Preparing the donations for Colombia

October 31st, 2010

After many months of collecting clothes throughout central Florida, I've managed to collect all the necessary amount of donations to have a successful Christmas distribution in Colombia.  Luckily, I have a variety of clothes, toys, and shoes for all the residents of El Talon.  I want to thank everyone that helped me in central Florida, including the students of Timber Creek High School, Valencia Community College, and Castle Creek Elementary School.

I used to dislike the idea of having people help me pack the donations because I thought that it would only make the process slower and unorganized; however, this time, I decided to accept the help.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, I work in an elementary school, and one of my students is Gabriel Pluguez.  This fifth grader has shown a lot of interest in Beyond the Wall, and is also in a band with his cousins called Kyrus.  One day, he and his mother asked me if they could help me out with anything, and I finally told them that I needed help packing the donations for Colombia.  They immediately called the rest of the band Gabriel is a part of, and they all thought it would be a great idea to go to my home to help me pack.

On Saturday, October 30th, every Kyrus band member arrived at my home early in the morning to help me pack with the presence of their mothers.  The interesting part of this activity is that they are all children, and I must admit that I thought it would take them hours to pack everything...but they only took an hour!  When I used to pack everything with my mother, it used to take us hours (sometimes days) to pack, but now I realize that I will never do that again!  After their work, we all ate pizza and had a pleasant morning.  I really want to thank Kyrus for all their help and support!  I would also like to point out that Gabriel, a child of only 11 years of age, promotes Beyond the Wall at his school, among his friends, and he even wants to go to El Talon to help out with this campaign.  Publicly, I want to thank him for all the support he always offers me!

Everything is now packed, and in two weeks, everything will be sent to Colombia!

Success in Orlando!

October 2nd, 2010

After postponing the homeless distribution with the fifth grade students of Castle Creek Elementary, I was finally given approval to complete my project on Friday, October 1st, 2010 with the students making the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  The process was actually very fast, which was completely unexpected.  We had a total of eleven fifth graders packing all the donations in about 30 minutes.  I divided the students up by stations; some put the peanut butter and jelly on the bread, some packed the sandwiches in bags, and the last couple of students stored the sandwiches in the lunch bags, along with chips and a juice.  I was very excited to know that we prepared 45 lunch bags for the homeless.  After their hard work, we played soccer and tennis to relax before our distribution the next day.

On Saturday, October 2nd, selected students, some parents, some volunteers, and I went to Downtown Orlando's Lake Eola Park with all of our donations.  As mentioned in a previous post, this park has a lot of homeless people with very interesting stories.  I understand that there are places with more homeless people, but I believe this park was a perfect environment for the children.  We handed out clothes that has been donated to the Beyond the Wall Campaign, as well as the lunch bags that were prepared by the children of Extended Day at Castle Creek Elementary School.  The children also had an opportunity to speak to the homeless, which was very important.  They met people with mental illness, veterans, and some that have been affected by the recession.  An interesting (and sad) event was when they saw a homeless man being kicked out of the park by the Orlando Police Department for sleeping on the grass.  They met a woman that admitted she slept below a 408 expressway bridge.  They also met a homeless man that was so religious, that he even prayed with the children.  After the social work was completed, the children had an opportunity to play at the playground, which they really enjoyed.  We ended the morning by having pizza at the park. 

The event was a complete success!  The students really enjoyed their morning at the park, they learned about the homeless, and they made a difference.  I am very proud that I was able to direct this project with the kids, and that the alliance that the Beyond the Wall Campaign has with Castle Creek Elementary School is working out well.  I want to thank the staff of Castle Creek Elementary School, the students that participated in this project, the parents that allowed their children to help out, and of course, everyone that has followed this campaign.