Bajito Onda

yesterday, saturday, i visited bajito onda, a non profit organization that aids in world peace. the reason i found bajito onda and visited it had nothing to do with world peace. with my job with the bank ending in 5 days i'm trying to find another job to pay the bills while i develop my financial planning business. as part of my job search i've been looking at the online job board that the art institute of dallas publishes for its students and alumni. earlier this past week i saw a posting for a graphic artist position so i requested more information about it.

it was for bajito onda. after reading more about the job i called del hendrixson, the founder, to schedule an interview. we set our meeting for saturday at 2 pm. i arrived about 15 mins early because i wanted to make sure i had time to find the place in the event that i had trouble doing so. del wasn't there yet because she had a meeting for a grant that she applied for earlier this month. after waiting 10-15 mins del showed up with a small crowd of 5 or six people. one person was one of the workers, one was a boy who was to serve community service for a crime he was a part of, and the other's were part of a religious organization.

del proceeded to give us all a grand tour of the building. this is where it got interesting. i learned that bajito onda is a non profit organization that uses printing to raise money to fund multiple projects. i was amazed at how many types of printing they do. they can print flyers, business cards, brochures, t-shirts, banners, posters, vinyl signage, auto wrapping, odd shaped objects, and much more. they even dabble in web hosting and development.

i was even more impressed by the projects that the printing, grants, and donations all fund. del created bajito onda to help stop violence and create peace. she specifically targets the latin community and the gang problems that encompass it. she helps kids and young adults find more of a purpose in life and help them get out of the gang lifestyle. del also has a program to help ex-cons get re-established in the community by teaching them a trade and how to interact with and care for others. sadly there is a lot of help needed in this area because most prisons don't have programs or even care about prisoner rehabilitation. a lot of prisoners become more criminal minded and violent due to being in prison. her outreach programs now stretch world wide. involving parts of africa, south america, and mexico.

at first a walked into bajito onda in search of a potential job, but what i found was much more. through bajito onda i would have a chance to learn loads about the printing industry and at the same time become immersed in helping people in ways that i had not imagined. del is always trying to come up with more ways to make money for bajito onda, and though i showed up because i wanted to simply do graphic arts. after a 2 hour tour and a 2 hour interview we both see me as doing more marketing/sales, and public relations for bajito onda. to make it even more interesting the job might not be so much of a pay check earning job, but more of a entrepreneurial venture. del told me that she feels like she is getting overloaded and is running short of ideas. instead of hiring a button clicker she wants someone who can come up with an idea, implement it, and market it. and intead of earning a salary or hourly wage i would earn more of a commisson from my success in generating business.

we haven’t set anything in stone. i don't even know for sure if i will be doing this, but i told her that i would stop by the office the 30th or 31st to talk more about the opportunity. the good thing is i will have about 4 months of severance pay from the bank to help me figure things out. even if i don't work for bajito onda, i would like to become a volunteer so that i can start helping those with needs and even learn more about the latin community and different types of printing that bajito onda does. needless to say i'm feeling excited and optimistic about opportunity.