Our Mission
The Rafael Ernesto Rodriguez Ortiz-87 Foundation (RERO ) is a national nonprofit self-help support organization, legally constituted in the United States.
The RERO 87 Foundation’s mission is to provide underprivileged youth with educational opportunities and resources to enhance their skills to improve their lives and promote a promising future. The foundation helps by providing school supplies, uniforms, lunches/food, transportation, and college scholarships. The foundation also provides small libraries in underprivileged areas to improve literacy among youth.
In addition, the foundation also has a branch called Empty Shoes. Empty Shoes focuses on parents who are grieving the loss of a child.
Trying to cope with such a significant loss in life is extremely difficult, and our mission is to offer friendship, understanding, and hope to families grieving the death of a child of any age, from any cause.
The foundation lets parents know they are not alone by providing support groups, financial assistance, memorial walks, and awareness events.
Foundation Highlights
“The true gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from goodwill and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies. He does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity. He is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another. He does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements. He speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy. His deed follows his word. He thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own. He appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue is safe.”
- John Walter Wayland
Lighting the Path to Literacy and Hope
About Us
The RERO 87 Foundation is in memoriam of Rafael E. Rodriguez-Ortiz. Rafael was born on December 26, 1987, in Santa Marta, Colombia. Rafael went to high school at Sagrado Corazon de Jesus in Colombia. Rafael enjoyed going to school, playing sports, being with friends, and playing the accordion in the traditional Colombian style.
Rafael started at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he was recognized as a man of impeccable character, having been elected to be part of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He demonstrated his character though short but successful in many means. Rafael was “the true gentleman”
He graduated from the University of Texas, San Antonio with a degree in Business Administration. Rafael’s education opened many opportunities for him.
He continued his service path not only at home where he helped to take care of his grandfather until his final days as well becoming the brain and captain of his business, a skilled young man with a compassionate heart for patients and his community. He lived life, always with the goal of success.
Rafael became the backbone of our family, the wise gentle soul we went to for consolation and wisdom. His “ don de gente”, his generosity had no limits.
Rafael, the man of the house, straight to the point, knew how to make the difficult look so easy. His mind was very inquisitive. He loved life and adventure to the fullest.
In Rafael’s memory his mother, Dr. Kathia Ortiz- Cantillo has started the foundation in his honor to help provide youth with opportunities for
them to grow and learn skills that will help them be successful throughout life.
Our Impact
7 Libraries
in Nassau County and Alburquerque
380 Books Donated
and counting
200 Children (of all ages) Encouraged
with books!
Our Vision
The RERO 87 Foundation vision is to provide underprivileged youth with educational resources and scholarships to enhance access to skills and professional development to give them a promising future. The RERO 87 Foundation services the US and Colombia with the following services:
- Helps provide students with the material and supplies to be successful in their studies.
- Small literacy libraries to encourage reading in underprivileged youth.
- Small pantries/lunches for children in underprivileged areas, so that children will not miss a meal in Columbia.
- In conjunction with his fraternity brothers Sigma Alpha Epsilon, RERO’s foundation will be providing national scholarships to assist with the cost of tuition for college courses.
- Mentorship and support services to build confidence and success through an underprivileged student’s educational career and life.
- Advocacy for expanded bereavement and compassionate leave in the workplace, as work should be the last thing people have to worry about their intangible loss, through the Empty Shoes organization in the United States.
More than 60% of U.S. workplaces only offer three days or 5 days of bereavement leave or less, with many restrictions around when and for whom this leave can be taken. Many are not paid during this terrible time.
Outdated policies have a negative impact; they hurt employee productivity, morale, and retention. Forcing people to return to work too soon drives decreased productivity and increased absenteeism.
No team member performs at their best after experiencing a loss. After losing an immediate family member, three in four employees report harm to their work performance.
Everybody wins when people are empowered to take the time they need to recover from loss and hardship. Expanding bereavement policies benefits companies and employees alike by improving retention, productivity, and well-being. More than that, it is simply the right thing to do.
Empower Young Minds
By providing books and educational support, we empower children to achieve their dreams. Join our mission today by exploring our initiatives!