The founder and longtime leader of the La Mision Children’s Fund Kathleen Marie (Thompson) Dwyer died on Monday, March 1, 2021, at home with her family.
Kathleen was the driving force behind the growth of the foodbank in Santa Anita/La Mision from a handful of local families in Baja Norte to over 450 families plus seasonal migrant workers.
Kathleen started the food bank in 2008 as a small seasonal program to assist the workers who needed to rely on donated rice and beans to help feed their families. As the program grew under her leadership and vision for the possible it evolved into the La Mision Children’s Fund growing from around 50 local families to over 450 representing nearly 1500 children.
The food bank weekly provides rice, oil, dry beans, flour, pasta, tomato sauce, frozen chicken, canned tuna even specialty items, when available, such as diapers, toothpaste, blankets, and clothing. Kathleen and her board have raised over 3000.00 monthly to provide basic nutrition and never once did the foodbank decrease the amount of food and services under her leadership.
The BECA program providing hundreds of scholarships to college-bound students in Mexico, clean water projects at local schools, and partnerships with the University of California, which have installed solar hot water and clean drinking water at several Tijuana Orphanages All Saints Episcopal Church which renovated two elementary schools and helped pay for the roof on the high school, Rotary, and many other groups.
After years of leadership at the Children’s Fund she showed us how to leave this life with inspiration, dignity, and hope for the future.
The Family is planning memorial services for Kathleen in a year’s time, at All Saints Church, Pasadena, and in La Mision, Baja California. More on these to come.
Another way to honor Kathleen is to donate to the La Mision Children’s Fund, the organization she helped start with the community she loves so much in México. https://www.lamisionchildrensfund.org/
With deep appreciation for all, she has done with a life full of generosity, love and whom we miss greatly.
