Our Jam Cruise 9 day in Costa Maya highlighted just how Positive Legacy and the Jam Cruise community can make a meaningful and lasting difference in the lives of others. The day began with a visitto KM55 “kinder” school, which we provided financial support to back in 2009 to build new walls, a new roof, and basic classroom supplies. In 2009, this impoverished school supported 20 pre-school to early elementary age children.  Since that time, the school has expanded to serve 70 children and has been in desperate need of a modern bathroom facility with running water and septic. 

Funds raised through the benefit, auction, and a donation from Cloud 9 have been used to fulfill that wish.  After being warmly greeted with a resounding “buenos diaz” by the children, participants toured the tiny school and saw the new facility under construction.  We then headed to the coast to perform a beach cleanup with the children, families, and teachers, which ended at our celebration site in Mahahual, where we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of sharing music and local cuisine with the children and community members.

Many thanks to David Gans, Matt Butler, Zach Deputy, and members of Greensky Bluegrass (Anders Beck, Mike Devol, Mike Bont, Dave Bruzza) for sharing this day with us.  None of us will soon forget the smiles on the children’s faces as they sang for us and hula hooped to some fine picking music.

Kinder Repair Project in Costa Maya on Jam Cruise 7

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The green team worked with Padres de Familia Kinder in Km 55, a school in Costa Maya, Mexico devastated by Hurricane Dean, to make much needed repairs to their facility. Following the hurricane in 2007, all that remained of the school was a simple cinderblock structure with incomplete plywood walls and a tar paper roof, offering students little to no protection from wind and rain. Cloud 9 sent $1420 to the kinder one month before visiting Costa Maya, allowing them to purchase construction materials for the needed repairs. While on the ship, passengers who became aware of the repair project matched that donation with an additional $1440 to help the kinder continue renovations.