MdL social worker Maria Elena Salgado traveled from Honduras to central Ohio to participate in Fiesta 2023. In addition, MdL board member Erika Lopez, who lives in the San Francisco area, spoke at the annual fundraising gala about her personal journey and connections to her native Honduras.
The event featured more than 200 guests and raised more than $110,000 for Montaña de Luz’s programs and services in Honduras.
Salgado thanked supporters for providing critically needed funds for MdL’s group home, its Healthy Families Honduras program and the Charla Luz educational outreach program about HIV/AIDS.
In her remarks, Lopez recalled her childhood in Honduras and how those memories keep her connected to young people growing up the central American country. “When I see these sweaty happy faces, big smiles and bare feet running on our gravel roads of the barrios, I remember that’s where I come from. I too ran bare feet through my barrio and cannonballed into the river.”
The children from MdL tug at all of our hearts, she said, “their big smiles and happy souls, their bare feet showing us the freedom to roam. They are our mirror to our sense of purpose. They are our mirror to what’s inside us, too.”
Enjoy this video slideshow from Fiesta 2023, held at St. Charles Preparatory School in Bexley, Ohio: