HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM PUC MEXICO!

Hello all!! This is Rachel from the PUC Mexico Team! After a whirlwind semester, our team is happy to be back home with our families and to have time to reflect on our project thus far. We wanted to take a moment to express our immense gratitude for all the support we have received and update you on what our team has been up to!

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone for their contributions to our fundraiser. From November 6 to December 6, we launched a fundraising campaign to raise $15,000 for the prototyping, materials, and other project costs that we will face in the coming semester. The support we were met with was overwhelming. By the end of the campaign, over 220 donors had contributed $17,304 to the project, 115% of our original goal.

This is AMAZING. We were and are absolutely floored.

It is difficult to adequately thank all the generous donors, the numerous friends and family members who promoted our project to their personal networks, the people who bought cookies in our bake sales, and all those who listened to our spiels or were patient or supported us tirelessly from behind the scenes. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our supporters. Without you, NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE. And now with an increased budget, we will be able to expand the scope of the project, improve our prototyping, and help the Xuchil team more than we would have been able to before. Thank you - you have made this fundraiser go above and beyond in support of the Xuchil team.

In addition to the fundraiser, we were busy this semester laying the groundwork for our project. We met and communicated with the Xuchil team and our Tejiendo Alianzas coordinators, Richard and Sarahi, over video calls, and got to meet Richard and Sarahi in person while they were in Austin! We also made preliminary travel plans, presented twice to our Service Learning Advisory Board (SLAB), budgeted and sourced materials, and created designs and 3-D models of our project design. Lastly, the Xuchil team launched their own fundraising campaign in Oaxaca to fund other improvements they will be making in their process, which will be linked at the end of this post!

The project we are designing will operate like a "giant salad spinner," with the aim to improve the mesquite pod rinsing process - pods and water go in, and bike power makes the spinner reach high speeds and fling the water out from the pods. We are really excited to solidify these designs and begin the prototyping process throughout January!

As far as the future goes, this coming semester will likely be busier than the last. We will be focusing on building and testing a prototype, sourcing our materials for the Oaxaca trip, planning community activities with the Xuchil team, solidifying our travel plans, and staying in constant communication with the Xuchil team and Tejiendo Alianzas. There will be many updates to come as we move from the planning-heavy phase of last semester into tackling the nitty-gritty in the coming months. This next semester will be when our design comes to life.

And our last exciting news: Morgan from our team will actually be travelling to Oaxaca during the break to meet the Xuchil team and see their site! This trip, which is independent of our fundraising, will allow us to gain a better understanding of the space Xuchil uses and their mesquite processing operations, which we will carry through our prototyping and design. AND Morgan will get to meet the Xuchil team in person and strengthen the relationships between our teams. The rest of us are jealous and can't wait to hear from the trip!!

Thank you for reading this little extended holiday card. We will have many updates to come as we dive into the coming months.

Check out the Xuchil team's fundraising campaign at this link!

https://www.donadora.org/xuchil

Thank you for reading and supporting our project in every way that you do - HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!