We received several loads of donated goods today. It started with a delivery from the Chesterville Rotary club. They brought us 80 boxes for newborns, which will be given to the Chausy Hopsital to hand out to new mothers. The boxes contain everything from baby bottles to baby clothes and are packed specifically for either a boy or a girl. They also brought 50 boxes of clothing, toys and medical supplies for the hospital and the orphanage, sorted and packed. Seen in the picture below are Bob Gilroy, Mike Cassell, Mike Urquart and Mary Nysten who tells me they are already started working on next years boxes!
We also had a few of the Air Cadets from 870 Vampire Squadron volunteering to prepare the boxes we have collected to pack as food boxes. We currently have 650 banana boxes that have been collected from the local grocery stores. The volunteers pulled them apart and separated the tops and bottoms, bundled the paper and plastic from inside and re-piled them in groups of tops and bottoms in preparation for the Rotary Clubs food packing night. These boxes will contain 70 pounds of staple food (flour, sugar, pasta, peanut butter etc. etc.) that can be purchased either for a specific family, or to be donated to a needy family living in the contaminated zone. Click here for more info. Seen below are two of the Air Cadets: Tom Good and Micah Baerwald.
Long time volunteers, host family and delegates to Belarus, the Cleary family was also helping today. Seen below are Fiona Cleary and her Mom Mary Cleary-Whalen.
Sam Cleary is seen below helping to unload the truck that came from Jennifer Hopson and her friends in the Brantford area. They managed to collect 65 bicycles as well as clothing and sports equipment.
Here are most of the bikes.
All in all a productive day!
Our firefighter volunteers continue to work hard getting the 4 firetrucks ready to go and we still have family parcels to collect, label and organise. Plus all of the goods need to be sorted, inventoried and organized by final location and container. Loaded into containers and shipped by the 21st of February. Stay tuned, there is more to come!
Eric McKenzie