Before Vallarta Cares, the will to help was there
It all began after a hurricane hit the small rural town of Agua Verde, Nayarit. The river overflowed, submerging more than half the town under water for over a week. Agua Verde is home to a humble community of farmers and brickmakers, people who already lived with so little and now had lost nearly everything.
That’s when Jim and I (Frankie) felt called to act. We didn’t have a plan or an organization. Just a conviction to help.
When we arrived, we met Eleuterio, a young brickmaker earning about 120 pesos a day. In his spare time, he had been teaching himself to cut hair, charging 10 pesos per haircut to save for his dream: buying a motorcycle. But when the floodwaters came, he faced an impossible decision, to save the motorcycle, or save his elderly parents. Without hesitation, he chose his parents. The motorcycle was lost beneath the rising waters.
Despite his loss, Eleuterio stepped up to help others. He became our guide and translator in the community, helping us deliver the few supplies we had brought. We saw right away that what we brought wasn’t enough. So we returned home, shared what we had seen with our friends and community, and a week later, we came back with more: food, clothes, and even mattresses donated by Alfonso from Home Improvement PV.
Ele stayed by our side, helping organize the distribution and making sure the most vulnerable were prioritized. His leadership in his community was natural and deeply moving.
Before we said goodbye, we wanted to give something back to him. We gifted him a small barber set, nothing fancy, just a kit from a grocery store, and a motorcycle we used before buying a car. We even fitted him with a helmet and made sure he got home safely on the four-hour ride back to Agua Verde.
One year later, Eleuterio was working at a barber shop. Two years later, he had opened his own barber shop. Today, he has employees. His business has expanded to include clothing and even tattoos. He went from cutting hair for 10 pesos to running a full-service shop, and it all started with a haircut kit and a secondhand motorcycle.
This is why Vallarta Cares exists.
We believe that in every crisis, there’s someone like Eleuterio. Someone with potential, someone who just needs a little push. We don’t just respond to disasters. We look for the spark in every community. And when we find it, we do what we can to help it shine.
