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Good afternoon. It is such a pleasure for me and my colleagues from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to be with you all today on Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is a day of friendship and love… a day when we give our hearts to those around us.
As children suffering from cancer, each day you give your heart to your recovery and to the great task ahead of you of fighting your disease. Each day, as young children, you deal with difficulties and challenges that we cannot imagine. But God has blessed you all with an immense heart for this task and with great courage and hope.
And you are surrounded today and always by the mothers, fathers, family members, friends and the hard-working people of AMANC who want to give their hearts to you as you are dedicating yourselves to your recovery. Their love and support hopefully is a source of inspiration to you as you fight your cancer and try to enjoy your life as a child. . . a child who wants to learn . . .a child who wants to play . . . a child who deserves every opportunity life has to offer.
The officers here today with me from the U.S. Embassy also want to share their hearts with you and tell you how much you inspire us. By living your lives with such courage, you show the world that children with cancer are not statistics – they are young people with hope, passion, and purpose. And because you are working so hard and overcoming so many obstacles, we want to make your courageous lives a little bit easier if possible.
A little over year ago, a group of Junior Officers came here to deliver toys at Christmas time with me. We spoke to Lupita Alejandre and she told us that AMANC was in great need of an industrial-sized washer and dryer for this albergue. Lupita told us that the new washer and dryer would allow AMANC to wash all the clothes, towels, and sheets needed to run this center and also would free up the important resources AMANC was spending to send the items out to be washed for other pressing needs.
So this past fall, our Embassy officers got together to raise the money needed for the washers and dryers. We decided to hold an auction at the Embassy in which members of our 1000-person U.S. Mission could bid on donated items and give all the proceeds to AMANC. The auction was an exciting evening and the people of our Mission showed what generous hearts they had. We were able to raise $15,000 USD for AMANC—which was much more than we thought we had originally thought possible.
We were also able to include two U.S. companies here in Mexico in our goal —Church & Dwight and Whirlpool. Church & Dwight was kind enough to give AMANC a year’s worth of detergent and Whirlpool has donated the washer itself. Now, thanks to these companies’ great generosity, AMANC will be able to use much of the money we raised for other purposes—perhaps two washers and dryers or medicine that you might need.
We know these contributions are a small token of our deep respect for AMANC, the organization, and our deep admiration for you, the children of AMANC.
Thank you for letting us share Valentines Day with you, and thank you for continuing to inspire us with your courage, your hope and your enormous hearts.
May God bless you all.
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