More awareness, more support! Thank you!

My sister is a teacher in Springhill, Nova Scotia and has a class of students that gives back and helps in various ways. They raised money for our orphanage this year! THANK YOU!! It is so cool to have support coast to coast! J

FROM SHANNON:

Here are a few of my students with the donation container we had a the local grocery store for the week after the earthquake (that raised about $80) and we also cooked the lunches for the week of exams in January when the cafeteria is closed. That raised the rest :) The cheque is for $320 :)

Shannon

Names: Josh Adshade, Adam Rideout, Richard Snair, Jeff Harrison, Shauna Ryan, Wes Herrett, Avery Leblanc and Kaitlyn MacDonald.

Launching the online store!

It's been a busy week!

I've gotten a lot done with getting the online store launched www.cafepress.com/jeninhaiti ! Even added more merchandise today with photos from Haiti! Great gift ideas on the site and I'll keep adding photos and merch. Please think of it when you need a gift for someone!

Went to pick up my malaria pills and got a supply for 2 years! Now to find a mosquito net.........

At the orphanage they have moved the boys out of the little boys house and will not be renewing the lease on the mission house. We found out that both rented houses have not been built as well as we'd hoped (one the rebar has rotted due to leaks and the other was built with NO rebar) and we're not taking any chances so some children went into the church with the POP (Por-au-Prince) children and some have gone into the big boys house.

New housing arrangements are desperately needed.

Things are going to look different when I get down there but I'm still looking forward to getting there!

Just over 100 days away!!!

Jen

Thank you, Caleb!

I’ve know the Yu/Lyons family since 2002 when I first went to work at UBC Athletics. The second oldest son, Jordan (aka JY) was playing on the basketball team and his siblings were at all of his games. Their parents would make it trips down from Prince George and I got to get to know them as well! Reena (oldest sister) and Matt had a newborn, Caleb who I’ve watched grow, run around War Memorial Gym and become a great big brother to Mataya and Olivia.

When I got the opportunity to partner with UBC to raise money for the orphanage, Reena came up to me to say that Caleb had decided that his 9^th birthday this year was going to be used as an opportunity to raise money for Haiti! Here is the story told by Reena (his mother).

After the earthquake we had spent a lot of time watching the news and explaining to the kids what was happening in the rest of the world. Caleb seemed especially concerned about the segments that involved children and was asking a lot of questions about what was happening to those kids. When Matt was younger he used to donate his gifts to other various charities and had talked to the kids about that before. Caleb came home from school really excited about what the school was doing for Haiti so when we started brain-storming ideas with Caleb for his party the idea of having a fundraiser came up. We made it clear to him that this was his party and his choice and he could choose if he would like to a party (with presents) and invite his friends to go to the Planetarium or Granville Island kids market or he could invite his class to our neighborhood for a fundraiser for Haiti and donate his gifts - without hesitation he decided to donate to children in Haiti. To be honest, I wondered if when the party came around he would feel sad about not getting any presents but I was really proud of him as there was never a single moment that he mentioned gifts - he was just really excited to raise the money.

Caleb raised $205!! He is an amazing young boy from an awesome family! I’m so fortunate to know them!