Lots of events this newsletter: The COAR kids celebrated the Pope’s World Day of Peace with Archbishop Escobar and Cardinal Rosa Chavez in February. Then they celebrated the anniversary of Fr. Ken’s death, March 2, 2002. That is always a big feast at COAR. This year it coincided with our celebration of the Myers family’s long and fruitful legacy at COAR at our Annual Benefit, April 29th. Then they celebrated the feast of St. Romero, March 24th, in a unique way: they made a video showing Fr. Ken founding COAR alongside St. Romero. (Watch it here!) Now that isn’t exactly how it happened. St. Romero had asked the Cleveland Latin American Mission (CLAM) Team to work in refugee camps and then to form a plan to help with the orphaned children there. But COAR was not officially established by Fr. Ken, at his parish in Zaragoza, until after St. Romero’s murder, in the summer of 1980.

Still, the kids’ video captures a greater truth: the strength of the legacy of St. Romero, the Salvadoran staff, Fr. Ken and his family, and all our supporters, and how this legacy has formed the children. These are the final words in the video:

“As time went by, the children grew up at COAR, and were educated in values and learned to love and let themselves be loved. They worked for the wellbeing of others, transforming their own stories, and fighting for justice and the common good.”