The Espanola Farolito 2017 Purpose
The purpose of this venture is to light the way to the different churches, using candles that raise the spirits of those who are lonely or depressed during Christmas. To bring pride to the city, honor Veterans who have served or are serving, and to restore to our community a lost and beautiful tradition.
The 2015 Farolito Project is now in the history books! We were inspired to do the project during a visit to New Mexico around mid November where Andres was working out details and planned to kick off the Drug Free Champion program that he created. Andres and his sister Kimberly were the dynamic duo that brought back the project along with some help from the old guy and many from the community who care!
After the decision to bring back the event the project became a full time ocupation! I didn't think it would be as difficult but I also didn't imagine it would be so rewarding. The hurdles and last minute problems were overwhelming and unexpected, but the miracle of the sheer intention to see it happen overcame those!
We learned a few lessons, met new friends and hooked up with old ones. The biggest lesson was that we should start much earlier!
The original project goal was 30,000 candles. After some funding shortages we went with 20,000, but we ended up doing about 12,000. So we have a good supply left over to be used this year.
As a family we are grateful to those who stepped up! You are the real heroes! Some people who went out to view the project ended up helping! Those of you that worked like crazy to help pull it off, I applaud you! The handful of volunteers and family worked hard in the cold but you did it with style!
The emphasis until this year's Farolito Project has been focused on bringing help to the Drug-using issues facing our community. We are working to help bring proven relief to the area. Check out the still under construction web-sites:
I urge the community to get together and stand for a drug free community. The point is that we can no longer JUST SAY NO! We need to get those using to say NO MORE! We need to help those who want help to end the nightmare of addiction!
I hope you are willing to stand up and help bring an end to the drug problem in our community! IT IS A COMMUNITY ISSUE!
One of my hero's in Espanola told me "it is no use! You can't win against the Drug Problem!", and he is correct I can't do it... alone! We need to make this a community push! We can! We must!
So, Thank you to all that helped! I hope you are pledged to bring it back in even more style this 2016.
We will post final event details on the Farolito web-site as soon as the tallies are complete!
If you have someone who is needing help with drug addiction please private message me and I will be glad to see if we can help with sources of meaningful help!
Dennis O'Brien Sr.
