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!