Dear VE Friends and Volunteers,
Recently, VE Global focused in on creativity, which had our volunteers and kids spending their time taking museum field trips and creating art or stage performances. All this fun was in preparation for our biannual event, Festival de Arte! The event brought together six institutions and goes on record as our most successful to-date.
The theme of Festival de Arte was Chilestoso, a play on Chile and the Spanish word chistoso (funny). Children's artwork lined the entrance and the theater was packed for the full-bill of entertaining acts. While some kids dealt with more pánico escénico (stage fright) than others, they all conquered their fears and performed their hearts out.
One group of boys and girls danced la cueca, a traditional Chilean dance, some children recited their own poems, two girls fearlessly sang a Miley Cyrus song in English and one group rocked a rendition of Beyoncé's ¨Single Ladies." By the end, we tíos were extremely proud, and many of the kids were left with a newfound confidence.
Blog Spotlight: The Beauty of Being a Volunteer
VE is proud to reveal our second foreign language post, this time in Norwegian!
Mia Nicolaysen, a volunteer from our September class of 2010, wrote this post shortly after ending her volunteer experience. The insightful post reflects on Mia's work with the guaguas(babies) at Hogar Esperanza.
Find the original text here and the English translation here.
Welcome our new Director of Resource Development!
Jamie Ensey took over as the Director of Resource Development on Monday, April 4th. Jamie had spent the last month training with Annie Rondoni, the past director who tirelessly served at VE for more than a year. Thank you Annie for all of your hard work and dedication! From everyone here at VE, we wish you a heartfelt goodbye and the best of luck in your new adventures.
Jamie's previous work includes six years at an integrated marketing agency, Loomis Group. She has been volunteering full-time since September 2010 at San Francisco de Regis. We're excited to welcome Jamie to the team!
Un Abrazo,
Josh Pilz
Executive Director