FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

August 15, 2022

 

Circulo de Puerto Rico, Inc. is pleased to announce the selection of Ms. Mara Villalongo, a PhD candidate in Psychology at Virginia Tech as the recipient of the Norma M. Holmes Education Grant. Recently CPRI, in collaboration with Virginia Tech, College of Science, Department of Psychology announced the availability of this award to qualified candidates enrolled in the doctoral program for Psychology at Virginia Tech. Dr. Roseanne J. Foti, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology Virginia Tech was instrumental in working with the CPRI selection committee to identify and select the best qualified candidates.

 

CPRI would like to thank its membership for their continued support of CPRI activities and related projects in furtherance of our values:  CHARITY, COMMUNITY, CULTURE, COLLABORATION, AND CONNECTIONS. CPRI also expresses our sincere appreciation to all of the contributors and donors to the Norma M. Holmes Education Award.

 

CPRI will present the award at our 65th anniversary celebration in September 10 at the Twin Lakes Golf Course in Clifton, VA.   

 

 

CPRI has been busy working in different initiatives and activities!

 

Be sure to check out ur events tab to have up to date information on current activities. We are also working on an education grant, honoring the legacy of one of our dearest members, please check out the Norma M. Holmes Education Grant tab for more information and to donate.

 

Also, don't forget to become a member and stay update with the work we do through our newsletter and get early bird and member prices for some activities throughout the year. Círculo de Puerto Rico, Inc. (CPRI) is accepting new memberships, the annual membership dues are $25.00 for the period of January to December. Any member joining in any month of the year will pay the dues for the entire current year. There is no proration of dues and there are no refunds of dues. The nominal $25.00 dues are assessed to cover general administration expenses, such as state corporate registration, website (including domain registration), insurance, supplies, postage and any other administrative expenses approved by the CPRI Board of Directors.

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Membership to CPRI is open to all those who subscribe to the purposes listed in Article III, Section 1 of the CPRI By-Laws, dated September 24, 2017 as amended. Members 18 years and older who have paid their annual membership dues (members in good standing) shall have a right to vote in the election of CPRI’s Board of Directors, officers, administrator or other designees for the year in which such member has paid his/her dues. All of our members will also receive invitations to all the activities and events hosted by CPRI and in some instances our members will receive invitations to activities before they are open to the public. However, only members in good standing will be eligible for special benefits offered by CPRI to some activities and events, as well as the CPRI membership pin or other CPRI goodies.

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Join today!

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A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT:

 

As you may well know, our organization was founded in 1957 and since then it has been transformed to meet the challenges of our communities in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia; and these past years were no exception.

 

We also re-organized our Board of Directors and appointed an interim Board of Directors to lead the transformation efforts and in November 2018 we resumed the nominations and elections process and appointed the official Board of Directors.

 

Our headquarters was relocated from Washington, DC to Virginia to better serve our Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia communities.  We also recovered our Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Exemption under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501 (c) (3).  We added Puerto Rico as a new service area and registered the organization to do business in Puerto Rico.  We have registered to do business in Puerto Rico and have received our Puerto Rico Tax Exemption authorization, in order the better support the recovery efforts of the Island.

 

Hurricane María brought a new unity and focus of Puerto Ricans around the world.  Hurricane María inspired us to do things differently to provide emergency relief, help in recovery efforts and support efforts to make our beloved Puerto Rico become resilient to future catastrophic events.

 

We collected food, water, solar radios/flashlights, emergency medical kits and supplies to provide emergency relief for those critically affected by Hurricane María in Puerto Rico.  Our first collection effort produced two 28-foot truckload of donated goods that were turned over to the EMD Sales Warehouse for subsequent delivery to needy families in Puerto Rico.  In addition, we provided support to Bolsas de Amor para Puerto Rico, EMD Sales, United for Puerto Rico – DMV, Friends of Puerto Rico and many other organizations providing emergency relief and recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.  With the generous donations of Wilma and Jorge Cuebas and the logistical support of Elda Devarie and Miriam and Tomás Esterrich, our Puerto Rican needy children were able to receive Beanie Babies as Christmas gifts.

 

We also entered in a collaboration agreement with Oasis for Hope, Inc., an organization led by Alberto Pérez-Pietri, who is drilling water wells to provide potable water to rural communities that have been affected by Hurricane María and who are impacted by water rationing during the dry season (February to June) in Puerto Rico.  A fund-raising event, led by Carmen Alicia Morales and her family, brought in over $9,000.00 in donations, which successfully met her goals to provide funds for the drilling of one water well for the Círculo de Puerto – Oasis for Hope Project.

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Last, but not least, our membership continues to increase and our fundraising events continue to be great successes, which demonstrate the strong desire of many Puerto Ricans and friends to share in Puerto Rico cultural events with music, food and fellowship, while helping raise funds for our charity activities.

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The members of the Board of Directors are committed to make the Círculo de Puerto Rico a viable organization in which we can come together for “Charity-Community-Culture-Collaboration-Connections” activities.

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Respectfully,

 

Mariel Ocasio

President 2017-Present