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Mexican
girl to help. She started sponsoring Marisol,
a five-year-old girl who lives in
the village of Alamos in Sonora, Mexico. Helping support
this little girl through Save the Children and FAI (Fundacion
de Apoyo Infantil Sonora) added
to her sense of community. Many letters went back and
forth as Marisol grew
up. Although, Mari had two beautiful twin boys (Adam &
Jacob) during her life, she dreamed of having a little girl.
Mari had terminal breast cancer - Sponsoring Marisol
was Mari's way of giving
something to the little girl of her dreams. Three years later
Mari passed on - Mari's husband, Tom Sawyer, continued to
sponsor and write to Marisol. 
(written
in Spanish) to Marisol
and
accompany him to meet her family in April of 1999. The next
thing they knew they were on an airplane headed for Ciudad
Obregon,
Mexico. FAI met them at the airport and took them directly to a
day camp outside of Ciudad
Obregon where
600 children were dancing and making paper baskets. Luis
Leyva introduced
Marisol
to
Tom Sawyer. Marisol
showed
the Toms' how to make baskets from rolled up newspaper. They
ended up buying a truckload of watermelon and everyone ate sandia.
The children crowded around them and asked their names. They
said, "Thomas and Thomas." The kids giggled and
yelled, “O,
Tomás y Tomás.”
miles
across high desert to the village of Alamos and met Marisol’s
six brothers and sister and
their parents. On the way they passed a large rock formation
where a 100 year-old shrine had been built to the Mother of
Guadalupe. Marisol's family
lives in a little government brick house about the size of a
bedroom. They do all their cooking outside on an iron plate
heated by wood. When they gave the encyclopedias to Marisol,
she immediately shared them with her brothers and sisters. Tom
said, " It was easy to see how much the books meant to them
from the joy on their faces."
the local cantina. Of course as musicians, that was heaven
for them. It turned out, Jaime
had been playing the accordion since he was twelve years old.
He and his group of musicians put on a performance that touched
the deepest part of the Toms' hearts. The population of Alamos
is about 6,000 people, mostly farming, provided that there is
enough rain. The children are not only hungry physically,
but mentally as well. As the two Toms' walked through the
village, they started talking about things that they could do
that might benefit the children. They ended on the idea of
starting a library for children.
principal, Juan
Zoilo Lopez Delapaz. Maye
Corral, the head
of children's services for FAI in Alamos, also attended the
meeting. They found out that neither the school nor the
village had a library. The nearest library was 90
miles away in Ciudad Obregon.
They spoke with the principal about starting a library. He
said, that the school would be happy to provide a building to
house the library. At that point they decided they would
start a nonprofit organization to provide books for libraries
for children in Mexico and the village of Alamos would be the
first project. In August 1999, they received an official letter
from the school board of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico
stating that board is providing a schoolroom to house the
library.