MiMadre Non-Profit Launches GoFundMe Campaign

DAMASCUS, Md. - Jan. 8, 2016 - PRLog -- January 8, 2016- Damascus, MD- Today MiMadre Corporation began its initial crowdfunding campaign.

According to President Bethzaida Cordero McGuire, “We chose GoFundMe as our platform based on their track record of success.”

The campaign description says:

You can make an immediately impact on the lives of immigrant families!

My name is Russell McGuire. As the husband of almost 40 years, of Bethzaida (Betsy) Cordero McGuire, you may feel am the last person to give an objective review of Betsy’s non-profit, MiMadre. But, hear me out.

In 2012 Betsy quit the job of a lifetime (for most of us) in the intelligence community to work full time in her passion of helping others.

Being Puerto Rican, and fluent in both English and Spanish, she carved out a role for herself in the immigrant community here in Montgomery County Maryland, befriending, working with and praying with the new Americans. Regardless of their immigration status, and sometimes because of it, Betsy reached out to make a difference in people’s lives.

Working closely with immigrant families, she was able to understand the process and the robust services available in Montgomery County, MD.  Combining this knowledge, with a great group of advisors from around the state, an idea became a reality. Betsy has built up a fantastic program which lends to the effectiveness and reputation of the organization. MiMadre is about extending the reach of one person to positively impact the lives of many. The more people she can affect, she believes, the better our community.

If there was food in our pantry and not theirs, it was put in a box or shopping bag and delivered personally to the homes of those who needed it.

When the husband and primary wage earner in a poor Honduran family was dragged to Immigration prison for being a passenger in the car of someone stopped for a routine traffic violation, she went to work. She fought to protect the family from cold and starvation and, to get the husband representation to seek his freedom. After six months, he was reunited with his two children and his wife.

When a couple were mercilessly run down as pedestrians in a crosswalk, and left brutally and permanently injured, she helped. Betsy translated for them in medical visits. She consulted with them as they made difficult choices about the treatment and care. She helped them think through their options for care and redress. More importantly they kept their dignity and knew someone cared.

Betsy has learned, time and again, that when a birth record in a local hospital insensitively ends a male Hispanic child’s name in an “a” instead of an “o”, like Alejandra instead of Alejandro, he can face withering humiliation later in grade school. She has, on her own, without ever taking a nickel from anyone, intervened on behalf of such families to get a new, corrected birth certificate.

Showing over and over again, more commitment and courage than most of us could muster, she has been there for folks who are often afraid to rock the boat because their status may be problematic, or they don’t have the resources and hence assume they don’t have any right to fair play or equal treatment under the Law.

She reached out to a gentleman, new to the U.S. from Chile, who was tricked out of $30,000 by a cynical predatory employer who saw him as a ripe target for fraud. She helped him get an attorney. But most importantly, she taught him he shouldn’t be marginalized and abused.

I have left out the many church activities for kids, the parties at our home with the big inflatable bounce houses, the visits to the museums and the National Mall, the picnics, the school visits, the innumerable doctor’s visits, the overnights at a hospital at the side of an anxious mom with a sick child—only because I don’t want to lose your attention.

Here’s the message as noted in the GoFundMe campaign- Betsy has formed a non-profit that will become an umbrella under which she can broaden and expand her work. It is called MiMadre.

Here is the link: https://www.gofundme.com/79c6bj38.

Here is a link to MiMadre’s website on the internet: http://www.mimadre.org. Here is McGuire’s Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/MiMadreOrg.

The campaign notes: MiMadre got the okay from the IRS on the 501(c) 3 in 2015. As she says on the website, “MiMadre is committed to building positive futures for Maryland’s families by working collaboratively with families, schools and communities in order to improve opportunities for excellence in education and success for families in school and community life. Our special focus is women and families.”

MiMadre is an expression of Betsy’s belief in human potential. As Betsy says, “each American dream is built by the love and hard work of families, together. MiMadre wants to be there to open doors of opportunity for all new families who are navigating their way through often unfamiliar and sometimes hostile pathways in search of that dream.”

The Campaign asks: Won’t you join me in supporting Betsy and her dream of a better world? A world where a WELCOME sign is posted on the door; instead of a DO NOT ENTER sign?

Russell McGuire says, “Our family has been called to a better place by Betsy, a place of sacrifice and love. As I say again and again, Betsy has a calling and she is calling us all to love one another, to take time to listen to one another and to make a positive difference in each other’s lives.

She needs to rent a small space in Gaithersburg as the footprint for MiMadre in Montgomery County, MD. To do that she needs $25,000 for one year’s rent, facility improvements and the move.

The campaign ends: “Will you help MiMadre? And enjoy a 2016 tax deduction at the same time? If so, give today. Go fund Betsy!!!”