Joan Frost and How It All Began

It all started with two friends recognizing a need.

In 1974, Joan Frost and the late Mickey Church saw clearly that health care at Lakeside needed organized support, particularly in the area of children's medical problems. Low-income Mexican families could not afford the treatment their sick children needed. The forerunner of Niños Incapacitados was "Amigos de Salud" in Jocotepec, a small group of expatriates who helped the new Centro de Salud and Silvia Flores' family clinic. Programa Niños was originally made up of 10 Mexicans and Americans, including Silvia Flores (now with El Centro de Desarrollo in Ajijic), Margarita Maldonado, who continues to volunteer in our Chapala clinic, Tom and Berniece Donagan and Joe Schwartz.

"Mickey and I saw a hole," Joan explains. "There was some help for deaf children, but if a child had convulsions, they convulsed. There was no affordable treatment available and we wanted to fill this gap."

Amigos de Salud became Programa Pro Niños Incapacitados del Lago, A.C. in 1993, with Silvia Flores as its first president. The organization, whose mission is to help Mexican families pay for ongoing and/or major medical expenses for their children with disabling or life-threatening illnesses, grew by leaps and bounds. Joan persuaded the energetic and popular Lance Elmstrom to become its next president. He proved very active, constantly out and about in the community collecting funds from residents and tourists alike. The group did some fundraising, though not on the scale it currently does. Joan has enormous respect for those she calls our "unsung heroes", the people who work so hard to raise the funds we need to help the almost 200 children currently enrolled in our program. "All our volunteers are heroes," she adds. "The people who work in the clinics, maintain our excellent website and flip burgers at the Chili Cook-off."

Joan herself, apart from her many years of involvement with the popular Mexican Chili Cook-off, has preferred throughout the years to concentrate on working with families in Jocotepec. However, she accepted the board position of Director in 1995 to facilitate the organization's dealings with the intricacies of the Hacienda, (the Mexican tax office), and everything that has to do with our relationships with the state and federal governments. She has decided to take a well-earned retirement from the board in May 2010.

Originally Niños Incapacitados worked with families in Chapala and Ajijic. We opened our doors in Jocotepec in 1999, in fact they were the doors of Joan's own home for many years until the DIF office provided us with space. Rich Petersen, who now functions as Coordinator of our three locations, says "I learned all I know from Joan -- and continue to. Nothing counts as much as experience, plus of course, the passion for our kids."

Joan has lived in Jocotepec for 43 years. She is married to John, an aerial photographer. Their son, John Burdett, heads up the computer program at a private school in Santa Barbara, California. They have three grandchildren: Austyn, Alec and Erynn.

In addition to her work with Lakeside's children, Joan is an author and wrote several books during the late 70s and early 80s. Most of her stories are set in nineteenth-century Mexico and tell of boats, shipwrecks and murder. Her publishers gave them their titles, including: This Fiery Promise, Masque of Chameleons and Kings of the Sea. She has also worked as a journalist, and 1974 saw her collecting material and writing for The Guadalajara Reporter. John did some of the photography for her column.

"Niños Incapacitados owes Joan an enormous debt of gratitude for all her years of hard work, dedication and expertise," says Bernard Downes, our current president. "Her vision and perseverance, and her ability to bring together the people to realize that vision have brought us to where we are today. Our heartfelt thanks and sincere appreciation, Joan, for everything you have done for Niños Incapacitados."

Bernard adds that he has told Joan that although she will not be on the Board next year, there will always be a seat at the table whenever she wants to come.