Meet The Founders
Bobby McDonell and his Salvadorian wife Maricela were married in 1978. Bob’s Mom was a Court Clerk and his Dad was Chief of the Kenmore Fire Department. He grew up in Western New York in the Buffalo Niagara Falls area with his two sisters Patty and Susie and attended St Andrew’s for eight years and Cardinal O’Hara HS for four years until he graduated in 1973.
sister-Patty McDonell (Herron), Bobby McDonell, sister-Susie McDonell (Isaacs)
father Bob McDonell, mother Jeannie McDonell, Bob’s wife Maricela McDonell
Bob then majored in Math at Jamestown Community College and SUNY Buffalo.
Maricela was born in El Salvador the youngest of seven siblings. Her Dad was a Civil Engineer for the Salvadorian Government and her Mom was a Bookkeeper for forty years. After graduating from HS, Maricela began working as a secretary in El Salvador and eventually was accepted into an exchange student program to attend Durham Business College in Phoenix, Arizona where she graduated in their bi-lingual secretarial program. Bob was working at Durham Business College when Maricela arrived to study in 1977. They fell in love and were married a year later in 1978.
Bob & Maricela in front of Bob’s Mom and Dad’s house in North Carolina
It was during Bob’s first trip to El Salvador in 1982 to meet Maricela’s family that he heard God calling him to help the children of El Salvador. Seeing the street children during the war begging for newspapers to cover up and sleep on the streets impacted him in such a way that Mi Casa was started seven years later in 1989. As Bob tells it “I was always waiting for my calling in life. I always knew that God would call me to serve Him one day but I never imagined in a million years it would be to serve Him by caring for and raising orphaned and abandoned kids! The day that God called me EVERYTHING CHANGED! It was like God did a heart transplant on me and gave me a little piece of His heart for children. At the same time, He downloaded the purpose of my life. I have never looked at a child again the same. When I see a child I see Jesus and exactly what He saw when he said “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these…truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”.
Bob & Ceci in 2012. Ceci came to live at Mi Casa when she was 4, graduated from HS last year and is now studying Cosmetology. We hope she never leaves!
Bob and Maricela’s three biological children all consider the children at Mi Casa as their brothers and sisters. There were thirty “siblings” at Robert Paul (Bob & Maricela’s oldest son) and Nolvia’s wedding in 2012 in El Salvador.
Sean, Maricela, Steven & Robert at our home in Oregon before we moved full time to El Salvador to personally run Mi Casa.
Robert Paul (firstborn) and his wife Nolvia have donated their resources countless times and just as equally important are the hundreds of times they have the kids at Mi Casa over to their home for movies or just come over to play and spend time with their brothers and sisters at Mi Casa.
Sean McDonell graduated from the University of Oregon and went straight to work for Merrill Lynch. In early 2012 Sean started Coffee4kids with the purpose to help Mi Casa. Coffee4kids has the most amazing coffees and one dollar from the sale of every bag of coffee goes directly to Mi Casa. If you enjoy coffee, please order from them. You will not be disappointed. Visit them at: www.coffee4kids.org
Steven McDonell helps his older brothers and the kids at Mi Casa in so many ways. He currently works with Sean McDonell over the summer fire season doing recycling and helps out at Coffee 4 Kids whenever needed. Steven spent two years in El Salvador helping at Mi Casa and his family with the kids. He is always promoting the work we do at Mi Casa.