The Royal Resorts Foundation (Fundacion Royal Resorts A.C.) supports health and community projects in the Cancun area, children’s education, conservation and gives employee relief in times of serious illness. With a mission to help those in need, change lives and protect the precious ecosystems and rare wildlife of the Yucatan Peninsula, it has already raised over US$137,000, but its work is never done.
To complement the fundraising activities already underway at the resorts, Royal Resorts is launching a new Dollar a Stay charity campaign. Starting on December 6, 2014, one dollar will now be added to the bill that all members and guests pay at checkout and will go towards the Royal Resorts Foundation’s community work. This is an optional donation and guests can choose to contribute more or to request that it is removed when settling their bill.
The Royal Resorts Foundation Causes
The money raised from the Dollar a Stay campaign, donations and other Royal Resorts Foundation fundraising activities and events is used to support four key causes in Cancun and the Mexican Caribbean:
The campaign against Cancer
The Royal Resorts Foundation supports Cancun-based association Grupo Desafio de Quintana Roo in its work to raise cancer awareness and give vital screening and treatment to patients who lack the resources to pay for them.
Founded by women who have fought their own battle with cancer, Grupo Desafio organizes seminars in the workplace, schools and colleges to spread the message that the disease can be treated if detected in time, and also helps patients on a low income with the cost of mammograms, prostate cancer studies and HPV vaccinations. In 2013, it forged an alliance with the new Cancun Oncology Center at Galenia Hospital and launched the Gift of Life campaign in 2013, which provides radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments for women who cannot afford the medical care they so desperately need. Thanks to donations from the Royal Resorts Foundation, in the period 2013-14, Grupo Desafio has been able to pay for life-saving therapy for nine women at the new clinic. In the past patients had to travel to hospitals in Merida or Mexico City for treatment.
Children’s Education
In its drive to help marginalized children receive an education, the Royal Resorts Foundation also supports the Mano Amiga School in the Ciudad de la Alegría Community Center. Now in its fifth year, the school has been a lifeline for almost 6,000 children, giving them a chance to study, receive medical treatment and nutritious meals and enjoy a safe environment to learn, play and make friends.
The goal of the Royal Resorts Foundation is to provide scholarships for 144 students so that they can fulfill their academic potential and pursue their dreams.
Saving the Mayan Jungle
In the field of conservation, Royal Resorts is a longtime supporter of Cancun NGO Amigos de Sian Ka’an and it has teamed up with the group to participate in a groundbreaking regional initiative to protect the Mayan Jungle.
Amigos de Sian Ka’an is working with rural communities to protect the forest instead of clearing it for development or farming. Ejidatarios or farmers who agree to leave their land untouched receive environmental services payments. Their actions help safeguard flora and fauna and the purity of the underground rivers lying deep below the forest floor and increase carbon capture to offset the devastating effects of climate change.
The first recipients of environmental services payments were Ejido Juarez and San Mateo Ake near El Eden, a private reserve en route to the Yum Balam Biosphere Reserve and Holbox in northern Quintana Roo. Both communities are located in a belt of forest and marshland rich in wildlife and with plentiful water all year round. It is a natural corridor used by species such as deer, jaguar, puma and ocelot and is a refuge for hundreds of species of resident and migratory birds and the long-term goal is to protect neighboring areas and ultimately link it to Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.
With the support of the Royal Resorts Foundation, in the period 2013-2014, Amigos de Sian Ka’an has been able to preserve more than 400 hectares of forest through environmental services payments. This area of jungle represents the capture and storage of 30 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by water production, pumping and water treatment plants in the Benito Juarez municipal district where Cancun is located.
Employee Emergency Relief Fund
Through the Employee Relief Fund, the Royal Resorts Foundation also helps staff cope with grave illnesses such as cancer, major surgery or accidents in the family and to provide care for the terminally ill. Aid is given on a case-by-case basis and alleviates the burden on the household at a time when problems seem insurmountable. In 2013-14, the foundation assisted nine employees with serious health problems, including providing surgery for a security guard with a lifelong, and deteriorating, hearing problem, restoring a maid’s sight with a cornea transplant and an intraocular lens implant, an emergency operation for a breast cancer patient, and funding therapy for a child with epilepsy.
Spreading Happiness campaign
From helping host huge children’s parties to raising money to make a sick child’s dream come true, the Royal Resorts Foundation also has a community campaign called Spreading Happiness to bring smiles to the faces of those in need, the sick and the old.
Four Spreading Happiness events have been organized to date in the period 2013-2014 and they have brought together Royal Resorts employees, members and guests who volunteered to help or donated time, money or gifts:
• A Christmas Surprise of grocery boxes, cookies and candies in the El Milagro neighborhood, December 2013
• A Valentine’s Day visit to the Old Folks Home in Ciudad de la Alegría, February 2014
• The Dr. Sonrisas Children’s Day Party on May 3 for 300 sick or disadvantaged children. Royal Resorts Foundation volunteers participated in the event, manning face painting, balloon and games stalls and handing out toys that had been donated by members, guests and staff at the resorts, May 2014
• Toys, candies and volunteers for the Dr. Sonrisas Children’s Christmas Party on November 29. A total of 156 children attended and were brought to this Día del Sonrisa (Smiles Day) event by three local charities: Fundación Aitana, Manos de Apoyo y Vida and La Escuelita
• More Spreading Happiness events are planned in the months to come
Emergency relief to Los Cabos after Hurricane Odile
In September, Royal Resorts and its staff joined the nationwide Hurricane Emergency Relief Campaign for Baja California Sur, sending aid to the beleaguered inhabitants of Los Cabos in the wake of the category 3 Hurricane Odile. Staff donated 46,858.70 pesos and the company matched the sum for a grand total of $93,717.40 pesos.
Would you like to Volunteer?
Members and guests who would like to volunteer their time or skills or visit one of the institutions supported by the Royal Resorts Foundation during their stay can email: contact@royalresortsfoundation.org
The Royal Resorts Foundation also accepts donations of educational material, new toys, used clothing (children and adults) in good condition and canned and packaged food.
For more information about the Royal Resorts Foundation
Visit www.royalresortsfoundation.org for more information about the Royal Resorts Foundation causes, recent fundraising activities and special Spreading Happiness events organized during the year. Online donations are also accepted through the website. You can also watch the Royal Channel videos documenting the Spreading Happiness events.
If you are staying at the Royal Resorts and would like to learn more about the Royal Resorts Foundation, its work and fundraising activities and to schedule visits to the organizations it supports, you may wish to attend a Royal Resorts Foundation presentation during your stay. These take place at 1 p.m. in Sidelines Bar, The Royal Sands on Tuesday after the First to Know meeting and on Wednesday in La Rotonda Bar, The Royal Haciendas at 3 p.m.
