MLF Officials Give Back to Mexican Village
Last month, Major League Fishing Commissioner Don Rucks and several of the MLF Officials took a trip to Mexico to enjoy a week of catching more than 2,900
The drive from the resort city of Mazatlan to Lake Picachos is a scenic one, and about a half-mile before the lake, there’s a small village of about 120 people called Puerta de San Marcos.
“We’ve kind of fallen in love with this little village,” said Official John Sawyer.
Sawyer says the people in this town are living in poverty, and on previous trips to Lake Picachos, Major League Fishing has donated hats and shirts to the people who live there. This year, the boat officials gave the people of Puerta de San Marcos much more: An $1,800 donation to the foundation that provides the village’s residents with food and clean water. Drew Daniel runs that foundation.
“It’s a mountainous village. These people were displaced from their homes when they built Lake Picachos,” said Daniel, “My wife and I, we love to fish, and we love Mexico. So we saw a need, being there, that people were hungry.”
Daniel and his wife, Wendy Brackney Daniel, bought a house in the village in 2014. Then in 2017, they created the Wendy Brackney Daniel Foundation. Now, Drew Daniel lives in Mexico full time, while his wife splits her time between running the foundation in Mexico and running a business in Arkansas.
“I’m retired but I work seven days a week,” Daniel laughed.
Daniel says they’ve made some real progress over the last few years. He says they’ve created a garden to grow food, and they’re raising pigs to become more self-sufficient as a community.
“We now have running water, we have sewer, we have electricity. And that’s something they didn’t have before. So we’re just helping the people, along with what the Mexican government gives them,” Daniel explained.
Here’s the problem: The village doesn’t always have running water.
“Water is piped to us. We have breakages in the pipes, we have problems with pumps. So we run out of water,” Daniel said.
He says it’s normal for the villagers to be without running water for five days, and then have running water for just one day before another outage.
“It really tugged at my heartstrings. These people aren’t prepared when this happens,” he said.
Daniel says he reached out to the Major League Fishing group that recently visited them, not expecting much to come of it.
“It’s a very tough battle to get money donated to a foundation in Mexico because there’s so many needs in the United States,” he said.
However, Daniel explained that the town was in desperate need of a 4,000-gallon above-ground water tank that can store clean water as a backup, for when the village doesn’t have running water. With current heat indices in the
“What do you do when you’ve gone a week without drinking water?” Sawyer asked. “It just breaks my heart.”
Sawyer and many of the boat officials responded almost immediately with a donation. They collected $1,800 for the foundation, which will pay for the water tank. Boat Official Don Guy says it was a privilege to have an opportunity to help the people of San Marcos.
“The people who work very hard to provide the services and accommodations we enjoy on our trips to Lake Picachos live in and around the small town of San Marcos. This area is somewhat remote, rugged country. Basic daily services we take for granted in the United States can, at times, prove to be a challenge for this area,” he explained.
Right now, Daniel says they’re doing the prep work to get ready for the water tanks. He hopes to have the tanks installed later this month.
“When these people stepped up and sent us a check for what they did, my goodness. What a difference it makes. And it’s a difference that will be felt for years and years and years,” said Daniel.