Participating in our holiday project is not only a great way to give of your time and resources to those in need, but also a great way to get to know our community, projects, tours and host families. For these events, we'd love to have your help in: purchasing, wrapping and delivering the gifts; planning the parties and events; preparing the spaces; and then -- of course -- to be here during the events and celebrate with us!

How does it work?

Our Holiday Project is very different from all our other projects in so much as it's very flexible. Most people come for an average of 10 days and help us prepare for our parties and our "Summer" Camp. At the same time, we plan lots of fun tours and events for our individual volunteers and volunteer families to enjoy, such as horseback riding, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, surfing, river rafting, canopy (zip-line) tours, indigenous tours, and so much more. If you'd like to do something special for the holidays, we'd love to have your help with our celebrations. We'd also love to help you put together a special custom package including your transportation, hotels and tours. Please contact us today!

One of our projects is located in the beach town of Puerto Viejo. We have some pretty amazing host families, volunteers and supporters there and we're going to show them our appreciation by having a special party for them. It would be even better if you'd come and join us!

We will have a bouncy castle, lots of activities for the children, live music, food, some dancing and gifts for all the kids. Oh yeah, and a pi–ata too!

Last year Continental Airlines graciously helped us by providing the gifts for the kids. So far, we don't have any sponsors, so if you know of anyone who might be interested, please let us know!

Volunteers help shop, decorate, wrap gifts, prepare food, lead the activities, pass out gifts, visit & play with the children and help to clean up.

• You can see photos from last year's holiday party here.

Our retirement home is located on the Talamanca Indigenous Reservation, in the small community of Bambu. There are currently 20 residents, most of whom have been abandoned by their families. Though don't let that get you down. Here in Bambu they are well cared for and live in a beautiful setting. They all have chores, receive physical therapy, eat well and get lots of love. They don't, however, get many visitors and we hope to throw them another fun-filled party to rival the one we all enjoyed last year.


The residents get so excited for this party. Every year they are waiting in the driveway as we pull in. We all begin decorating and playing games with them. We dance, play with bubbles, balloons and typical Costarican games. We provide a lot of food (fruit cocktails, drinks, lunch, ice cream, pastries, coffee, tea and shakes). And we give away gifts at the end, thanks to all the donations we receive through the year from all of our supporters. It always makes for a fun, satisfying and beautiful day.

• To see pictures from the party last year, please click here.

This is a big party that we're going to host for the Indigenous families and kids at the Bambu Cultural Center on the Talamanca Indigenous Reservation. Children come from all over the reservation for this party. Some walk more than a day to get there.

The best part about this center is that its existence directly supports 20 local families. They all take turns with the Center responsibilities and really watch out for one another. There are many things our volunteers help with here, including teaching English to community members at night, translating for the tours, helping to build marketing material, planting flowers and trees, general maintenance, and working in the nearby elementary school.

This party will include the Center staff, host families and nearby children we work with. It's sure to be the best party of the season, and a blast.

We had over 250 people at this party last year, and we expect this year to bring in many more. Several of the children we gave gifts to last year had never received Christmas gifts before.

Children from St. Patrick's School in Chestertown, Indiana sent down tons of gift bags and backpacks filled with school supplies. Past Volunteers, supporters and "strangers" donated the rest. And the Clark Family brought down hundreds of new pairs of shoes from the Soles 4 Souls Foundation to provide to all the kids.

All of us together with the kids will enjoy super fun games, deliver great surprises for the winners, pass out ice cream, candy, hot dogs, drinks, cake, great gifts for all the kids and.....the big finale, the pi–ata, which will be devoured instantly by the kids. We always have such a great time! We sure hope you'll join us!

• See pictures of last year's party here.

"Summer Camp?" Yes! It's actually Summer in Costa Rica and the kids are out of school on their summer vacation at this time. That's good news for everyone, as we make time to provide fun learning and activities for the kids to keep them occupied during this time.

Like last year, we'll be working in the Puerto Viejo area for three days with kids in the community. We'll do:

• Arts & Crafts
• Environmental Education
• Sports and Games
• Provide lunch every day
• Teach English
• Theater Workshops

This will be our Third Annual Summer Camp in Puerto Viejo. Last year we had about 100 children per day attend. The whole community got excited and helped out. We even had a guest clown who took the kids marching around town and put on quite an amazing show. What will the big surprise be this year? I guess you'll have to come and find out!

We'll likely be hosting the Camp at the small Cultural Center in the middle of town again this year. The kind of help we will be needing from our volunteers will be:

• Planning Activities
• Organizing
• Supervising the Children
• Shopping
• Preparing Lunches
• Passing out drinks
• Coaching Sports (soccer match between girls and boys)
• Publicizing the Camp around town
• Supervising small break-out groups
• Cleaning

Puerto Viejo is a fun place to be during the holidays. All of us volunteers will be hanging out after "work" and enjoying the many parties, doing tours together and enjoying the Caribbean holiday spirit.

This year instead of buying just random toys and goodies, we decided we would focus our efforts around a central theme - education.

That means the gifts we will be providing might include things such as:

• Knapsacks
• School uniforms
• Art supplies
• Paper
• Notebooks
• Pens / Pencils
• Educational Books
• Educational DVDs
• English Teaching Materials and Supplies
• Coloring Books
• Markers
• Crayons
• Play-Doh
• Glue sticks
• Highlighters
• Educational Games
• Dictionaries (Spanish and Spanish-to-English)
• Pencil Cases (mandatory for school kids here)
• Geometry Tools (mandatory pack of three tools here)
• Lunch bags

Obviously, there are certain things that we can only purchase here, such as school uniforms and the specific supplies that are mandatory for children here. Believe it or not, the notebooks that they use here are also very specific.

Another issue we face in Costa Rica is the importation of goods. Not only is shipping expensive, but a very high import tax is imposed on anything we receive. So the only way for us to really receive any gifts that anyone would want to send is through someone flying in and taking these extra supplies in their suitcase.

If you, or someone you know, would like to donate supplies instead of cash to our holiday fund drive, please contact us. We'll help you identify someone who might be flying in prior to these events to see if they might be willing to add your donations to their checked luggage.

As there are many gifts we'll need to purchase here in Costa Rica, we'd really appreciate your gift of cash. You can donate through PayPal, cash, check, or wire transfer. Please access our donation page by clicking here. Your donation is 100% tax deductible and we'll be happy to provide you with a donation acknowledgement letter.

We'll be taking plenty of pictures of the events and posting them online for you to see. Last year we were able to give out over 500 gifts, and this year we hope to exceed that.
Thank you very much for considering coming down to join us here in Costa Rica as a volunteer, or for considering supporting our project from afar. If we can help answer any questions you may have, please contact us for more information.

NOTE: Please realize that host family lodging and hotels start booking up six months in advance. The earlier you call us, the more likely you'll get your choice of space.

Cost varies, depending on the amount of time you will be here, the type of lodging you choose and what kinds of tours you want to add on.

Prices start at just $995 for one week for adults and $699 for children.

Please contact us for more information and for special pricing.