Highway to Mexico Coordinators Allan Kuechle (Left) and Felix Seiler (Right)

By Courtney Almeida

Highway To Mexico

Rotary launches 18th annual Highway to Mexico Project

Mar 21, 2019 | 3:00 PM

A Recognition Event in support of The Rotary Project “Highway to Mexico” was held at the Holiday Inn Suites and Hotel yesterday. The 18^th annual project will see a convoy of 20 Rotarians drive 10 donated vehicles over 5,500 km, from Grande Prairie, across the United States and through Mexico to Mazatlan, Mexico, a city off the shoreline of Sinaloa.

The event showcased some of the vehicles that will make up this year’s Albertan convoy contribution.

Vehicles include: An Aerial Ladder Fire Truck, a Fire Rescue Truck, a Fire Department Support Van, three school buses and four ambulances.

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“This Fire Truck here is in pristine shape, but because its 20-years-old, it cannot be insured anymore for a major Fire Department, so that’s when they put them to auction or a lot of times, they donate them to us,” said Felix Seiler, Coordinator for Highway to Mexico.

One of the Fire Trucks that will be donated to the Mazatlan Fire Department

The trip, set to begin in Grande Prairie on March 29, will span approximately 5,500 km in distance and take about seven days to complete.

After this year’s donation, 106 vehicles will have been donated to communities in Mazatlan, Mexico, since the project began in 2002.

“There was about 10 municipalities that didn’t have fire departments, they had a Toyota pick-up with a portable pump and that was there Fire Truck and now they all have real Fire Trucks,” explains Seiler.

Additionally, several donated items will be brought on the convoy such as 100 wheelchairs, over 250 soccer uniforms and shoes, and assorted fire protective clothing and firefighting gear.

After 300,000 km has been driven on a school bus, school boards turn over vehicles as a safety precaution to students.

School busses donated came from Peace Wapiti and Peace River School Divisions

“It’ll last another 20-30 years in Mexico,” says Seiler. “We probably put the most miles on when we drive them [the vehicles] down there.”

The Project was organized in partnership between the Swan City Rotary Club, Fairview Rotary Club, Peace River Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Edmonton Riverview.

The project is financed through the clubs, in addition to private donations made by municipalities and organizations throughout Alberta.

“A gentleman who used to vacation in Mazatlan, he realized there was a need for wheelchairs so when he came back here [to Grande Prairie], they had wheelchairs but they didn’t have a way to bring them down there so that’s when they bought a school bus and they put the wheelchairs in there and that’s how the project started.”

A special recognition was made on behalf of the 100^th vehicle donation marker. Eight of the vehicles donated this year came from Grande Prairie and Peace River, with two Ambulances additionally donated from Edmonton and Edson.

“For the drivers… it’s a unique experience. They get to drive 5,000km in a Fire Truck. I mean, everybody doesn’t get to do that. How many people can say they’ve done that?” said, Allan Kuechle, Past President for Swan City Rotary Club.

Having made the trip himself 12 times now, he describes seeing the growth in the project over the years from one vehicle, to four, to six and now 106. The project continues to evolve to provide different kinds of support as Rotary learns about the ever-evolving needs of the community.

“Wherever there’s a need and our Rotary guys are comfortable with it, if we can supply something, we’ll do that.” – _Kuechle

After creating 10 Fire Departments for the Mazatlan communities, Rotary began looking into Ambulance donations to support the need for people to have a mode of transportation to attain the medical services they need.

“You get to know these people really, really, well,” says Seiler. He describes the experience as “instantly gratifying” with the biggest attraction to the project being his ability to witness the impact his work and donations have made in real-time.

“They all have Facebook pages, so we see how this stuff gets used every single day. We made a lot of good friends down there. I mean, if you go to Mazatlan on vacation, every half-hour you see a vehicle go by that has the Grande Prairie name on the side.”

Mayor Bill Given was given the key to the City of Mazatlan and “The Mayor of Mazatlan even came to Grande Prairie a few years ago and signed a sister-city agreement with the City of Grande Prairie,” said Kuechle.

Drivers taking part in the impactful project, experience a unique trip through several rural areas in Mexico. The experience normally leads to return involvement too.

“It’s very emotional sometimes and they make a really big deal out of it.” _{– Seiler}

Participation is offered to Rotarians first, but anyone who would like to get involved is encouraged to reach out to Rotary on Facebook.