Flip Flops for Friends - 'Tis the Season

Tis the season to be thankful - for family for friends, health and happiness!  Everyone has a different definition of what family, friends, health and happiness is!  Over the past few days I have seen so much joy, appreciation and happiness to fill a whole year!  

Traveling to the DR with my daughter, parents and friends has been such a heartwarming experience.  The smile has not left my daughter's face since we arrived.  Seeing her do the work that she did to collect the flip flops and seeing how excited the children were to receive them.  Talking to the children on the bateys and at the school, then getting in the car and saying "I love it here!"  Having the opportunity to show my parents the work that I have done in the past and what they have taught me has paid off, was amazing for all of us to share.  Taking the time to share with two of my Rotarian friends, who are Dominican and whose families are still here, the love of a country that they are so connected to, has been extremely moving. But most of all I am thankful for the experience to be able to come and share not only with my some of my family and friends, but to provide some small  assistance to children and families in need.  There are times we take small items for granted like getting "another pair of flip flops or another shirt" but to the people we saw over the last few days, this was a gift that will last for a while.  My hope is that this experience will be the beginning of so much more for all of us.

Over the past few days we distributed over 600 pairs of flip flops, 70 soccer shirts and received the best gift of all - hundreds of smiles and more gratitude than we could have ever imagined!

Thank you for the support of us and this project!  To Be Continued in February!

 

Flip Flops for Friends - Day 2

Today was another wonderful day!  A day filled with the knowledge that both my daughter's empathy and thoughtfulness for others came to fruition!

We started our day going to meet the children in La Romana that were in desperate need of soccer jerseys! Lily had collected 70 jerseys and we were able to give them all out!!! They were perfect!  Amazing to see all our friends and our soccer shirts going to good use!!

Our next stop was delivering bubbles and 90 pairs of Flip Flops to the Family AIDS clinic.  The bubbles and flip flops are going to be given to the children as part of their Christmas presents!  We met up with Centro Romano Rotarians to give this donation.

Next stop was two schools to deliver flip flops. This is where Lucy was in her glory! She kept telling me how awesome and wonderful it was to be with the children at school.  She was ecstatic when she went into the fifth grade class and they were learning English.  Lucy started speaking to the class and asking questions!  She gave all the girls in the class rainbow loom bracelets and each of the 4 classrooms a jump rope!  

After lunch we went to Batey 105 and Batey Brador to distribute more flip flops!  In total today, we passed out 400 pairs of flip flops, 70 soccer shirts, 12 jump ropes, 24 rainbow loom bracelets and 72 bottles of bubbles! And what we received back were hundreds of smiles, hugs, and sincere THANK YOU's!  Not bad for a day's work!

Again, none of this would be possible without the help of some very special people!  We had the assistance of Daniel, Fernando, and Jeisy from the Good Samaritan Hospital, Marta Victoria from the Centro Romano Club, and several other members of her club assisting at the Clinic! Of course a huge thank you to Lucy, my parents and Chris for getting all of the flip flops on all the little and big feet today!

Outstanding!!! Bueno Dia!

Flip FlopsFor Friends Day One

Thursday was our first day here in the DR and it was such a amazing day!  After a very long journey on Wednesday, my parents, daughter, Lucy, my amazing friend Chris, and the one and only Wascar started our journey to distributing some of the 1200 pairs of flip flops that were donated by our friends, family, Rotarians, Girl Scouts, classmates, and community members!  

It was a day that made me proud in so many ways!  We began our delivery of the flip flops and gave out at least two hundred flip flops to the children and families of batey 106!  To see the idea that my daughter came up with, come to completion and see her interactions with the kids of the batey was priceless!  She jumped right in and was chatting with the kids, and giving them the flip flops.  I don't know who was more in awe, the kids, Lucy or my parents!  The saying a picture is worth a thousand words, is so true...  Here are a few from our visit!

 

After the distribution of the flip flops we made a quick stop to see our friends at Batey 105.  We will be returning there tomorrow with flip flops!  Wascar and I needed to see that our water station still had running water!  The good news is that there is still running water!!!!

Final stop of the day was the Centro Romana Rotary Club!  We are so thankful for our friends in this club for assisting with the distribution of the flip flops and soccer shirts!  They could not stop thanking us at the meeting for making so many people so happy by our small contribution to this little corner of the world!  Rotary International's theme this year is "Light Up Rotary" and they told us that our light is shining very bright!