Dear Friends and Supporters,
At Hogar de Vida, within our four walls, within our three houses, there are dedicated women taking care of 35 children. The women are here by choice; the children not, but are brought to us from adverse situations and placed in our care. We love them, feed them, clothe them, and teach them until they are either returned to their families or given in adoption. Life here is busy, noisy, rewarding and sometimes overwhelming. When there's joy we share it, when there's sadness (why did HE get adopted and not me?) we share it, when there's a virus we share it.
Recently we've had cause for thanks and wanted to pass this along to our friends and supporters. February marked the 8th year of the Atenas Chili Cookoff, which benefits Hogar de Vida. They plan, find donors, motivate chefs, and host the biggest thing to happen in Atenas for years. Reason? To provide Hogar de Vida with an essential ingredient - it's not called money, but its real name is ENCOURAGEMENT. Simply put, we are very grateful (and quite surprised again) to be the recipients of so much effort, dedication and goodwill. This year the event had a record turnout and Hogar de Vida received a large donation that will help us with an immediate need!
After our recent break-in, our sense of vulnerability increased. We urgently need a security wall surrounding our property to ensure the safety of our kids and staff. With the $20,000 donation we are constructing a security wall. As each concrete panel goes up, it represents someone's effort in a kitchen somewhere, adding seasoning, tasting the brew, and putting the finishing touches on the hopefully winning chili. And it represents so much more to us!
Simply put, we want to say THANK YOU! To Tom and Kay the founders, to 
the steering committee, to those whose vision never wavered, to the Atenas businesses for cooperating with donations, to the chili chefs and judges, to those that hauled tents, installed electricity, that found parking for all the extra people that showed up, the country singer for entertaining, the DJ, to the volunteers, to the people who came from all over, to those that did the clean-up, and to those who invested countless hours counting the results. You all have made a difference. The Chili Cook Off always was, and still is, FOR THE KIDS.
Thank you very much everyone from all of us at Hogar de Vida!
