Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. by Saint Augustine
A couple of weeks ago I had the honor and pleasure to visit with Dr. Joe Thomas. Recall that Dr. Thomas (Joe) was very instrumental in helping “Friends of Copey” get an early foothold into the mission of the Learning Center. His encouragement and support was a powerful source for me and spending time with him recently was a blessing. The great chemistry we seem to have is difficult to describe. Dr. Joe is a major player for the Junior Achievement organization and is well placed to make a difference in the lives of young people. More details about Dr. Joe is under Key Friends.
This week’s wonderful news from Copey is all four future travelers are now cleared 
with visas to journey to the US. Ana Yancy, current Executive Director and Angela, past Executive Director will both escort our two 2017 students to America and on to Emory & Henry College. Fatima and Adriana are both outstanding students and will represent their community and country extremely well just as Celeste and Noelia did last year. With this travel clearance, the students and the Copey community can now with certainty begin to work together to raise some local funds to provide partial support for their traveling expenses.
Another significant event was the Learning Center being featured in a short 
documentary in Costa Rica. You can watch the entire 4 minute plus presentation on the link (hopefully) and it does include a reference to “Friends of Copey”. It will be a plus if you know the Spanish language. It offers a great opportunity to see in living color much of the inside of the Learning Center, several of the students interacting with the current volunteer teachers, including Seidy (the founder) and Ana Yancy. https://www.facebook.com/pg/CopeyLC/posts/?ref=page_internal
The latest update on the journey to a decision to move to Stage 2 regarding the new Learning Center includes the continuous effort to collect all the hard and soft data needed to complete the application information. We are realistically looking at the various challenges in fundraising and scheduling issues. The final decision is still anticipated to be made by April 18.
Finally, I am still traveling for pleasure and business. My regular routine has been turned upside down for more than a week and will continue for another week. However, it remains amazing to me that even under these conditions, “Friends of Copey” still is an everyday topic and conversation. Go…”Friends of Copey!”