The Bake House, a popular small cafe in West Vancouver, Canada hold a fund-raiser for El Hogar.

The Bake House, a popular small cafe in West Vancouver, with the assistance of Grade 6 and 7 students from Chartwell Elementary School, hosted a Christmas fund-raiser for El Hogar on December 9. Ian Rose and his work with the kids of Honduras, was the inspiration for Jenny Lamb and Akram Ftaya, owners of the restaurant, to put on this event. Ian, a management consultant, is currently working with the government of Honduras and has travelled to the orphanage six times. In conjunction with Kent and Gerry Bubbs, founders of the West Vancouver-based Universal Outreach Foundation, he has been involved in raising awareness and funds for the orphanage for the past three years.

" We thought here is a man who is passionate about what he's doing," said Jenny, adding that after almost two years in business, it was time for her and her husband, Akram, to give something back to others. And this is exactly what they did and more! Their initial goal for the fund-raiser was to raise $3,000, enough money to purchase Christmas clothing and gifts for the younger children. They far exceeded this goal and, with cheques written on the day being matched by Universal Outreach Foundation, the Bake House and Chartwell School raised over $10,000! This was enough to buy new Christmas outfits for everyone at El Hogar.

It was truly an inspiring event. Photos of the kids adorned the Bake House walls and the boys’ Marimba CDs and handcrafted crucifixes were on sale. There was also a silent auction and a raffle and these were “manned” by the kids from Chartwell. They were assigned shifts during the day and many of them did not want to leave when their shift was up. The highlight of the event was the presence of the Honduran Ambassador to Canada, Beatriz Valle, who flew in from Ottawa and prepared delicious traditional Honduran food for the customers. She has a wonderful singing voice and entertained everyone from time to time during the day with traditional songs, and also some well-known Christmas carols.

We understand that the boys looked very handsome when they arrived for Christmas Eve services in their new polo style shirts. For many of them this was the first time that they had ever had new clothing to wear on Christmas Eve. Thank you to Jenny, Akram, Chartwell Elementary, Ian and his wife, Mary, the many volunteers involved in the event and, of course, to the very generous people who donated to this great cause.

Click here to see an archive of past news stories from El Hogar.