Leavitt leaves it all behind

We wouldn’t want Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt’s job (well, jobs plural, really). But he does work hard enough to earn some serious R&R a couple times a year.

Work hard, play hard, he is always saying.

Leavitt’s most recent week-long trip, from which he’ll return Saturday morning, has been to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. But it hasn’t been all poolside mai tais this time around.

The mayor, who is a Downtown Vancouver Rotarian, spent a few days touring the city itself and meeting locals who have been helped by Rotary programs, especially clean water and school construction projects.

The school above was built with Rotarian support for a very poor small town outside of Puerta Vallarta, Leavitt wrote.

“It’s really satisfying to meet the children in small towns who were getting sick from basically drinking out of the river,” before clean water systems were put in place, he said. “Now they can just be focus on being kids.”

He said the living conditions have been rudimentary.

“It grounds you because you realize we have it pretty good in the United States,” Leavitt said.

Mexico’s school attendance requirements end in 9th grade, when most kids leave to help support the family. Leavitt spoke about the more than 300 $350-a-year scholarships Rotary has handed out to keep them in school.

He also enjoyed breakfast with the 29-year-old mayor of Puerta Vallarta and the Rotary Club, where he offered some personal gifts to his Mexican counterpart.

Also, none of your tax dollars went toward Leavitt’s tour, and likely resulting tan. He called it a “Tim Leavitt sponsored trip.”

Here’s a few more shots Leavitt snapped and sent along:

These children live in the one of four rural towns Leavitt toured “where water purification systems were installed with Rotary contributions (including $5k from downtown Vancouver Rotary),” he said.

“Mothers thanking Rotarians for pure water and health of their children,” Leavitt wrote.

The playground at the school: “About 30×100′ in size,” Leavitt wrote. “No grass here…”

The computer lab at the school.