Kino Bay Chronicle

Community Services

Even before Club Deportivo was organized, foreign residents and visitors began helping where they could with gifts and donations of food, clothing, blankets, household goods, building materials and money when special needs arose in the community.

The late Claude Clemens, for example, saw the need for a medical clinic in Old Kino. He launched a fund-raising project and was successful in financing a modern, well-equipped clinic which is still operating today. A plaque on its wall notes Claude's help.

The Club is a non-profit organization created to help insure the safety and meet other needs of sportsmen and others who choose to spend part of their lives in Kino Bay. When income from dues, donations and fund-raising activities exceeds the amount needed for proper operation and maintenance of the Club, it then becomes possible to realize another of the Club's objectives: to be a service organization in the community, helping and cooperating with local people, local authorities like the Port Captain, and the fishermen who make their living here. There are many evidences that this has been and is being done.

In December, 1979, for example, the Club found it possible to purchase and import a school bus to transport children from New Kino to school in Old Kino. Later, a fully-equipped police car was provided to the local police department. Funds were provided for a number of school construction projects, including installation of a water supply, new septic tanks, and purchase of new bathroom fixtures. At another time, uniforms and equipment for school athletic teams were bought.

The Club building and palapa are available to and frequently used by community groups for various types of meetings and entertainment. The community's non-denominational church holds services there. The Club takes part in Mardi Gras parades and Christmas programs, distributing candy, toys and fruit to children of the community.

Two large boxes at the front door of the clubhouse regularly receive donations of clothing, food and toys for distribution to needy families. Besides help in the name of the Club, individual members continually help with funds and services to aid Red Cross and church programs. A program operating under the name Los Ayudantes, or The Helpers, is carried out by the non-denominational church. This group maintains a year-round food pantry located in Old Kino and also helps several churches in outlying communities by donating food, blankets and clothing to needy people through these churches.

Statistics about aid are not as significant as the underlying desire on the part of the Club and its members to be good neighbors and friends to the people of Mexico. Charitable help, important as it is, would appear to be surpassed by the economic benefits to Kino Bay and the area that come from employment, home construction, rentals, taxes paid, and retail sales generated by the foreign visitors, many of whom are Club members.