Michelle Perez and Isabel Saavedra’s firm, Saavedra & Perez Law, is among the Latino-owned businesses that have signed on to an OLA scholarship initiative.
Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island has launched a scholarship initiative with seven Latino-owned businesses to support “the future of East End Latino youth,” according to the nonprofit.
Dubbed Creating Legacies, the program is an evolution of OLA’s existing scholarship effort, which has offered recipients $4,500 per year for the length of their studies and was funded solely by a board member, Michael Donovan, and his wife, Linda Donovan. “Now that we have crafted a successful process and structure, we look to our Latino businesses and Latino community members to augment this fund,” Minerva Perez, OLA’s executive director, said in an announcement. “With Latino business leaders uniting, we can leverage our collective power for lasting impact. This is just the beginning.”
“Education is the most powerful tool one can carry into any room or situation,” said Yesenia Quichimbo, an Ecuadorean native and East Hampton High School graduate who was instrumental in launching the initiative.
Participating businesses are Johanna Sanchez’s Bilingual Law Practice; Joel Vintimilla’s JPL Contractor Inc.; Jimmy Jim’s Delicatessen, owned by Juan Lazo; Saavedra & Perez Law, owned by Michelle Perez and Isabel Saavedra; Pilar Quichimbo’s Four Oaks Cafe and Juice Bar; Hector Quichimbo and Eulalia Lazo’s Montauk Market, and Adrian Sanchez’s MIAK Construction.
