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Holiday Preparations at Hekab Be
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First the happy news:
Hekab Be staff and helpers are busy getting ready for the upcoming Annual Christmas Party, which will be on
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, AT 3 PM.
PLEASE JOIN US IF YOU ARE IN TOWN!
We have a great party planned:
3:00 – Presentation of Children's Christmas Play performed by regular library attendees
3:15 – Special Guest Dancers – Senior Citizen Ballet Group from Playa del Carmen
4:00 – Santa delivers gifts!
4:30 – Cake and Piñata
5:15 – Everyone participates in the Mexican traditional Posada, a two-part song which re-enacts Joseph & Mary's search for a place to stay on their journey to Bethlehem.
Kids and staff have been preparing the play, making our piñata, as well as carrying out the usual library activities.
Special Thanks to All Who Helped in Our Most Recent Fundraiser!
LocoGringos and other faithful library friends helped us meet our latest SOS—support our staff—for library funds, which always run low at the end of the year. We are so thankful for having such a wonderful support base that always comes through for the library, even in these hard economic times. We can't say thank you enough!!!!!
We'd also like to share a little info about our hard-working staff for those who haven't yet had the pleasure to meet them:
Carlos is our assistant director. We were fortunate to find Carlos last fall when he started out at the library just helping to clean the grounds. Soon we discovered that not only does Carlos speak Mayan and Spanish, he is also fluent in English, although he is a bit shy about using it. Carlos is a self-made man. Despite just having a secondary school education, he has continued to seek opportunities to learn and grow, and his attraction to Hekab Be was a natural extension of this. Carlos has continued to grow and learn in the past year he has been working at the library, but is quite humble about how much more there is for him to learn. He sets a wonderful example for all the children who work with him at the library. In addition to working with the kids in our after-school program, Carlos reads stories at the local schools every Wednesday, teaches Mayan & Spanish classes at the library, and has his hand on the pulse of just about everything else there too. We are so happy Carlos found his way to the library. He is a great asset for HB and the community he serves!
Nayla, our library assistant, is a middle school student who has been volunteering at the library for the past year. In exchange for her time, Nayla received the school supplies she needed. When our prior library assistant resigned, we decided to give Nayla the opportunity to take a part-time paid position, since we know she also needs money to help pay for school-related expenses. We are thrilled to say that Nayla has risen to the challenge, proving herself to be an extremely responsible teenager, and we are even happier to find that she has positively bloomed in this role! Not only can we see her gaining self-confidence day by day, but having her at the library means many more middle school students have started using our services again.
Now, some sad news:
In the midst of all this merry-making, unfortunately we are extremely sad also to report that our beloved library director, Leo, has suffered a cancer relapse and has left for Mexico City to receive treatment. We miss her greatly and send her much love and many healing prayers for a full recovery. She is most certainly with us in spirit as we carry on all the good works she planned for the holiday festivities. We look forward to sending her lots of photos of happy kids to brighten her spirit during the hard times she faces ahead.
If you are coming to Akumal before December 19 and would like to bring gifts for the kids, check our Christmas Wish List Blog for suggested items.
Or, if you can't bring stuff down but would like to help out, you can make a donation online and specify that it is for Christmas Gifts on our Donation Blog.
Questions about Hekab Be?
E-mail us or stop by and talk to Carlos.
Library Hours of Operation During Holidays
We will be CLOSED December 25, 31 and January 1.
Our schedule is the following:
Monday & Friday: 9:30 AM–5:30 PM (closed 1–2:30 for lunch)
Tuesday & Thursday: 9:30 AM–4:30 PM (closed 1–2:30 for lunch)
Wednesday: 12–1 and 2:30–5:30 PM (Staff read at the Akumal school in the morning.)
Saturday: 9 AM–1PM
Closed Sunday
Stay up to date with the latest library happenings by visiting our main blog.
Join our cause on Facebook: Hekab Be Biblioteca
A little boy and his ray gun.
A very happy girl guards her candy haul from last year's Christmas Piñata
Leo (center) crosses the finish line in the Race Against Cancer,
which she organized in October to help support other cancer survivors.
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