On October 14, 2023 over three hundred volunteers from sixteen companies descended on the Rinconcito colonia on the eastern outskirts of Tijuana to participate in Baja Challenge. Rinconcito is a poor area with hundreds of families living in poverty. Many living in little more than homes constructed from discarded pallets, cardboard and other scrap materials. Over the course of a single day the volunteer army built twenty-one new homes for families, giving them a weatherproof and safe home.

This was the 23rd edition of Baja Challenge organized by Devin Beale of Black Diamond Construction. This year sixteen companies from San Diego’s real estate/building and related industries raised the money for the materials for each of twenty-one houses ($7,000 for the house and an additional $800 for an outdoor toilet) and sent a construction team which built all of the homes in a single day. Each team worked side by side with the family for whom the house was being built along with help from Project Mercy Baja construction’s crew.

At the end of the day each family was presented with the keys to their new, safe, weather tight, newly painted home.

Many thanks to all involved who made this happen. It was a truly special day.

Companies

Belmont Park