I would very much like to contribute to the ambulance fund before leaving at the end of May but need to know the status of the vehicle and availability of the service. While I know there are many requests for saving and feeding animals plus contributing to individuals in need my causes have always been to the ambulance and Catalina Foundation. I’ve been able to get money to the ladder I need to know what to do about the former. Thank you for any response
Re: Ambulance
Posted by Jeanne C on April 28, 2023, 9:36 am, in reply to "Ambulance"
Thank you for your desire to contribute to the ambulance. We are absolutely accepting donations, but our poor ambulance is not running at this time. Here's the story: the ambulance broke down last June. At that time, I was in Oregon and Valerie was keeping things together here. The ambulance has a diesel engine, and she had a very difficult time finding a mechanic who could work on it. We have a contract with the municipio of La Huerta to provide maintenance and repairs, so Val sent the ambulance off to their mechanics. Those mechanics, unfortunately, are not diesel mechanics, and I believe they replaced or repaired almost everything in the ambulance, but nothing worked. When I came back to La Manz, I met with Fercho, president of the municipio, actually a number of times. He finally agreed with me that this fix was taking far too long, and if they didn't have the ambulance working by a set time, we'd have to take it elsewhere. Chuy helped me find an excellent diesel mechanic in Colima. Finally, after La Huerta had worked on the ambulance for 11 months, I asked Fercho to transport the ambulance to Colima and pay for the costs of both transportation and the mechanic. He agreed. So yesterday that's what happened. We are awaiting word from our "new" mechanic by the end of the day, but I believe, with all the new parts and with someone who knows what they're doing, we'll finally have our ambulance on the road very soon. I refuse to give up on this project. We WILL have a functioning ambulance before I head north in June. I'll keep you posted!
Re: Ambulance
Posted by Faith S on April 28, 2023, 11:04 am, in reply to "Ambulance"
Thanks for the update Jeanne. I'm grateful that La Manzanilla has folks like you and Valerie.
Re: Ambulance
Posted by Beccistarr on April 28, 2023, 11:58 am, in reply to "Ambulance"
Thank you for the info. Sounds like I can give the donation Jeanne and I want to do this. We are going to Pedro’s for a fish taco at around 1:00 and guaranteed to be there by 1:30 so if you are in the vicinity we will have an envelop for you an hand it off then. Otherwise we can make a day and time before we all leave.
Re: Ambulance
Posted by Jeanne C on April 30, 2023, 10:44 am, in reply to "Ambulance"