El Camino AMR
During In A Fairfield Minute’s humble beginnings, back in March 2021, we interviewed Luke and Sofia—a brother and sister living in Fairfield, CT that started a good news newsletter called “Good News Sunday Fairfield”. They worked hard every week to share positive stories, jokes, brain busters, and more! They literally lived and breathed our same mission! And these were kids, totally awesome! Today, their family has now begun a new venture to help children with physical disabilities in need of life-changing surgeries in Brazil.
It was while on a trip to Brazil last year that Kellen, Luke, and Sofia learned of 23 children who were on a waiting list to get much needed surgeries to improve mobility and alleviate pain, and was compelled to get involved. Kellen rallied a few other Fairfield County mom friends to create a fundraising campaign in benefit of these children who are being supported by an amazing organization called AMR (Associação Mineira de Reabilitação). AMR is an organization located in Kellen’s hometown in Minas Gerais, Brazil serving about 500 underprivileged kids with disabilities. Their support include orthopedics, prosthetics, wheelchairs and therapeutic treatments at no cost to the families.
Sergio, AMR president with Kellen (Founder El Camino AMR Campaign) and her family: Sofia (daughter), Juliana (sister), Luke (son), Merces (mom) during a visit to AMR last year where they learned about the 23 kids in need.
This mission was a long time coming. Kellen knew it was time to merge her lifelong desire to do the El Camino/Saint James Way Pilgrimage with helping these kids to get their surgeries. Hence, “El Camino AMR” campaign was born. Everyone is pitching in! Even the kids are doing their part and working on all social media pages.
Kellen with her El Camino AMR Crew: Kevin (husband), Luke, Danielle, Stella, Laura, Vanessa, Annika, Becky, Jessica, Emily, Sofia, Amelie
El Camino AMR was created specifically to raise funds to cover the surgeries for the 23 kids in the AMR waiting list, and so far can proudly report that they have been able to fund 3 surgeries: Vinicius (17), Gabriel (17) and Camila (14), with one more scheduled for this week! 19 kids await! Let’s keep the momentum going!
Camilia (Age 14) - surgery sponsored by El Camino AMR
Gabriel (Age 17) - surgery sponsored by El Camino AMR
Vinicius (Age 17) - surgery sponsored by El Camino AMR
For donation instructions and a list of the kids waiting on surgeries as well as the nature and cost of the surgeries go to https://amr.colabore.org/elcamino
Go to https://linktr.ee/elcaminoamr to follow their progress