Spring Cleaning at the Mariposa Center for Girls

Spring is in the air and The Mariposa Center for Girls is buzzing with positive energy. We have been extremely busy with deep cleaning, organizing, and giving the Mariposa Center for Girls a refresh as programs are in full swing and visitors return.

We have been working overtime to give some special attention to the areas that needed a little work to make sure that everything is in tip-top shape for the year. Here are just a few of the facility projects that we’ve completed over the past few months:

  • We’ve had a lot of rain recently so some of our classroom roofs were leaking! We were able to repair the holes and replace many of the roof tiles.

  • Safety is always our first priority. We buried electrical lines around the property to ensure that they stay out of the way of our basketball games.

  • Spring means gardening season so we cleared out the overgrown patches in our gardens and started planting new beds in our gardening classes.

  • Good nutrition is critical for growing bodies and minds and in an effort to ensure the Mariposa girls are staying strong and healthy, we’ve transitioned our food program to be entirely plant-based! Through food, we can celebrate the beauty and abundance of the Dominican Republic and develop healthier habits that last a lifetime. We even built a new outdoor oven (fogón) and we’re excited to continue developing new recipes.

  • We refreshed our entrance area with new signs, gravel, and flowers to welcome our visitors.

  • The main office and conference rooms got a fresh coat of paint.

  • We added additional nighttime security lighting.

  • We gave everything a deep scrub in the spirit of Spring cleaning and got new screens for all of our windows.

  • A full schedule of programs is underway so we updated our inventory, reorganized our supply closet, and added to our wish list (see link below)!


Our youngest girls have been busy learning tennis, yoga, ballet, chess, cooking, and improving their literacy through our own Mariposa Primeros Lectores Reading Series. Our older girls are learning ocean safety, playing baseball on the traditionally “boy-only” field, updating their resumes, learning modern dance routines, and improving their English. Our girls are dedicated, engaged, and empowered!

Thanks to our hard-working staff and the support of donors like yourself, our center is alive, shining, and home to over 150 Mariposas!

Sara Bruins