Preparing for the Launch February1st

It is very early on Monday morning but my mom always used to tell me that "The Early Bird catches the Worm" so here I am at 5:45 developping my strategy. We will be having an event at the end of February where we will have a special guest speaker who recently returned from spending six months in Sierra Leone. We will also be blessed by having a Children's Gospel choir to help us celebrate with song. More to follow...

Thanksgiving....It all started with an email

It all started when I received an email from my friend who arrived in West Africa with his family last summer as part of a 3 year Western Peacekeeping School program in Bamako, Mali . He wanted to make a difference during his tour so decided to "adopt" an Orphanage. He would visit there on weekends to help clean the place, chop wood and assist with the chores. He would also buy much needed food on occasion. He sent me pictures as friends back home in Canada indicated they too would want to assist. I am a mother and have two kids so jumped on board immediately. This was Thanksgiving 2007 and since we have so much to give thanks for... why not.

Our first project involved their only mode of transportation"a mini-bus" which had broken down few months earlier. The kids were no longer able to go on excursions and as such limited to spend most of their time within the Orphanage compound. We decided to launch the "Make Real Change with your Spare Change campaign Thanksgiving Weekend and by Halloween we had the bus repaired and back on the road again. Much thanks to my friends at Bell Canada, "Deb M", my Black CanadianVeterans, my Vietnamese friends, "Sam", The Veteran Community as well as friends & family in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Special thanks to Dr Ken Montague who not only donated, but made the trip from Toronto to Bamako the following month to provide Dental Hygeine, supplies and instruction to the kids. A link will be provided shortly to view the slide show of his visit.

Sunday January 27th. I just found out that "Suna" from Team Limo to Africa arrived safely in Bamako Mali today!!! They are part of a group of four indivisuls who decided to embark on a journey which involved driving their White Limo from the States to Bamako as part of a fundraising effort to purchase computers for kids. Have you ever heard the term.."Go to Timbuktu"? Well she is headed there too in the next few days.

If you get chance, I invite you to visit "Limo to Africa" to read about Suna's team's adventure and to view the pictures along the way. http://limotoafrica.blogspot.com/

This is my first time blogging so be patient with me. I will tell you more about my "From the Heart Campaign" over the next couple of days. Launch date is February 1st.