In 1985 the International Friendship Club began as a social club for people from the United States and Canada. That same year, Celia and Ron Walker learned that a friend’s baby had been born with a cleft palate. She needed surgery. The Walkers found a surgeon in Guadalajara, took the child and her parents there, and paid for the operation. Word spread, and they had more children to help than they could transport. Ron then thought to ask the surgeon, Dr. Ezequiel Fuentes, to come to PV every three months. He agreed and years later the Cleft Palate Program remains the flagship charity of the International Friendship Club (IFC).