Alejandra & Fabiola's IGP

Su received an update on on of our MAC fundraisers. We raised money to provide items for Alejandra and Fabiola's mother to sell out of her home. The money was raised a year ago and provided to the family. The update on this business is that their mother is no longer selling the items from her home. Instead, she is selling items in a street market!!

She has had much success in the market, and has used some of the profits to purchase more items to sell (which you can see above). In addition, she has a catalog that customers can order bedspreads from. This guarantees that the items will be sold. Awesome report!! Congratulations Alejandra and Fabiola!!

Summer Reading Package Received~ Gema and Crystal

Su just received these pictures of Gema and Crystal with their summer reading package. They look happy with the things that they received. Unfortunately, Su does not have the letter to go with these pictures yet, so we don't have any idea what they said about the package. She is going to share the letter as soon as she gets it!

Gema's IGP~ Ice Cream Shop

Aren't these the best pictures ever? CI Guatemala provided 17 pictures for the IGP that we provided for Gema and her family. This business is up and running now (as you can see). They are selling popsicles, ice cream cones, and chocolate covered fruit! I don't have the letter or notes from the field, but you can see the joy in everyone's faces. Check out the last one of Gema eating an ice cream cone! Anyone else in the mood for a trip to Guatemala? Maybe Mack can stop by and get some chocolate covered fruit when she visits at the end of this year.

A Look Back 2009 Part 2~ All IGP's!

#4 Henry is my child (Heather M), and he lives in Cartagena, Colombia. His family has struggled to keep employment and a steady income. When I first started sponsoring him, his family was living on $25 a month!! Now, his family is at $105 a month. This is extremely low, so this fundraiser was very important for the family.

Amount raised: $215 by 5/6/09

What the family received:
Items needed to start their own restaurant
1 set of 12 pieces of cutlery
4 plastic tables
16 plastic chairs
1 can opener
1 pitcher
1 fryer
1 blender
1 grater
1 fan

The amount needed to start the business was way more than what we could raise at that time. For this reason, I have requested an update from the field to see how much more the family needs to get the business off the ground.

#5 Alejandra and Fabiola are Su's children in Mexico. They wanted to start a business selling small items in order to add income to the household.

Amount raised: $290 by 5/12/09

Items bought for the business:

toys

plates

cups

bowls

and more! (take a look at the picture to see just how much they were about to buy to sell)

#6 Brenda is Chrystal's child in Guatemala. They family was in need of income to provide for their basic needs. This fundraiser set up Brenda's family to have an ice drink business.

Amount raised: $265 by 5/20/09

Items purchased for the business:

A machine to make ice drinks

A juice extractor

6 glasses

200 oranges

And the winner for Day 10 is...

McKenzie Fritch (AKA Mack) and Jim Miller! They have won the gorgeous travel book about Lisbon, which is perfect because Jim traveled there last year!! I'm sure it will bring many great memories! Mack, please make sure to send Su your address, if she doesn't already have it.

I, also, wanted to mention that even though this raffle got off to a slow start, it gained $49 in donations! See why I always say you guys are the best?! Now, we are only short $91 to get this fundraiser completed!! You guys rock! Anyone hungry for ice cream? They should have their ice cream shop up and running by February... So, if you are planning a trip to Guatemala anytime after that, make sure to stop by and taste the delicious ice cream that you helped provide! Yum!!! Now, I am wondering how "mom" is going to keep the girls out of the ice cream & eating up profits! LOL!!!

Heads Up!

Don't get discouraged! I know the raffles started off slow, then they hit a high point, and now are back to being slow... But, do not get discouraged. Remember what we have already accomplished in the span of just 10 days!!

Maila's fundraiser received all of the funds her family needed to purchase the furniture, including a table where she can do her homework! (I can't wait to see those pictures!!)

Jonathan's fundraiser received all of the funds his grandmother needs to get her business started. I have yet to see his grandmother smile, so I am hoping these pictures will include her with a big grin on her face!

Gema's fundraiser is really close to completion now. Only a little over $100 to go!!

Araceli's house fundraiser is almost halfway completed, and Mwanza's house fund came closer than it has ever been to looking like the just might get a home! Two homes for Christmas would be terrific!!!

I know everyone is feeling a little tapped out right now. Maybe next year's raffles, since we know they are coming up, will be more enjoyable. (where we can enjoy them all the way to the end).

Now, that being said, tomorrow is Friday, so I'm hoping it will bring more funds to the projects for pay day~ There are only 2 days of Christmas left!

Now, for those of you who thought the fundraisers and raffles weren't doing very much or were not so successful, here is the 10 day update:

The 12 days of Christmas raffle-thon at the 10 day mark has brought in a total of $2,282!! That is $228.20 per day!!! Are you kidding me?!?!?! Talk about awesome!

Here is the actual break down day by day of the 10 raffles so far:

Day 1= $19
Day 2= $40
Day 3= $411
Day 4= $64
Day 5= $113
Day 6= $28
Day 7= $1170
Day 8= $75
Day 9= $317
Day 10= $15

10 day total: $2,282

Ok, I know I always say this, but what more can I say: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

On the 10th Day of Christmas...

my sponsor gave to me...

10 ice cream flavors!

Up for raffle today is this:

Tourist Guide of Lisbon with very nice pictures of the city and also travel tips (for someone who would eventually visit).

This is a great book to offer to someone who likes traveling and/or to know about other cultures.

$1 = 1 raffle ticket

The fundraiser being highlighted today is for Gema and her family to have an ice cream shop. This will help improve the family's income which plummeted after Gema's mother had a baby and was unable to work. We only need $140 to provide the family with this business!!

To enter the raffle, here is the link

And the winner for Day 6 is...

Steve!!!

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

my sponsor gave to me...

6 ice cream scoops!

This fundraiser is for the Guatemala Ice Cream Shop. We are getting very close to completing this fundraiser as well. Very exciting!

The raffle for today is a CD that ships directly from Portugal. Since, I don't know anything about Portuguese music, I have to refer to Su's email. This is what she said:


This raffle is for a "Fado CD named "The art of Amalia Rodrigues".


Amalia was the greatest fado singer ever in Portugal. Fado is a typical Portuguese type of music known all over the world.


This is a great gift for any music lover!


-------------------
Amália da Piedade Rodrigues, GCSE, GCIH, (July 23, 1920 – October 6, 1999), also known as Amália Rodrigues (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈmaliɐ ʁuˈdɾiɡɨʃ]) was a Portuguese singer and actress.
She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado") and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. In fact, she was one of the most important figures in the genre’s development, and enjoyed a 40-year recording and stage career. Rodrigues' performances and choice of repertoire pushed fado’s boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Rodrigues wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female fadista — or fado singer — should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards. Rodrigues enjoyed an extensive international career between the 1950s and the 1970s, although in an era where such efforts were not as easily quantified as today.


--------------------
Fado (Portuguese:destiny, fate) is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. However, in reality fado is simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain structure.

The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade (that has no match in English but it could be understood as nostalgia felt while missing something or someone important), a word describing a sentiment.

Mainstream fado performances during the 20th century included only a singer, a Portuguese guitar player and a classical guitar player but more recent settings range from singer and string quartet to full orchestra. Known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado"), Amália Rodrigues was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. Other famous fado singers include: Carlos do Carmo, Cristina Branco and Mariza."

To enter the raffle, it is 1 raffle ticket for each dollar donated. The donations for today need to go to the delicious ice cream shop.

And the winner for Day 2 is...

Drum roll, please... Gema received $40 in donations yesterday! Thank you to all who participated!!! Now, I know you are anxiously awaiting the winner. First, I am going to tell you how Su drew the names... This is what she wrote:

"As a true computer engineer that I am, I did an excel file with numbers 1 to 40 (for the 40$ donated) and in front of them the name of the person who donated. For instance Dana had 20 tickets (for example, numbers 1 to 20), Kate had 4 (ex: 21 to 24) and so on.

Then I used a random number generator (http://www.random.org) to give me a number between 1 and 40 and it turned out that the number drawn out corresponded to one of Dana's ticket.

Ok, just in case you wanna know how I did it"

So, Dana is the winner!!! Yay!

2nd Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, my sponsor gave to me...

2 waffle cones!!

Actually, we want to provide a whole ice cream business. This is another income generating project that should help the family tremendously!

Su is offering the item pictured above for today's raffle. It ships directly from Portugal. It is a nice set of 6 mini-bottles of port wine

It contains several different types of port wine: red, white, ruby, lagrima (which is a sweeter white wine) and a special reserve!

I personally don't know anything about wine, so I can't elaborate on this gift. However, doesn't it look nice! I'll be putting in for the raffle, so that I can give the gift to one of my husband's sisters who loves wine.

Here is where you need to donate: Gema's Fundraiser

***A special note, since this is the first year we are doing this, we are still working out some kinks. This is what I think will work out better to give everyone a chance to enter the raffles: The raffle will start as soon as I post it, and won't end until the next day when I post the new raffle. This will give those that live in Europe and other faraway places a chance to enter the raffle without having to get up in the middle of the night to do so.
Also, the raffle winner for the day before will be announce the next evening. This will give each raffle host time to tally up the tickets & draw the name.)

12 Days of Christmas Raffle-thon

Don't forget to mark your calendars for Tuesday Dec 1. That is when the first raffle will launch!! This will be very exciting, and I hope everyone has fun. I don't want to spoil the surprise by telling you what is coming up because that wouldn't be any fun... I can tell you that Steve, Su, and myself have each put together 3 gifts (for a total of 9), and I am waiting to hear from the 4th person. All proceeds from the raffles will go to Children International, and help some of the needy children we have current fundraisers for.

Make sure to put us out there on Facebook, Twitter, and any forums or other online groups you may use. The more $1 donations we get, the more children we can help! Let's make this Christmas a fun one for our sponsor kids & their families!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Do any of you know the story of the first Thanksgiving? The story starts with the pilgrims who came to America from England to flee religious persecution. They arrived in 1620. There were originally a little over 100 puritans to arrive at Plymouth Rock in December of 1620. These pilgrims arrived on foreign soil, and were unsure how they were going to get food, shelter, and the other things that they had taken for granted in England.

Luckily for them, they came across some natives who were already surviving off of the land. The natives taught them how to farm the land. Unfortunately for close to 50 of the pilgrims, the food did not come soon enough. 46 pilgrims perished before the fall of 1621 (less than 9 months after arriving in the US)!

When the crops came up that autumn, there was so much to eat. The pilgrims decided they wanted to share their food with the natives that taught them how to plant it. They invited about 90 natives to their 3 day harvest feast.

It's interesting to note that these two groups of people gathered together. First of all, the pilgrims were invading the land that was already being used by the natives. Secondly, they couldn't speak each other's language, so they had to come up with a different way of communicating. Thirdly, their customs were so different one from another that there was bound to be a miscommunication for which they would have had to excuse their differences and know that the other person meant no disrespect.

All over the world now, people of different cultures are coming together in more ways than ever. The computer has brought endless opportunities of reaching out to others across the oceans. Cameras take pictures that give a person a chance to see what you look like without ever meeting you face to face. Letters are sent and received, and it is almost like being face to face with that person talking to them.

Imagine what a change we can make with all of the technology we have available to us! The natives had to face the pilgrims (and maybe walk quite a while to reach their camp) to teach the how to plant seeds. We can send a wire of money to buy seeds for someone any where in the world! It is just like the income-generating projects we do. Instead of handing the person money to buy a bed or food for a month, we hand them money to start a business. In turn, this business provides them with month after month of food and other necessities!

This reminds me of an ancient Chinese proverb that came from Lao Tzu. You have probably heard it before. It goes like this: "Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime" This is exactly what we are doing with the Income-Generating Projects (IGP's) we are funding. The parents who have already received their gifts to start their own businesses are no doubt feeling the sense of accomplishment that comes from providing for themselves and their families!

What a feast we have given our children! In 7 months, our group has raised $6,236.70 for children and their families living in poverty! That is about $11,000 a year!

I am very grateful for the support of our donors, and that we can all share the joys of sponsorship together. (If you are still reading this post all the way to the end of my jabber, I have a surprise for you especially)

Starting December 1st, we are having a 12 Days of Christmas Goody Give-away! This is how it will go:

*On November 30th, I will make a post giving you an idea of some of the prizes that are scheduled to be given away.

*Then, on December 1st, you will see the first item that will be raffled off. All of the items will be nice, gift-giving or gift-receiving quality, so you can use them to fill in some of the holes in your Christmas gift-giving list.

*To participate in each raffle, you will donate to whichever fundraiser is being showcased at the time. For every $1 you give, you will get 1 raffle ticket. The drawing for each prize will happen the very next day (after all donations have been tallied).

*On December 2nd, you will see who the winner of the first prize was, and you will see what day 2's prize is that is being raffled. (The winner of day 1's prize will get their prize shipped to them immediately, and all gifts should make it in time for Christmas.)

So, save your coins or dollars because this should be fun!

Our New and Improved Necklace/Lollipop Fundraiser!

Another fundraising day! I am worn out!! All week I have been working on preparing for this garage sale/ fundraiser. I placed an ad in two local papers, sent notifications to my homeschool co-op group, made a few Craigslist postings, and placed signs out with balloons.

This morning, the girls and I had "Friday School". We got up bright and early and headed out to school where I teach the 2 and 3 year old class. I spent 4 hours with the 8 little munchkins, teaching them about Kangaroos and reading several books including "Katy No-Pocket" and "Good Night Moon". Then, at noon, we rushed home, ate lunch really quickly, got in the car, placed signs out on the street, drove back to the house, unloaded everything out of the garage into the yard and driveway... We were all set up by 1PM, and we already had 5 customers!! Whew! It was exhausting, but good to see profit finally! We were only open for 4 hours today, but tomorrow will be 9 hours of hopefully non-stop action!

This is how I changed up the fundraiser portion. I had already placed a sign out last time showing who the fundraiser was for, but this time I:

1- Put the sign with pictures on the PAYING table where I was sitting.

2. Put the lollipops and necklaces on the same PAYING table

3. Changed the price of the necklaces from $5 to $2 (and decided I would front the cost of the supplies, so that my girls would see the fruit of their labors)

All of that made a big difference, not to mention the advertising brought a lot of people out to begin with. There were two sweet young girls that I remember in particular. They liked the necklaces, and thought what Jaden and Morgan were doing was "so cool" (their words). They bought a necklace each, but then, came back to buy 2 more necklaces because they said it was "too cool" what the girls were doing, and they wanted to be a part of it! So, $8 from them!

Then, I had my friend buy 3 lollipops for her girls, and two other people bought 2 lollipops a piece... for a total of $3.50

The fundraiser raked in $11.50. I know it's not much, but I am not disappointed. Tomorrow will be a longer day, and I am hoping the very sweet "necklace girls" will tell their friends about the "too cool" fundraiser and come back tomorrow.

I haven't actually put the funds in the bank yet because I need change for tomorrow, but so far, this is what I have put into the fundraisers out of the $11.50 earned today:

$3 to Robyn's Fundraiser

$3 to Su's Fundraiser

More to come ladies! I am dividing the funds into the 3 current fundraisers, so stay tuned for more funds on Monday~ And, I will let everyone know the outcome of it tomorrow!

Pictures and Thank you from Project #5!

Dear Sponsor,

This is Rocío, the mom of Fabiola and I write to thank you for your donation for the project, I hope we do good. Fabi and her 2 sisters are very happy with what we'll sell on our garage. We bought small toys, some dishes and novelty items to sell at low prices, I hope we do ell in this project and with the profits we will buy more novelty items and even some school supplies for the kids.Thank you very much, God bless you and your loved ones, from my daughter Fabiola

Sincerely, Rocío

Dear Sponsor,

Thank you very much for what we were able to buy. We bought some curtains, plastic glasses and dishes, notebooks to draw, some ropes to jump, some action figures, bingo cards, spary, balls of different colors, small containers with lots of bubbles. Thank you very much, I live you very much and I want to thank you because you give me lots of things. We also bought accessories for wrestling toys, accessories for cell phones, puzzles and kitchen utensils like color spoons.Thank you very much because thanks to you , my mum and us will have a small shop with lots of things.

Sincerely, Alejandra.

So close!

http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4nsenzeni

I hope everyone can help with this fundraiser. It only needs $200 more, which is the amount of our small fundraisers that we originally started with. I know these large fundraisers are hard to fund, and most of us are short on cash. Soon we will be back to the lower amounts, and these will move more quickly. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Every dollar counts, so if you can donate $1 or $3 or whatever, it all adds up!!

2. Once this one funds, we will go on to the next fundraiser!!

3. Here is the list of fundraisers coming up soon after this one... Make sure that you have put in your 25% by the time it is time to launch your fundraiser, so that it doesn't get delayed!:

Next in line~ Crystal & Gema (Su)

2nd in line~ Maila (Steve)

3rd in line~ Adriana (Candace)

4th in line~ Yamileisy (Dee)

These other sponsors, bless their hearts, have been given the short end of the stick!! Jennifer and Robyn have both been pushed out to later fundraisers because of problems getting the reply back from the field. Jennifer got a reply from the field, but instead of giving us a fundraiser of $500 or less, they requested $2,500!! Because Robyn's was being delayed, we sent another request out for a different child of hers, that way at least one will come back in time! I hope that by the time Dee's is getting ready to finish, they will have their responses that they need!

Fundraiser Update

Maybe I should do an update every month, so that we all know what is going on with the projects. It has been awhile since I talked about the order of the upcoming fundraisers, so here it is (with an explanation to follow):

Project #9 ~ Yoselyn (Holly): http://www.firstgiving.com/helpforyoselyn

Project #10 ~ Diego (Heather G)

Project #11~ Jhonalyn & Angelito (Tamara)

Project #12~ Nisha (Jennifer)

Project #13~ Mercy (Mack)

Project #14~ Wilmer (Robyn's 2nd project)

Project #15~ Nsenzeni (Barbara's 2nd project)

Project #16~ Jonathan (Heather's 2nd project)

Project #17~ Crystal & Gema (Su's 2nd project)

Project #18~ Maila (Steve)

Project #19~ Nohel (Candace)

Project #20~ (Stephanie's 2nd Project)

Project #21~ Yamileisy & Jose Manuel (Dee)

Project #22~ Jerry (Wilfredo's 2nd project)

Project #23~ Joyce (Heather G's 2nd project)

Project #24~ Maria (Holly's 2nd project)

Project #25~ Ariela (Camille)

Project #26~ (Tamara's second project)

Now, I put Steve's, Candace's, Dee's, and Dana's fundraisers at the bottom of this list because the special needs were only just recently requested (so they probably won't arrive for another 6 to 8 weeks). That being said, if either of theirs arrives before any of projects #14 through #17 start, I will bump them forward (since these two sponsors have not yet had a fundraiser).
Remember that, especially if your fundraiser is coming up soon, you contribute at least 25% of the amount of your fundraiser to others in the group BEFORE your project begins. For example, my project, which is #15, is for $500. Therefore, I have from Project #9 to Project #15 to donate an additional $4 (I already donated $121 total to date).
In all honesty though, I hope that everyone will look into their heart and donate from your feeling of compassion for kids in general. With these larger projects coming up we will need to be an "all for one and one for all" group. I plan to donate a lot more than $4 in the next 6 fundraisers. The reason I will donate is because I love my sponsor kids, so I know how everyone else must feel about theirs. Let's make these projects happen for all of the kids!!!
I really HATE that we have a percentage in place of how much you should donate. However, I know that it had to happen in order to compel some people to donate. Donations do come from sponsors that do not even have a fundraiser in place,and that helps us to make our goals. That is how ideally we should all be... Donating because we want to help a child and their family, regardless of whose sponsor child it is.
You guys (I live in Texas, so by nature, I want to say "Ya'll", but I don't want to torture the northerners) have done a GREAT job so far!!! We have already funded 8 projects!!
For those of you who do not see your name on the list, please e-mail me an update. Chrystal, which child did you want to do next? Tamara, I have your request for the next round, but I need to see what you are going to do for this first round first. The other projects are too far out to request for yet, but these people might want to go ahead and send me the child ID of who they want for their second round of fundraisers:
Jennifer
Mack
Steve

Now, last thing... All of you who have a fundraiser on the list above, and haven't sent me your info, I need the following:

Photos (7 if you can)
Write up for how you would like the fundraiser to read
Your "thank you" greeting that will be sent when people make donations

Now, let's change some lives!!

Fundraiser Update

Hi, everyone! In case you haven't been keeping track, we are on fundraiser number 6 http://www.firstgiving.com/brendaicedrink !!!! You know what is so cool about that? That means that 5 children have been helped already in the space of 1 month!!! If we stay on this same course, we will help 60 children a year with extra gifts!!! These gifts can be life changing. An income generating project can mean that the family is able to:

1. eat 3 meals a day
2. buy clothing appropriate for the season
3. make home repairs
4. gain a sense of confidence that they can provide for their familes

You are making a difference in so many lives. The very exciting part is that soon, we will be able to see the difference. In about 2 months, we will start receiving the responses from the children and their families. We are funding these so quickly that we will have responses pouring in!! I will post them all, of course.

Now, here is the update you have been waiting on for the next round of fundraisers. Unfortunately, I do not have a list of the next 10 fundraisers as I had hoped to have. Here is the reason why: I am waiting on several special needs requests to come in from CI for several sponsors. This means that if I don't get them soon, I will have to start on the next fundraiser that I have the info for (instead of the next one in line). I have no idea on the order of things right now. I have three fundraisers with info that are projects #11, #13, & #15. Number 11 will get bumped to #7, if I don't get the info for #7 by the time #6 ends.

I hope I am making sense... Feel free to tell me if I am not :0) I will do up a rough draft list in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, I will have some responses back from CI by then. Thank you for your patience & your continued support of our kids!!

Project #5 is Underway!

Fabiola and Alejandra are two sisters that live in Mexico, both sponsored by Su. Their father works as a driver and their mother is a homemaker. They have an older sister, Arethmi.

CI was contacted to determine if it was possible to set an Income Generation Project for the mother, as she stays at home all day while the girls are in school.

CI replied: «People of this area do crafts for living. The family said that they had experience to sell things like little containers (kind of tupperware) or things that cost around 0.50$. They would start the business with a capital of $200 USD. At the beginning they would sell these things in the front of their home and later in little markets in the street.»

This IGP will greatly help the family to become more self sustainable! Alejandra is a 10 year old girl, she is in the 5th grade in school. She is a very talkative girl and her letters are really fun to read! She enjoys acting and she even went to free acting classes in her county. She loves to play with her friends, ride a bike, jump rope and skating, although she doesn't know how to do it very well (so she told me). She also told me her favourite colors are: pink, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, red... bascially all colors! She also loves animals, flowers and trees! When she grows up, she wants to be a teacher.

Fabiola is 5 and her mother told me she loves to eat noodle soup and milk with cereals. She is in third grade of kindergarten and loves making friends, in fact she is really friendly! She loves school, but she doesn't like when kids fight and say bad words. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up to take care of the "abuelitos" (that's what her mum wrote). Also she likes to shower herself and pick her own clothes. Her favourite colours are pink, blue and pastel colors.

To make a donation to this project, please visit:

http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4mexicansisters

I know that this project will fund quickly, too. In case you didn't see my post on the forum, here are a few posts from that:

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! There are not enough thank you's to show my appreciation for each and everyone of you as well as my excitement for all of our children!!!!

So, here is the big news... You have all shown that together we can make big things happen... So, that is what we are going to do. Someone else will be making a seperate announcement, but I want you to know that it is still a group effort. We are both working together for a common goal- to help all of our kid's families. Here is what is changing on my end:

Starting with project #11, the max for the small fundraisers has been raised to $500!!! That doesn't mean that you have to find a fundraiser that hits the $500 limit, but it should mean that more people can participate in the fundraising. If you have a fundraiser in mind, make sure to send it my way. I know they won't fund as fast as these smaller ones, but I am positive they WILL fund :0)

Make sure to send me your projects. I need to have the list of the next 10 projects lined up by 5/9/09. Make sure to check out my blog as well, so that you know what I need to get from you. On 5/10/09, I will release the list of the next 10 projects on the blog (projects 11-20). So, please send all that you can ASAP.

Stephanie will be handling the projects over $500 with a limit of $2500. I think this will open up a lot of options and opportunities for our sponsored children and their families!!!

I can't wait to get the first round of pictures & thank you from the first two projects. We will probably get those by the end of June, and then, we will have a steady stream of them coming in!! Stay tuned to this blog where all of it will be posted as soon as it arrives!!