VHeadline.com's Leandro F. Chique C. writes: As a young man Joe Jaycox, co-founder of Chico Carrasquel Foundation, joined the Peace Corps and taught sports in several barrios of Caracas and Maracaibo in Venezuela.

Joe worked primarily at the Youth Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Catia but traveled to many barrios (poor neighborhoods) throughout Caracas including Petare and 23 Enero, as well as, Santa Rosa de Agua, San Francisco and many other barrios in Maracaibo.

During this time, Joe fell in love with Venezuela and, especially, with the families and children of the barrios of Venezuela. After he left the country he always had the desire to one day return to Venezuela to do something more to help the children of the barrios.

• Joe lives in Chicago, Illinois and in 1999 had the honor and privilege of meeting Chico Carrasquel at his home on the South Side (Chicago).

Chico and Joe became good friends and, in August, 2004, they started the Chico Carrasquel Foundation with the sole purpose of finding ways to help Venezuelan children find a better life. Chico and Joe talked about baseball clinics, visits to the barrios by famous baseball stars, taking barrio kids to museums and baseball games, etc.

One day, Joe mentioned to Chico that he remembered from his days in the Peace Corps that those kids in the barrios did not receive any toys at Christmas and this made Chico very sad. He recalled that he and his brothers and sisters were so poor in the barrio Sarria that they never got toys at Christmas.

Joe told Chico that the foundation should have a project similar to the "Toys for Tots" project in the United States and Chico said that this was a very good idea.

With Chico's approval Joe called some friends and told them the following:

"Chico and I want to start a program called "Juguetes Para Ninos" so that every barrio kid in Venezuela someday receives a toy for Christmas."

"But, we have no money, we have no way to ship toys from the US, we have no warehouse in Venezuela and we have no volunteers to help distribute them however we want to start this project. Can you help us?” Told Joe to his friends.

Chico is gone now, but not before he saw that something amazing could happen, something that made him very happy. A friend told Joe to contact a man named Pedro Gonzalez in Miami. Pedro Gonzalez and his wife, Christina, are Venezuelans who own a shipping company there called “H&S International.”

• Pedro said that if we got people in the US to donate toys that he would ship them to La Guaira in Caracas.

Then Joe went to Caracas and met with “Venezuela Sin Limites” and “La Fundacion Eugenio Mendoza.” These wonderful people also liked the idea and agreed to help with the shipping and warehousing of toys when they arrived from Miami to La Guaira.

Afterwards Joe met with officials of the Venezuelan Baseball League (LPB, by its abbreviations in Spanish) who volunteered to help by having Venezuelan baseball players of teams like 'Leones del Caracas,' 'Navegantes del Magallanes,' 'Tigres de Aragua,' 'Aguilas del Zulia' and 'Caribes de Anzoategui' among other teams, distribute toys to the kids over the Christmas holidays.

Everyone who knew Chico knew the story about his father buying him a new pair of shoes for Christmas but never allowed him to wear them. It was one of Chico's favorite stories.

In Chico's memory, we need the help the people everywhere, in the United States and in Venezuela, to make this project successful by sending new or used stuffed animals and toys to H&S International Shipping in Miami, Florida.

The address is:

H&S INTERNATIONAL, INC.
7170 N. W. 84th Avenue
Miami, Florida 33166
+01 (305) 594 9402
Attn: Pedro/Christina Gonzalez

You may also visit Chico's web site at www.chicocarrasquel.org for more information about the “Juguetes Para Niños” Project.

Please help us bring a ray of happiness and renewed dreams to poor children in Venezuela’s barrios this Christmas time.

Leandro F. Chique C.
lchique@hotmail.com