Charlie Smith, outgoing president of the Lake Chapala Society A.C. talks about their presence in the community
“People Helping People” has been our goal since LCS was founded over fifty years ago. We are located in Ajijic, Jalisco and are an expatriate service organization with a strong commitment to helping the local community. We have two major missions:
- Help the local Mexican community, especially in education
- Assist expatriates, mainly from the USA and Canada but from over 20 other nations as well, to adjust to living in Mexico through recreational, social, health and educational services.
With almost 4000 members we have a large and talented population from which to recruit volunteers to staff our educational, cultural, medical and other programs for the Mexican community. A substantial part of membership dues goes to assisting the community, and we also run fund-raisers to help them. The Wilkes Education Center, part of LCS, currently provides 24 classes in English, 3 in computers and one in nutrition at no cost for over 200 students, and contains a Spanish-language lending library, the biblioteca, with over 3000 books. We also serve the community by providing financial aid to worthy students – over 100 have graduated from high school, university and graduate school under our sponsorship, and we currently have 24 students in the program, of which 22 are attending university. We hold remedial classes every summer, for over 60 students who through no fault of their own have fallen behind in school, but who can be successful with a little help. The free art classes, every Saturday morning, regularly draw over 100 young Mexicans who not only are provided free art supplies and instruction but also are assisted in selling their work. Our support extends to local charities, which we help with administrative and fund-raising expertise.
Many expatriates have come to the Chapala area, and LCS helps them to adjust, in learning Spanish, finding out how the Mexican immigration and legal system works, familiarizing themselves with driving rules and customs, understanding medical precautions, immunizations, and more. This information is provided via lectures, our web site (lakechapalasociety.org), our membership directory, an information desk open six days a week, and a series of Newcomers Symposia held once a year. We provide a number of medical services free of charge, including skin cancer screening, vision examinations, blood pressure checks, and hearing analysis for both the expatriate and Mexican population. We hold over 20 Spanish classes a week, tailored to our retirees and at very reasonable cost. Discussions with other members who have lived here a long time are also excellent sources. By helping to draw expatriates, mostly retired, to the area we help boost the local economy and give ambitious Mexicans the opportunity to start businesses, work at better-paying jobs than they would otherwise have, and continue to pursue educations. We estimate that the year-round average expatriate population in the area is 10,000; if each one spends on the average 10,000 US dollars equivalent, we bring $100, 000,000 US dollars or over a billion pesos into the local economy.
We welcome volunteers to help with our programs, and of course everyone is welcome to tour our grounds. For further information please see our web site, www.lakechapalasociety.org. You may also make an online donation via our “friends of?at ICF and received as U.S. tax deductible receipt: http://www.icf-xchange.org/graphics/donate.php/lakechapala.
Submitted by Charles Smith
President
The Lake Chapala Society
December 2007
