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.

MOBILITY

 This is Thomas Dominguez.  He lost his leg in an accident but that doesn't stop him from working everyday.  You would think with the loss of a limb, one would have a desk job....not Thomas.  He is on the beach each morning at 6 am.  He makes his way down a steep hill of sand with his crutches to rake and clean the beach shore line along with the city works team.  I see him every morning, and thought he deserved the wheelchair, that the Balm Beach gang donated, most of all.  So Thomas happily accepted the wheelchair and told me he was thrilled to be mobile, and would now be able to boot around the La Sirena shopping centre!

SUITCASE BED

Little did we know, that some of the suitcases that are being donated to transport our donated supplies, are also being used in the community.  Moms are splitting the hard cover suitcases in half and using both sides for baby beds.

MANY THANKS

Below is a photo of all the supplies, school and other, that we received from all of our supporters that were recently here visiting.  Dominicanada now has enough supplies for the children, that we are able to start our craft program within the next few weeks.  Some clothes and knitted dolls were even hand made by our friends in Englehart.  See Heidi below in her new skirt!  A big shout out to, the Balm Beach gang, the Brittens, the Batemans, the Brandes's, the Whittakers, and everyone in Englehart.  Thank you all for your generosity.

NEW JERSEY IN THE HOUSE

We took Bob and 14 of his teachers from New Jersey out on the Monster Truck today to deliver 800 pounds of donated school supplies.  Each zip lock bag had a notebook, 3 pencils, pens, erasers and sharpeners in it.  There were 400 in total.  We went into the countryside first, then to Sabana Grande School, and finally into Playa Oeste, to Ilda’s school, where we will eventually open the Dominicanada Youth Development Centre.  Thank you Bob and gang for all your donations.

UNIFORMS

The Director of our school, Ilda, and I went to Jimenez department store this morning to buy uniforms with the donated money from our bake sale.  It was a bit tricky trying to get all the sizes right, but we managed to purchase all the shirts, pants, socks, and shoes needed.  Most of the kids had outgrown their uniforms from last year, so there were many that wouldn't be able to attend school at all without these uniforms.  Thanks all!

NOTEBOOKS

Notebooks were purchased today and all the Dominicanada supporter’s stickers have been placed inside each front cover.  Each child now knows the names of their friends in Canada who sponsored their school notebooks with their bake sale donations.  All school supplies were also distributed to the children, all from the proceeds of our bake sale,  many thanks everyone!