Backstory: 30 years of loving children
On March 31, 1974, our ministry was born when we discovered 43 little girls living in unbelievable poverty in a little girls' orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. They were the inspiration for our first 30 years of trying to make the world a happier place for children. (Photo taken after a year or so of helping the girls of Santa Teresita smile again.)
This photo of Carlos, a beautiful baby from Tijuana, graced many of our newsletters. His beauty invites all of us to reach out and help every child on the planet. (1976 photo by Pok Chi Lau)
Paul Weiss with some little friends on the steps of the chapel at Casa de Cuna Orphanage in Tijuana in 1978. Over 100 children lived in the understaffed home, and we made it a regular stop every Saturday for years. And when we had a fulltime staff at the border, we were often there every day. (Photo by Claudia Wolfe)
One of our early volunteers at Casa de los Pobres in Tijuana was Lois Capps (3rd from left) who later become Congresswoman from Santa Barbara. The children at the House of the Poor, pictured here in 1980, were a special focus of our help for many years. We helped the nuns there open a dining room for children that fed breakfast to over 1,000 children every morning for years.
In the very beginning, we brought medicine, clothing and some food to Tijuana families. When clothing began to far exceed food, we realized that we were helping kids become some of the best dressed hungry kids on the planet! At that point, we stopped bringing clothes and focused on food and educational supplies. Beginning in the late 1980's, we opened breakfast dining rooms for children so they could fill their empty bellies before heading to school. These are some of the beautiful children who showed up at our first dining room situated in the Tijuana city garage dump.
We've always struggled to get enough money to feed our children. As we worked to get the needed funds, our volunter Mexican mothers simply went ahead and figured out ways to feed children for the least amount of money possible. Like cooking on a barrel! We now provide breakfast for hundreds of children every morning in our Tijuana children's centers. And we do it on real stoves!
Most of our food is donated by church communities. In the 1990's, these three teens traveled regularly with their parents and friends from Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan Beach, CA, to keep our dining rooms open. Their church, known as TLC, brings several metric tons of food to Tijuana every year and also brings toys and Christmas dinners for our annual Christmas Caravan.
50 volunteers traveled with us every weekend for years until we had taken over 20,000 volunteers to Mexico to help children. This is a group of volunteers from Mexico and the U.S. in front of our Santa Barbara office in 1980. Greg Weiss, 12-years-old at the time, is pictured here on the right. Our scholarship fund, Greg's Gang, honors his memory.
We needed to raise $12,000 in 1976 to open a dining room for children at Casa de los Pobres, so we started walking from Santa Barbara to Tijuana on The Tortilla Marathon. That first year, we raised exactly $12,000 and a lot of children got fed. We did the walk 13 times in all, several times earning over $100,000 and walking with 250 of the nicest people on the planet. Here, in 1980, Kris Weiss (left) leads the marathon with some of those nice people.
One day in 1985, we met Devby in the plaza in Antigua, Guatemala, and she became our first Guatemalan scholarship recipient. She also became an outstanding student and was honored by being chosen to run with the torch for the Pan American Games through her village, San Antonio Aguas Calientes. Years later, Devby posed with her daughter Melissa who now receives a scholarship.
When this photo was taken in 1983, Paul Weiss had just returned from Central America and had an opportunity to share his experiences with House Speaker Tip O'Neill and Buffalo Congressman Henry Nowak. Following this meeting, Paul and The Speaker received honorary doctorates of humane letters from Paul's alma mater, Canisius College.
Providing nutrition and the tools of education to children in poor schools is one of the most effective ways to give kids a chance to get out of poverty. In 1989, our video, Heartleap, was named Finalist in the USA Home Video Festival. It told the story of two Rainbow Boxes making their way to two children in a needy school in Tijuana. Here, one of our favorite volunteers in Santa Barbara, Samantha Lionheart, shows some Rainbow Boxes she prepared for our kids.
When 3,000 Washington, DC citizens gathered in 1999 for a Citizen's Summit to set the city's priorities, we were there, and these children and 40 others lobbied the Summit participants to make DC Kids First! When the day was done, children were named as the city's first priority.
A Food For Kids truck from St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Corona Del Mar arriving at the US/Mexico Border. It is so easy and so Bibilical to gather food for hungry children! Do the math: if you have 200 folks in your faith community and each gives 11 pounds of food once a year (one metric ton), you can feed breakfast to 300 kids for one month in our dining rooms. Pictured here are Pastor Peter and Frances Haynes with some friends and little angels from the church.
Our annual Christmas Caravan in Tijuana, Mexico, draws nearly 1,000 children. We fill our dining rooms with toys and the kids get a chance to select 2 or 3 toys. They arrive very early and as the magic hour approaches, they all squeeze together to get closer. About 100 volunteers from the U.S. and Mexico make sure every child leaves with a smile on her/his face. (This photo taken by Paul Weiss in the 2001 Caravan.)
Another child waiting for her Christmas Caravan toys. Candy canes, suckers and balloons keep children occupied while they wait for the dozen or so vehicles to arrive.
American Airlines has been a regular supporter of our ministry to children. When we worked for years in Washington, DC, we had to figure out how people in the nation's Capital could send toys to our Caravan. "Fill a beat-up old suitcase with small toys." Here, in 1996, Paul Weiss arrives at Dulles Airport with 21 old suitcases from DC area churches filled with over 1,000 toys. American Airlines carried the extra luggage at no charge. "Did anyone other than yourself pack any of the suitcases ....?" Eventually, we started driving truckloads of toys from Washington to Tijuana. The truck drivers from the East Coast could make the trip in 5 days, participate in the Caravan, then fly home. Any church in America can easily participate in the Caravan in this way.
At the end of March 2004, after 30 years of service, Paul passed the torch to Pastor Dave Brisbin, who'd been working with Paul for over 20 years. Dave now divides his time between being a husband, father, minister, and President of COTA. Dave doesn't do it alone. He has crews from several local churches and friends from Orange County and Children of The Americas' volunteers from all over California and the U.S. who work hard to keep hope alive in the hearts of children.
Here's the man who really makes our ministry hum in Mexico these days. Five years ago, Norm Kremiller had never worked in third world conditions before. He went on a Christmas Caravan mostly just to support Pastor Dave--and he's done little else since, becoming Our Man in Tijuana. Norm has been instrumental in establishing many new contacts in the neighborhoods and brings a lifetime of construction skill to many new building projects.
As our 30th anniversary was being celebrated in 2004, not much had changed. We're still holding little children in our hearts and in our arms. We feed them, help them with school and try to put a smile on their faces but, when it all comes down to what is really important, we simply love them. And they love us. And that's really what it's all about.