DYDC Video

INSPIRATIONAL RUSTIC WOODEN SIGNS

Please take a look at the facebook link below.  Especially the picture albums.  Tammy MacKinnon, our Treasurer for the Dominicanada Youth Development Centre has a new project.  She has created inspirational wooden signs.  The rustic wooden art with uplifting hopeful messages are made in 12x12 or 11x14 blocks of wood.  Tammy creates the design and then tattoos it to the wood.  She ages it and stains it to make it look vintage and rustic.  Great for the cottage!  Please see the pictures below along with the picture albums on this facebook link.  All proceeds will help raise funds for our children's arts programs at Dominicanada.  Those interested in purchasing a sign to support our Spring fundraiser for Dominicanada, 100% of all profits for the month of April are going to support our children at the Dominicanda Youth Development Centre.  If you would like to order one of these signs, or a personalized sign you can order directly from Tammy on this facebook link.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sticks-and-Stones/181772631940880
Please visit the older posts below to see how much your donations are helping our kids and changing lives and thank you for all your continued support.

THANK YOU CANADA

Mission complete!  All of our donations have been well received by the Dominicanada Youth Development Centre in the Dominican Republic!  Below are a few photos of  the many donations distributed, each child received a goodie bag to take home with them.  Thank you to all who were involved with our drive at Mundy's Bay.  Thank you principal Mrs. Condren, who allowed us to set up camp outside of her office.  Thank you to Mrs. Scott for spear heading the drive with Ally and all her classmates.  Thank you to all the kids at Mundy's Bay, and their families for collecting so many nice donations.  Thank you Mind's Alive for the donation of toys we sent to the kids.  Thank you to Constable Dave Young from the Midland Police Headquarters and to Al Gilchrist the President of the Innisfil Rotary Club for your wonderful offer to transport all these donations to our Dominicanada Youth Development Centre in Puerto Plata.  As well as the donations for the Rotary Club Mission, four suitcases extra were delivered to the Centre.  The cheers could be heard from miles around, "CA-NA-DA, CA-NA-DA", the children shouted.  A glimpse of hope for more students to be able to attend school with all of the school supplies collected,  more full bellies with all the peanut butter and cheez Whiz gathered, and many well  needed toiletries for our Dominican mom's and their households.  Along with lots of new shoes and clothes for the children, and most importantly just the thought of knowing that all of us in Canada care about them.  My sincere thanks to all who made this fabulous drive so successful.

DONATIONS FOR HAITI AND DOMINICANADA

Our local Rotary Clubs from the Simcoe area are planning a Humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic March 20th. They have asked for help to collect some well needed supplies for the Haitian children they will be traveling to see. In the process they have very kindly offered to deliver four suitcases full of school supplies and other donations to our Dominicanada Youth Development Centre. A big THANK YOU to the Mundy's Bay Public School student's, and their families, for their generous donations and helping the children in need. See photos of the big arrival above.

FRANKLIN'S NEW ROOF

In the video above you will find a short interview with a little boy named Franklin.  I have mentioned in the blog previously that the conditions of Franklin's entire home are the worst conditions I have ever seen in in my days in Playa Oeste.  See the before photos of the holes the size of baseball's in the corrugated tin roof over Franklin's head where he sleeps. Our faithful friends from the Good Sheperd Church in Englehart wanted to sponsor a home repair just after the hurricane. Rain used to be Franklin's worst worry, but thanks to the Good Sheperd, Franklin now sleeps well and dry, see the after photos of the makeover roof below.  

This photo of Franklin himself was taken in his kitchen, you can see the floor consists of dirt and stones.  Our next repair will be the roof on kitchen side of the home, and the floor.  If you would like to help lay a new floor for Franklin and his family, or repair the remaining side of the roof, donations can be made through Paypal with the link at the top of the blog.

ARROZ CON LECHE DOMINICANO (RICE PUDDING)

Here are some photos of Ilda and our Dominicanada kids.  Ilda is busy with a giant pot of boiling, cooking outside on an open fire. She is making her delicious Dominican Arroz Con Leche or most famously known in Canada as Rice Pudding.  

Although there are many different versions of Rice Pudding all over the world,

the Dominican recipe is a very popular one, with it's distinct mix of spices, including cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
This traditional dessert in the DR is very simple to prepare, give it a try with this recipe and enjoy this sweetness in a bowl:

http://www.dominicancooking.com/992-arroz-con-leche-rice-pudding.html

CARNIVAL 2012

Here you will find photos of Teacher Helen and Teacher Victoria enjoying Carnival time with our kids. Teacher Teresa has also been organizing some fantastic projects. Thank you to the 3 best teachers in the DR!!

Dominican Carnival usually runs throughout the entire month of February until February 27th which is Dominican Independence Day. Carnival has been celebrated since the early 1500's. It is thought to have been introduced to the DR by Christopher Columbus. It has been celebrated by families as a traditional curb-side parade in the main streets, with each town adding their own spin. Parades are full of music, masks and coloured costumes full of whistles, bells and mirrors. The main characters of carnival are Diablo Cojuelo (Limping Devil) and Lechones. These are usually found carrying whips and their masks have spikey horns, bills like a duck and/or lots of scarey teeth. You will find most children at the parade with a Vejiga in hand. These are dried pig or cow bladders that are inflated like a balloon. They were originally used during the parades for crowd control. The object is to hit anyone and everyone that walks past.....and they do hurt!

VALENTINES DAY

Valentines Day is a big event in the Dominican Republic, El Dia de Amor, the day of love, is sometimes considered a holiday more popular than Christmas.  Everyone tries to find a little gift for their love, and always for their mother.  Our kids shown below with Teacher Helen, made these beautiful hearts for the loves of their lives, their moms!

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Our kids were very busy this month with activities for Independence Day.

The colors of the Dominican flag are very prominent in these photos.  Red, white and navy blue

 On February 27th, 1844, Juan Pablo Duarte declared independence from Haiti.

The first constitution of the Dominican Republic was adopted on November 6th, 1844, and was modeled after the United States Constitution.

HANOVER HELPERS

A big shout out from the kids at Dominicanada go to Brenda Campbell from the Lion's Club and friends from Hanover for so kindly collecting and transporting supplies from Canada to our Centre in Puerto Plata.  Thank you so much Brenda. Brenda's group were in Puerto Plata for a wedding, and took the time out of their holiday to arrange the delivery of some much needed supplies.  Our kids are making very good use of knapsacks, crayons, colouring books, and yummy peanut butter amongst other things!  Another big thank you to my good friend Tara Schlatman for arranging the connection and Helen Smith our British delight that arranged the delivery of all to our kids.

SO MUCH LOVE

Thank you so much to all of our sponsors over the Christmas Season.  We all know that times are tough, especially during the holiday season, it isn't always easy to find that extra few dollars to help out.  Thanks to all of our dedicated sponsors and new supporters in Englehart and P.E.I. who generously donated to help make our annual Christmas party a huge success.

Lots of presents for all the good girls and boys.  Santa was at the Centre early this year.......
Ho Ho Ho Ho

The pineapple cake was the favorite of the day.  Not your typical Christmas cake in Canada, but a very popular choice in Puerto Plata.






Our kids have one thing they love to do more than anything else and that is dance Merengue.  They are taught as infants, and are the best little dancers around.

FELIZ NAVIDAD!
As you can see by these photos the kids all had a great time, with lots of food, fun and games and presents.  Thank you again to all of our sponsors for their generosity and so much love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas is approaching faster than we can imagine.  We are busy fundraising for our annual Dominicanada Christmas party.  Thank you to Ally for her donation from selling her pop bottle cap necklaces to her classmates. Thank  you to all in Englehart, Tammy MacKinnon and her friends and family in P.E.I. for starting us off with a blast.  Donations are still being collected and can be made with the yellow paypal donate button you see directly to the left of this post.  All donations will be used to purchase food for a planned 70 kids (although last year we were able to feed 150!).  We hope to be able to raise enough funds to copy the party we had last year.  Hearty sandwiches for all, cake, fruit kabobs, and a very fruity fruit punch, candies, cookies, lollipops and goodie bags to take home.  We hope to be able to have gifts for each child as we did last year as well.  There definitely will be lots of loud music and dancing again we can guarantee that!

On behalf of everyone from our Dominicanada family, we thank you for all your love and support.  We wish you and your families all a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2012.

NEW YORK NEW YORK

Mary Rapuano and her group of 20 teachers spent the day at the Youth Development Centre today.  The kids loved having the group there, and told our teachers that they were so happy to spend their day with 'Americanos'!

Upon her return Mary sent a note that read,

"Our visit to the DR was a success, and we had a wonderful time at Dominicanada! What a great program you are running. Hopefully we will be able to work together again in the future".

Mary and her volunteers made decorative flip flops and one of their favorite past times, colouring with the kids.  They also brought donations of school supplies that are so desperately needed.  Thank you to Mary and fellow teachers for your donations, and help, to keep the Centre open until the end of 2011.

PHOTOS OR FOTOS IN SPANISH

My apologies to those of you that have been waiting to see photos of new uniforms, school supplies, hurricane relief, and our Christmas party.  We have now been able to train our teachers to dowload photos to the computer and send them via email.  More updates to follow.

NEW UNIFORMS

Here are some photos of our kids with their new uniforms, thank you to all who supported our cause.  Uniforms, shoes, knapsacks and school supplies for all.

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

We are well into September now, and our Dominicanada kids are all settled in school. They are so happy to be able to go to school. Education and school are a privilege in the Dominican Republic. The education system is free in the DR; you don’t have to pay for tuition for public school. There are Municipal schools that charge a minimal tuition, and private schools, considered the best education, that are too costly for average Dominican families. If a family are able to pay for tuition, one is able to attend a better school. If a Dominican child wants to attend a Public School where there is no tuition, the family still has to pay for supplies. Many children are not able to attend school because the family cannot afford the uniforms and school supplies. In the Dominican Republic, there are classes in the mornings for the younger children, afternoon classes for older children, and many adults attending school at night.  Our 70 kids are from ages 4-9, attending Kindergarten to 4th grade. We also have 15 children that are from ages 9-13 still attending these grades. Thank you to our donors, with your support and donations we are able to work in conjunction with our school to offer our Dominicanada Youth Development program as well. We are so proud of our program.  It's all about education, and with that, we can change lives.

FUNDRAISING

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my Canadian friends who so kindly purchased one of our coconut butterflies.  45 were sold in total, and $450.00 was raised to go towards uniforms for this school year.  The 50/50 draw was also successful and tickets were sold to raise $265.00.  Half to go to the winner of the draw and half to fund the Centre.  Diane Bruce from Bolton, won the draw, and generously donated her part of the winnings back to Dominicanada for funding for the Dominicanada program to continue.  Thank you to Diane, and all who helped our summer fundraising efforts.  A special thanks to Tanya for helping me with all the sales of butterflies and tickets.