Speedside Did It AGAIN!

Last week, the ladies from Speedside did and awesome job making us another 242 new pencil cases! Edna H. organized another sewing bee at Speedside, and 12 volunteers made these awesome pencil cases....  It was a time of fun and fellowship. (and Edna's famous carrot cake)....

Here are a few pictures from the day!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

Happy New Year!

It has been an interesting first six months as Shelley and I began our sailing adventure around the world.  We have so appreciated the hard work and great efforts of all the kind folks who have helped and supported us in so many ways...  The have been some changes in the last few months as it relates to our relationship and affiliation with the congregation (The Eramosa Pastoral Charge).

The congregation is looking in new directions and feels that our work does not fit within their understanding of the rules as they relate to Canada Revenue Agencies Charitable Organizations policies.  All that means is that we have dis-associated ourselves from the congregation and folks who contribute will have to do so directly to us without the benefit of a tax deductible charitable receipt.

Our whole efforts operate with way less than the $10,000 threshold that it would take for us to become our own charitable organization, so we will just carry on with some of the same people who have supported us all along....

We are still working out some of the bugs, but Shelley and I continue to be committed to our efforts and will be leaving Mexico around the end of February.  We think that we will be stopping in Honduras, La Providentia, San Andreas on our way to the Pocco del Torros region of Panama in time for hurricane season in May....

Again, Thank you to everyone who has, and who continue to support us as we change a tiny bit of the lives of children in our world....

Blessings....

Our BIGGEST Day Ever!

Over the last few days we prepared almost 300 school supply kits.  Today we gave them all away!
WHAT A GREAT DAY!

At 10 am today (Saturday) we loaded 3 pick up trucks and 10 people (including Santa) and went to a place on the island called Los Fincas, which means "The Farm".  As we arrived today we could hardly believe how these folks live.  Shelley and I have been coming to Cozumel for 20 years, and this is the first time we ever knew of this place...

That said, there were smiles EVERYWHERE today, as Santa and his elf's give the children toys, t-shirts, Beany Babies, candies and SCHOOL SUPPLIES...

Shelley spent her birthday morning in the muddy jungle roads giving away school supplies and toys with Santa and the cutest Elf ever (our daughter Kelly) ! Later in the day we went to the Fireman's house to give out hotdogs and presents! She said it was her best birthday ever !

Below are some pictures that we took as we shared what we had, with all the children we could find...

Our school supplies - Ready to go!

The crew at our first house - Ready to GO!

Santa & his Elf's

Mike C, driving the truck with all the stuff in it...

Me driving this truck with water and spare candy....

 Stacy was behind me driving the red truck.  She went down side roads and brought kids out to the main road to see Santa...

Santa and Corky (the Elf)

Kelly - our beautiful Elf...

(left to right) Kathy, Santa (Ron), and Corky

someone REALLY loves Santa....

The kids just kept coming....

This is the children's reality.... Count your blessings....

Elf Tom guarding the stuff....

Happy KIDS!

Stacy delivering a bunch of kids...

Elf Margaret handing out scribblers

Everyone LOVES Santa!

The roads were VERY wet and muddy...

With all our supplies gone we went back to town tired, but happy that we found these wonderful kids....

Cozumel, Mexico

We arrived in Cozumel, Mexico a few weeks ago.  While much of our time here in Mexico will be personal, we knew that we wanted to share some school supplies with some children here on the island.

So, this week we spent time preparing to distribute what may be the largest amount of school supplies so far. We have learned of an area on the island where there is no power, no running water and no sanitation systems...  There are also hundreds of children who don't see much of Santa at Christmas...  

We have learned that Santa will be visiting these kids on Saturday morning.  Shelley and I enlisted the help of a few of Santa's elfs and have prepared more than 200 gifts of school supplies.... The ladies from our church made a whole bunch of beautiful pencil cases, but there wasn't enough, so we purchased some nice plastic bags and some ribbon and were able to make up the number we need (hopefully)...  Sadly, no matter how many we make, it won't be enough....

The good news is that all the staff at Papa Hogs were more than willing to help put our gifts together...
There is no reason not to have fun... 

Left to right:Eddie, Francisco, Jose, Margaret & Shelley

Kathy (one of Santa's Elf's) and Shelley...

You know who....

Our new packaging...

More pictures and story soon...

Our Mission in Cuba!

 We spent a few weeks in Cuba and visited four schools.
 We donated about 600 pounds of school supplies to some very happy children.
We recruited volunteers from the marinas to help us carry the supplies.

 This principle was very happy to have us visit and donate. The school is a little remote so they seldom see people like us.

The different grades wear different color scarfs.
This school had 147 students from 5 to 11 yrs old.

Backpacks are empty again. A successful day !


The school bus is missing its front door.