About
Valle Verde Rotary Club has a long history of support for Casa Hogar De Madre Conchita - a girls orphanage in Nogales, Mexico. A restaurant owner in Nogales Arizona, George Papachuris found himself with 200 extra meals one day and decided to look for the orphanage that he had heard of across the border. He found twenty little girls living with three nuns in a tin-roofed building with dirt floors, minimal furniture and no heat. This restaurateur undertook personally to help – and discovered his Nogales, Arizona, Rotary Club– and several other Southern Arizona clubs including Valle Verde were also willing to help. By 1997 Valle Verde had helped fund real beds for the girls and had established it's annual Christmas gift tradition of purchasing clothing and toys for the children. In 1999 Valle Verde submitted a Rotary International matching grant application that provided$25,000 to upgrade and refurbish the living quarters - this included installing a tile floor, gas furnaces and closets for the girl's bedrooms.
In 2006 Valle Verde spearheaded a fund raising drive to build a 2000 sq. feet, three room, new school house at the orphanage. Many Rotary Clubs and some individual Rotarians pitched in. This school also serves both the orphans and a limited number of other disadvantaged children in Nogales, Sonora.
