[The webmaster has judged that the following letter be presented as received to preserve the charm. We could change spelling or English grammar, but we could do no better to capture the thought. The David addressed here is DGE David Gallagher of Modesto Sunrise Rotary]

Dear Jessica and David:

We are very pleased to tell you that we have finalized with great satisfaction  our Fire truck project. As you can see by the pictures and the translation, describing the project, which we are also sending you,  the truck, even so of old age, has found a home, where we hope it will be useful for many years.

By being present at the delivering ceremony we could understand  better the meaning of our project, since this town did not had a Fire truck before. Everyone was very appreciative and grateful to all of us.

 As for our club, we thank you all for your effort to make this project possible. We hope, the material we are sending you  is satisfactory to close the project at the Foundation and for your own need. Once more, our appreciation to your club and Foundation HART. We hope to maintain our Rotary Service relation in the future and remain, yours in Rotary, Helmut

Last weekend, a group of Rotarians from our club travelled to LA ENTRADA, COPAN to deliver officially a Fire truck Unit to the Mayor  of this town.

The project originated two years ago by a request of the President of the Foundation FUNDALEC, Elias Peres Garcia, backed by the commander of the Honduran Fire Department,  stating the urgent need of a Fire truck for this town of 30.000 people., located about 200 miles from the capital Tegucigalpa, at a short distance from the Ruins of Copan and on the way to the border of El Salvador and  Guatemala. Its people are dedicated mainly to commerce, agriculture and firework industry ,which they export to the neighbour countries.

At the same time we received this request from don Elias,  another group of Rotarians  accompanied by Past Governor Miguel Morazan travelled to California, District 50100 in matters of a 3H Grant which we jointly requested with the Rotary club of Mantica  at the Rotary Foundation. Some of the places visited where, Mantica, Modesto, Sacramento, Stokton, San Francisco and others.  At our visit at the Rotary Club of Modesto Sunrise, our friend David Gallagher informed us of the availability of a Fire Truck. The project finalized happily last August 9^th .

We did not know Elias Perez personally until this date. However, every month we received a telephone call, asking if there was any progress of our project. We mention with pleasure and great satisfaction, Rotarian David Gallagher who obtained the donation for his club and took charge of repairing the unit. Jessica Settle from Foundation HART  who took care of the transportation cost to Puerto Cortez in Honduras, obtaining a Humanitarian Transportation Grant at the Rotary Foundation.

The voyage to LA ENTRADA, quite long but very pleasant, reinforces Rotarian fellowship, making this occasion unforgettable. The travellers where Donald Kaminsky- Volker Rafflenbeul, Shad  Prashad and Helmut Seidel.

At our arrival, we met Tte Cor. Carlos Suarez Cordero, Chief of the Honduran Fire Department and his staff, delivering additional equipment for the Truck. A senator of the Department of Copan, the mayor, his staff, local television and radio, reporting the occasion.

According to the effort made for this occasion , we became aware of the importance  this project has for this community which is governed by a group of young and progressive people. During our stay we where  graciously  attended by the mayor and his staff which finalized with us participating at the wedding of the daughter of Mr. Elias Perez. Let us all congratulate for having accomplished this important project for the people of LA ENTRADA.

                                    Helmut Seidel