AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye What "Cause" do you support?

stoopid is hard to fix however foolish is not. fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me.

now in light of that, does anyone really know how much money is left in the spsc fund and how much was spent on what???

many people worked very very hard to raise those funds and personality conflicts amongst them caused problems. (you can't get an more polite than that.) to satisfy the "stoopid" let everyone know how the funds have been dispersed over the last several years.

This is from 2/08

Interesting, I had many conversations with Ernie about Holy Cross school. He requested and got detailed Quickbook accounting of our funding and expenses. In August he agreed to fund our feeding program with the funds that were allocated to Holy Cross. Funny, the original reason for SPSC was to provide a feeding program at the RC school. That never materialized.

They were to send us a check each month until our funds were exhausted. Unexpectedly, the funds stopped in December and I was told that they voted to spend them on another project. They didn't volunteer what project and my last email to Ernie went unanswered.

As I said, they don't owe our school a thing. The money was raised by them and they can do with it as they please. It would seem that the donors would have issues with where all the money went. Let the message board sort it out.

I do not know about the disagreements and infighting of the SPSC. However, I can tell you that Ernie and Dee Thomas, without prompting from the 2008 Calendar Girls, offered to allow us to use the remaining funds, (which was a significant amount) to assist with our projects at the RC School this past year.

We were able to raise enough money to erect a library for the students, furnish it, and with the help of Eve and Ross, stock it with books. Money from the SPSC was used to buy shelving and some furniture, and the rest of the generously donated money was used to build a cafeteria for the children there.

My understanding is that the original purpose of the SPSC was to build a cafeteria for the students at RC School, so from where I stand, your mission is nearly complete.

This kind donation was written up in the San Pedro Daily and both of the newspapers and you can do a search on either one of their sites and see photographs of the progress.

If any contributor to the SPSC is unhappy with the way this money was spent, you are more than welcome to come to San Pedro and wrench the money out of the mouths of the children who attend school and will eat their lunches there.

Miss February 2008

That would appear to be a really dumb comment?

If one considers that most charitable acts consist of a flow of funding or deeds from those with excess capacity to those with defects, then what other sensible alternative would you suggest "Havin Fun".

If funds are flowing from the US to Belize, what better way than via a tax exempt charity that allows those contributing to give a greater net amount, and those receiving to gain more from the charitable offerings?

I would be the first to agree that picking on Ernie is fun, but make it about his typing, his aftershave or his love life, not his good deeds

HavinFun and GAY AND DAVID (actually just Gay, and not David) have been stirring the SPSC pot for years, and its precisely why the board of directors chose to disolve the corporation. (Gay: you will recall you were personally notified of the allocations multiple times upon your requests in 2006, and the funds were all disbursed according to the last accounting sent out to all members AND posted on this message board in 2006, with the exception of giving the funds to RC instead of HC as the board determined after reviewing all information that RC was the appropriate recipient of the charitable funds). For those who do not know the history, it was mostly great fun and we all raised a lot of money to feed the school children in San Pedro - and its being done now! HavinFun (Debbie) and Gay have been the sole complainers in what was otherwise a positive effort. can you two please move on now? the kids have a really nice cafeteria thanks to the combined efforts of the Calendar Girls, SPSC and many other donors.

I have been off line for a day and this thread which started as a positive question has now been degraded in to an old battle field. Come on folks. Many people are invested in the island and have different causes that they support. Ernie's group has given to the San Pedro Town Library and we are grateful. It sounds like they supported the RC Library and we are grateful for that. The reason that we are unable to do more service with all the people who would like to help is the gratuitous nastiness that people seem to feel entitled to. Many others, who otherwise would get involved, get turned off.
So thank you Ernie, Thank you Shuffles and Calendar girls, and thank you to the members of the library board. Thank you to all that give and get involved without any need to for something in return besides the good feelings that come helping!

Yep, I was just picking on the way he spelled "stupid" because I spell it "stoopid" when something is really that way....

Great news on your efforts to raise funds and how they were put to use.

No good deed goes unpunished. Never have truer words been spoken.

This on-going discussion just goes to show that even if you are a group of well meaning folks that want to offer some financial support to a well deserving cause you have to formalize the whole arrangement. Unfortunately you need to have an executive committee, you need to keep minutes of the meetings and record decisions, you need to keep full accounting of every single penny and proof by way of bank records.

Which is why so many people shy away from such projects. It's not that folks don't want to help - but there is always some doubting thomas that isn't willing to do the work, but is always ready to cast vague accusations around.

Many of our local charities are plagued by these negative vibes.

What a crying shame.

The RC school cafeteria is a fantastic success - thanks to all that made it possible. The Holy Cross feeding program is a necessary function, and expensive - thanks to all that continue to contribute to that cause. And the new library! What a bonus to the community.

Please don't let a couple of anonymous folks on this board deter you from joining an organization and assisting the community that we all love. And for those that keep the organizations together - a million thanks. I know it is a lot of work, but having accountablity and transparency can keep the naysayers at bay!

YAY Amanda

Agreed! In the case of SPSC, the board meeting Minutes and Resolutions were kept and open to review by members, the bank account required two signatories for all transactions, all board members were volunteers and never received any compensation of any type - 100% of the funds went directly to the charities. Even when you operate an accountable transparent organization there will unfortunately be those who will complain. There are so many worthy causes in San Pedro and Belize that we can all make a difference on many levels. Thanks to all who do!