Supporting a New Model School in Costa Rica

Over the past several months, close friends of the Harrington family have been working tirelessly to open a new model school in Costa Rica. The past 10 years have seen enormous development in the Guanacaste region, many times at the expense of the local culture and ecology. Community members have expressed concern about the disconnection between Costa Ricans and foreign residents, and its impact on the social, political, and ecological structure of the region. It is with these concerns that La Paz Community School was created.

The objectives of LPCS is to form an educational cooperative that integrates the members of a community in creating a collective, bilingual learning environment…to implement meaningful service learning that empowers students to become stewards of their communities…to develop skills and nurture values that cultivate the well-being of self, family, community, and world…as well as, to uphold high academic standards with an emphasis on experiential learning and discovery.

This summer the Harrington Family Foundation made a contribution to the La Paz Capital Fund to help provide the school with much needed startup funds to aid in the purchase of materials and complete the construction of classroom spaces. Because expansion and renovation was immediately needed, HFF was eager to assist in this effort. For more information on La Paz Community School in Costa Rica, log onto www.lapazschool.org.