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About 400 hometown heroes attended the 21st annual “Chicken Breakfast”/Desayuno de los Pollos this morning at API, the cruise ship dock (photos in the slideshow above). Last year we were able to feed 2000 of Mazatlán’s most marginalized families, most of whom live in shelters made of recycled materials and have neither running water nor electricity. This year we are hoping to be able to give a whole chicken and 10 days of food to 2500 families, thanks to your goodwill!

The cooks chopped all afternoon and evening yesterday, and woke up at 4:00 this morning to continue their preparations. The event has had the same head cook since the very first year, and today she won one of the main raffle prizes! A small group of us set up tables, chairs and cook stoves last night, and then showed up about 7:00 this morning to set the tables, arrange the silent auction and the door prizes. Click on a photo to enlarge it or to view a slideshow.

Hanging the sign

Setting the tables

Setting tables

Almost ready…

Head cook

Serving the food

Learning about the prizes before announcing them

Prepping the grand prizes

Waiter extraordinaire

Announcing winners

Maestro Nava explains care of the artwork

Fun behind the scenes

Amparo and Dianne

For weeks we’ve been collecting gifts—raffle prizes, door prizes, and silent auction items—which provide entertainment during the breakfast and raise a whole lot of money with which to buy the chickens and food items. Many people have spent months sewing items to sell at the holiday bazaar. 100% of all money raised goes directly to purchase food items for the 24th; everyone is volunteer and no one is paid. The silent auction, the raffle and the bazaar are incredibly popular, as you can see in the photos below.

The very popular silent auction

And the also hugely successful holiday bazaar

Gotta get the raffle tickets!

Drawing the winners…

Two of our door prize winners

Drawing raffle tickets

The thrill of winning the special raffle is a joyful sight to behold. This year we had four big winners.

Grand prize winner: art original by Armando Nava

Second prize winner: marble topped wrought iron table

Third prize winner: glass topped wrought iron table

Fourth prize winner: wrought iron pot rack

People are also collecting gently used clothing, shoes, coats, blankets, stuffed animals and toys, as well as buying candy, to hand out in the colonías early on the morning of Noche Buena, Christmas Eve. That day, we will organize ourselves into seven or so routes to hand out the goodies. Prior to that, a small group of us will visit the colonías to meet with the community leaders, and walk around with them to give tickets to each family. This is the quality control, to ensure that each family gets food, but that no one “double dips.” The morning of the 24th, we will see long lines of people anxious for their Christmas dinner and gifts. And you have made this all possible.

Would you like to know how to join us? How to help out? Click this link for directions and instructions. We also have a few posts on this blog about the event on the 24th, with loads of photos. Just search on our site for “pollos” or “chicken.”

While planning for this morning’s breakfast took months, clean up happened in about 15 minutes, thanks to so many people pitching in! God bless you all, and especially the Medina family, for leading us in this effort these 21 years!

The night before

The morning after