Shipment time! A word from Board Member, Mary Fox!

It’s time again to prepare our annual Parish Twinning Shipment!

Each year about this time, we package up the goods that we’ve collected and stored in the Haiti warehouse. Gently used shoes are collected in a bin all year in front of Sacred Heart School. This bin gets emptied 4-5 times a year. Through out the year, we have sorting shoes workdays, where volunteers (mostly high school students) sort and pair up shoes.

Last year, we tried something new with shipping containers by replacing the cardboard boxes with plastic bins. By all accounts, the switch has been a major hit in Haiti with people re-using the bins for all sorts of things – even as a crib! It costs more money and takes more time to use plastic bins, but it appears the effort is worth the added work. In addition to shoes, we will be sending gently used school uniforms, school supplies, folding chairs, musical instruments, and a few medical instruments.

Each year brings its own set of shipping challenges. This year that seems to be deciding how to package folding chairs and the medical instruments. Crates would be an ideal solution at least for the medical devices. Know anyone who is good with woodworking? If so, please send them our way! We’ll need about 4crates built to accommodate the medical pieces, and possible 3 more to accommodate the chairs. The deadline for having everything crated is April 19.

–Mary Fox

Mary Fox has been working year-round to collect and arrange for the packing of our goods. Be on the look out as we post more ways to get involved and help with this shipment!