Each year, the emotional highlight of this conference is the ALGV community give-back activity. This year’s project was to finish phase 4 of a new elementary school in the community of Miches that serves 56 kids. About 50 of us split into sub-groups of four to tackle activities from painting, to assembly of ceiling fans, clean up and shoveling 20 cubic meters of gravel across the school yard to create a runoff area for the frequent rains.
Over three hours, our efforts transformed the muddy grounds into a fully function school yard complete with basketball court, periphery walls for safety and reduction of distractions and ventilated classrooms. while slightly sore from all the shoveling, I feel rewarded by the contributions we all made as a group.
A few hours by the pool later, the gala event began with awards, a lovely meal, followed by hotly anticipated musical guests. This tradition of a musical act began years ago with the Barenaked ladies at Riviera Maya’s Secrets Moxche that continued last year with a country music act (I don’t recall his name). Tonight’s act however, blew us all away with their kindness, curiosity, and approachability.
While the name of the band may not mean much to many, their hit song “best day of my life” surely triggers emotions of happiness, joy, and hope. The lead singer mingled with us all day, joked, laughed, and genuinely connected. We were all in awe and his message of joy and hope through music is evident in all their songs.m – a message that can only come from souls that have lived hard and felt deep. This the conference motto of Dream Big – because no one ever changed the world with small acts.
On a personal note, many of us contributed to the area by picking up trash on daily beach walks. As this beach is home to sea turtles and a critical nesting ground, it is our small acts that let the turtles dream big on a plastics free stretch of sand.
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