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Miami Office fundraising dinner a celebration of lives saved
Dr. Leonel Mesa, Jr., and Virginia Coto at the fundraiser, hosted by Coral Gables Congregational Church.
Photo: Marzo Artime
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The Church World Service Miami Office's first annual fundraiser March 6 was also a celebration of lives saved since the office was established in 1960.
Among the more than 130 people attending, several shared the stories of their families' journey to Miami as refugees from Cuba, Haiti, and other countries and told how CWS had helped them rebuild their lives in America.
Two of the story tellers -- CWS Miami Office Director Virginia Coto and 2004-2007 Miami Advisory Board President Dr. Leonel Mesa, Jr. -- learned only recently that Church World Service was their families' resettlement agency.
CWS helped Coto's parents with their arrival from Cuba in 1962, but she didn’t know that for sure until just a few weeks ago. "After I started working at CWS in 2002," Coto said, "I asked my mother, 'Who resettled us?' She said it was a Protestant church and 'probably' CWS."
But it was only just before the March 6 fundraiser that the documentation was found, confirming that the family was indeed welcomed by CWS and cosponsored by West Granville Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is where Virginia was born.
"The church was wonderful to us," said Coto, who subsequently has corresponded with members of the congregation. "For me it is interesting that CWS still has sponsorship by churches, which welcome new arrivals, set up an apartment for them, help them find work, and introduce them to their new communities. It’s such a great model, and it works!"
Mesa told a similar story. He was two years old when his mother brought him and his 10-month-old brother, along with her parents and younger brother, to Miami from Cuba in 1969. Unfortunately, his father had to stay behind (it was 12 years before he was able to join his family in Miami).
Coto knew Mesa, a psychologist and director of a comprehensive mental health center, from her previous work in the domestic violence field. In 2003, she asked him to join the newly forming CWS Miami Advisory Board, prompting him to ask his mother who had resettled their family. That is when he learned that his family, too, had been welcomed by CWS.
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