The Dominican Republic is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and its needs are great. One organization that tries to aid in the effort to alleviate this poverty is ACES North American.
The organization is a Williamsport-based not-for-profit working specifically in the Dominican Republic on projects highlighting health and education. ACES is currently involved in two main projects.
Tucked in the Dominican central mountains of Jarabacoa Province lies a tiny village called Angosto, where education opportunities were non-existent just a few years ago. Now, a young couple from the region is creating a community center where kids can safely go for classes several days each week and where the community can come together to build solidarity. Says that young couple, “This center is extremely important for the welfare of this community. It gives us a place to grow together.”
This worthy organization will hold a special fundraiser — The Dominican Plate Dinner with the Crosscutters. This annual fundraising gala will be on August 1, 2022, at the Genetti Hotel ballroom in downtown Williamsport. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and the event will feature typical Dominican food, emcee Gabe Sinicropi, Urie Kline, and Los Gatos Gordos live band, an extensive silent auction, a live auction by Sam and Dawn Astin, table trivia, Name That Tune, and lots of fun!
ACES North America sponsors this event in collaboration with the Williamsport Crosscutters. The Cutters provide lots of silent auction treasures and a contingent of players to mingle and serve. If you’re a Cutters fan, this up-close-and-personal event is for you!
“The Williamsport Crosscutters staff, players, and coaches are honored to lend their support each year to the Dominican Plate event to benefit ACES North America. Linell and her team put on a great event that benefits a very worthy cause,” Gabe Sincropi, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, told Webb Weekly.
Here is some more about ACES projects in the Dominican Republic. The center at Angosto is a cinder block building that was built by community members and ACES members in 2020, just before the pandemic canceled travel. Men and women alike (both Dominican and American) carried concrete blocks, buckets of sand, gravel, and concrete uphill to waiting masons. Many of the Dominican workers were astonished at how hard American women could work! The finished product provides meeting rooms, a game and gathering area, and a community kitchen. School students are using it, along with a Kids’ Club, women’s groups, the community neighborhood council, sports groups, and business groups. It truly is a center for this growing community! ACES will continue to support the Kids’ Club and other educational efforts.
Another community outreach of ACES is in the coastal fishing village of Las Terrenas in the Samana Province. Addressing the issue of too many children who cannot afford to attend school, ACES started a program called El Taller (The Workshop) in 2019. Using the medium of arts and crafts, community teachers and volunteers provide a safe space for children once or twice a week to create art projects while using typical educational subjects as background for the projects. While the children are creating, they’re also learning about arithmetic for measuring, social studies about the countries that highlight the particular craft project, history about countries, etc. They also learn social skills for their own culture. The children love the process!
Gradually, the El Taller project has also grown into a classroom approach as well as a visiting artist series at the local public library. In the classrooms, students do the same arts and crafts projects, and the schoolteachers plan specific material that accompanies the projects. School administrators in the Las Terrenas area also love El Taller and would like ACES to provide the workshop to all elementary school students in the area – more than 3,000 students! One principal declares, “The students who participate in El Taller are engaged like never before!” She credits ACES with significant advancement in learning in the Las Terrenas area.
ACES North America is a small group of concerned individuals that came together in 2005 after seeing and hearing about the education deficit in the Dominican Republic. With small donations and events like the Dominican Plate Dinner, they have provided neighborhood health clinics, food outreaches, a small neighborhood elementary school, disease-resistant coffee plants, sports equipment, work groups, medical equipment, school equipment, and much more. One of the mantras of ACES North America is our efforts to do so much with so little!
Looking ahead, the organization’s members are planning several service trips that will involve light work and lots of eco-tours to learn about past ACES project successes and to help plan ways to assist in the future, as well as to observe and learn about the Dominican Republic’s reality away from famous resorts.
To learn more about those trips or about anything ACES, contact Linell Stabler at 570-419-1218, Sue Myers at 570-220-4434, or Mark Uhland at 570-444-9347. ACES website is acesna.org, and you’ll find even more information there.
To reserve tickets for the Dominican Plate Dinner, please use the website’s reservation portal – http://www.acesna.org/getinvolved/fundraisers/email.
Hope to see you at the gala!
