About three hours outside Mexico City is a small village, San José del Rincón, one of the poorest municipalities in the State of Mexico. It’s a community about 10,000 feet, or two miles above sea level. If you’ve ever wondered where those beautiful monarch butterflies migrate each year, it’s here, in the heart of the Oyamel forests. The local indigenous people are the Mazahua. The kids in the community are actually taught both Spanish and the Mazahua language; there are only about 150,000 speakers of their language in the world.
What does this have to do with promo? Well, since many of you are starting to celebrate the holidays with friends and family and turning your attention to gratitude and giving, we thought we would share this inspiring story about how one small industry with a very big heart has made an impact on one community in central Mexico.
PromoCares is an all-volunteer-driven organization; their mission is to inspire, educate, and provide actionable strategies to encourage social and environmental responsibility in the promotional products industry and the industry's communities. Each year, the board at PromoCares picks a new initiative called their “4 good events” to rally the industry around a cause and use the collective energy of suppliers, distributors and service providers to make an impact on the world. Now, According to UN and UNICEF data, 57% of households in Mexico lack access to a safely managed water supply and 43% lack safe sanitation.
This year, PromoCares partnered with Planet Water Foundation. Planet Water Foundation, is a US based, non-profit organization committed to bringing clean water to the world's most disadvantaged communities through the installation of community- based water filtration systems and the deployment of hygiene education programs.
PromoCares came up with a goal to connect drinkware suppliers in the industry to a cause that would support clean water for communities that lacked a safe water supply. What began as a small idea turned into a big initiative and a beautiful collaboration that directly impacted the community at San José del Rincón.
The promoCares board consists of Roger Burnett with Social Good Promotions, Karie Cowden with Connect the Dots Promotions, Meg Erber with S&S Activewear, Kate Nash with Raining Rose, Scott Pearson, with 6AM Sourcing, Danny Rosin with Brand Fuel, Mandi Rudd with Brand Energy Marketing, and Denise Taschereau with Fairware.
Plus, commonsku’s own Dave Shultz, who traveled to Mexico with a small contingency of PromoCares team members and who is joining us today to share this story.
BTW: You can still donate to this incredible cause, details here!
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