Wanting to find out how you can help?  Remember there are also a couple more fundraising events if you want to Zumba or eat out to help with fundraising- check it out!  Today, I also picked up a couple more wonderful raffle prizes for the Zumbathon. 

Have a question or comment?  Please feel free to post below, or send me an email!

End of Day 18: $2585.00

No donations came in today online or in the mail (see how to help), but I did get a few more fun raffle prizes for the Zumbathon Event happening in Madison, WI on Saturday, March 17th.  I will post raffle prize donors on the list of donors/sponsors in the next couple of days.  Thanks to all the great companies and restaurants that have already donated!!


Tomorrow (Thursday, March 8th) is the last day of the Pizza Pie Café fundraiser out in Logan Utah.  If you haven't already heard, Pizza Pie Café (25 E 1400 N Logan, UT) will donate 25% of all food sales to this fundraiser!  All you have to do is bring this flyer with you when you eat there (flyers are also available in the ENVS departmental office at Utah State).  They even have gluten free!  So, go enjoy some pizza on the last day of this fundraising event!  Check out the Facebook Event Page!


Thanks for the continued support and enthusiasm for upcoming fundraising events and for this fundraising drive in general.  Feel free to post comments on here, or continue emailing me- I love hearing from you.

End of Day 12: $2015.00 + ?

Why the question mark?  Well, as I type this there is a bowling fundraiser going on out in Hillsboro, Oregon and I am not sure how many people actually made it there.  My friend who was helping to coordinate the event has been fairly sick this week, but she's a trooper and is still going to support the fundraising drive.  Thanks to her for helping to organize, and thanks to those of you that took the time to go bowl for charity!!

I have posted the Zumbathon registration form online.  Go here for a poster about the event and a link to the registration form, or go here to get the form directly.  Also, be sure to check out the Facebook Event Page.  I have been working on getting fun raffle prizes for the Zumbathon, in addition to the Zumba gear some of the instructors are donating, and think it is shaping up to be an exciting party!

So, who are some of the people that have been helping out with this fundraising drive?  It is really hard to categorize as it is such a wonderfully diverse group of individuals from all over and from all walks of life. Of course, my close friends and family make up a large portion of the support thus far, but many individuals that have helped are strangers, who believe in, and support, the ideas of community-driven sustainable development .  Thank you for your support, and your enthusiasm, and your positive thoughts!

I am still curious.  What topics do you want to hear more about?  For any of you that have not yet donated, is there something you want to learn more about (before you choose to donate or attend a fundraising event?).   For those of you that have donated, what would you like to know?  Feel free to comment on here, or send me an email.

Here is a list of a few topics I'm thinking of writing about over the next 18 days:  sister neighborhood center connection, recipe sharing, river clean-up, oven construction, women's activities, teaching escapades, coffee processing, message from the President (I'm hoping the President will be able to write something that I can post and then translate soon), making chocolate, more on sustainable development, plants/animals in the area, more about Meadowood Neighorhood Center in Madison, more about living in Camarones.  Others??

End of Day 9: $1985.00

Thank you, thank you for your continued generous donations.  We are so close to being over $2000.00 in donations.  Please help however you can!  Think $5 is too little?  Think again!  Every little bit helps get closer to the goal!  Check out how you can donate too!  Or, check out these upcoming fundraising events if you would like to help out by going to one (or more) of them.  As always, please feel free to email me if you would like to help organize a fundraising event, have an idea, or just a question for me.

Exciting news today!  This fundraiser was featured in the Wisconsin State Journal.  Check out the article, if you haven't already!  And, check out the "Press" tab for more stories or blurbs on this fundraiser.

The response to the article has been wonderful.  Not only did several people step up and donate today ($120.00 donated- yay!), but several individuals reached out and offered help with fundraising, or collecting school supplies, or toys for sending down to Ecuador.  Thank you all for your interest and enthusiasm!  Please continue to pass along information about this fundraiser (and thank you to all of you that did that today, and have been doing that), and please help me reach this fundraising goal.  I know that it is really hard right now, but even $5 can (and will) help out!

Look for Facebook event pages for some of the upcoming fundraisers, as well as posters, registration forms (for the Zumbathon), and more in the next couple of days.

Please also feel free to ask questions or post comments here on the blog.