October 2024 Newsletter
Trinity Anglican Youth gathered for a special 5K to benefit KM4Q!
KILOMETERS FOR QUITO RECAP
What an exciting September we had! As you likely know, Kilometers for Quito (KM4Q) is our second biggest fundraiser of the year behind December year end giving. This year, our distance goal was the distance from Atlanta to Quito and back again, 8000 kilometers. This was double our 2023 goal! Our financial goal was an aggressive $80,000, also double our 2023 goal.
You will recall AyE's annual budget alone only covers about half of their operating expenses, which includes mainly teacher salaries and tuition offsets for students who cannot afford the full cost to attend school. Our goal was to help fill that gap!
We are thrilled to report that we made our distance goal - but not until the very last day of September! It was a super exciting finish! All the miles and kilometers logged were most definitely an intense labor of love, and every single person on a KM4Q team played an important part in us meeting this mileage goal. If you were following along on social media, then you saw that we celebrated each 2000 km milestone with a special video of encouragement from Pancho and Pitty, as well as the addition of a financial incentive to match the mileage reached, i.e. $2000 when we reached 2000 km, $4000 when we reached 4000 km, ultimately allowing us to add a total of $20,000 to our bottom line once we reached 8000 km logged. THANK YOU to our generous donors - we couldn't have done it without you!
We are also blessed to share that we ended up just a tad shy of our financial goal of $80,000. After a bit of a slow start, our teams really gained momentum by mid-month and donations steadily poured in from that point onward. We ended up raising $65,064.70 for KM4Q, plus also received a separate $10,000 gift in September. Therefore, we are counting our September 2024 total as $75,064.70!
We loved to see the special events that several teams planned that raised funds and awareness about LHF and AyE, all while helping build community among our supporters. Specifically, the Kids in Motion team planned a fun Day At The Track event that brought families and friends together to walk, run and roll together for a good cause. The Trinity Anglican Youth team came together with their families to run a special 5K for the sole benefit of KM4Q. And the Whitefield Lower School team showed up before school on Wednesday mornings to walk the track together as a Track Pack to build up their mileage total, while earning fun trinkets from Ecuador when they hit certain milestone laps. We celebrate and encourage these types of events, and already look forward to the creative ways you all will support this initiative next year!
Huge CONGRATULATIONS to the final top team standings for distance:
Whitefield Upper School
Kids In Motion
Trinity Youth
And a ROUND OF APPLAUSE for the final top teams for funds raised:
Whitefield Upper School
Kids In Motion
Whitefield Middle School
If you don't already, please follow LHF on Instagram and/or Facebook to stay up to date on the latest happenings and reach out to us via email with any questions!
How can you partner with Amor y Esperanza?
Pray! Current needs are:
Lives transformed in the Carmen Bajo community
Staff & students' health, safety and growth at AyE
Financial provision through year end
One-time giving is always appreciated and helpful, too! Make a gift here.
Interested in serving on our board? Please reach out!