Hearts’ 50-50 raffle winner

Four-year-old Amelia Orellano drew the winning ticket on Friday. And the winner is —- Eric Fraterman, a long-time supporter of Hearts and CeTap Lucy.

Hearts raised $1000.00 so Eric’s half is $500.00. HOWEVER, this generous man is donating half his winnings back to Hearts so our raffle netted Hearts $750.00. A man who truly has a heart of gold! Looks like we will still be functioning in January.

Hearts (Orazones de Oro) will be closed for the holidays, giving our wonderful staff (Maria Jose and Alex) a much-needed holiday break. Doors will open again on January 5, 2026 when we will start our regular interviews with potential beneficiaries – individuals/families who apply for aid from the Cuenca Foundation for food baskets and from Hearts for our various programs such as the Amelia Foundation and All children Deserve to Dream. Our psychologist has a questionnaire that has to be filled out and then approved (or not) by Hearts. Sometimes we have 200 families applying and that does take a LOT of time for interviews. So be patient – we will be doing more fun things in 2026 to both raise awareness of our work and to raise funds to keep us going.

For now, Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad!