A Generous Family

The holiday season is a time of giving.  Today we met a family who decided to forgo presents and instead give donations to a family that needs it more.  We went with the family to the home of Ceu and Van Par.  Ceu is a Kindergarten student in Diana's class and Van Par is his sister in Caitlin's third grade class.  They gave Ceu and Van Par's family gift cards to various stores so that they may by food and clothing.  The siblings' father, Hay Thang, was overwhelmed with the graciousness and kindness.  Before leaving the home, Hay Thang wanted to take a picture of the this generous family to send home to Burma so that he could show them the people who were so kind to his family.  

Brown Bag------>Bountiful Bags

We are changing the name of the program from Brown Bag to Bountiful Bags.  We have made it thus far with Rev. George's guidance and he suggested that we needed a more catchy name.  The new name is more whimsical and upbeat but has the same purpose! 

Shallowford Presbyterian

We attended Sunday service at 11am today at Shallowford Presbyterian.  The church is very bright and cheery.  The children who played the bells did a beautiful job!

After service, we went with Dave, who has been absolutely awesome in helping us, to meet the mission group.  We were given the opportunity to speak to the group and give them the story behind our purpose and who we were.   Everyone was so nice and interested in our program.  We were really encouraged after the presentation! :) We are looking forward to the partnership of Shallowford with our program. 

Barbara, who is also an amazing woman, gave us a couple of huge bags of shoes for our students.  These shoes will definitely come in handy during the cold, winter months here in Georgia.  Thank you, Barbara!

Georgia Aquarium

We both applied for the SEA grant from the Georgia Aquarium.  This grant would give our students free admission to the aquarium and the only cost to the students would be the bus fare.  Because most of our students do not get to leave the Clarkston area, we thought this would be a great opportunity for our students.  It would be an experience that many would not ever forget.

Caitlin got the grant for her third grade team and would be going in January 2012.  Diana got the grant for her Kindergarten team and would be going today.  Rev. Sara Hayden joined Diana and her class as a chaperone.  On the way to the aquarium, we passed many big buildings and a couple of art sculptures.  One of the students said, "Wow, we must be in New York!"  This just shows how much the students have not seen outside of Clarkston.  They associate what they see from what they probably saw on television.  They were so chatty and excited!

As part of the grant, the students got to see the 4D Deepo Movie.  To see the students wear the 3D glasses and try to touch the fish as they were swimming was so precious!  Some of the students were scared because of how life-like the characters were so they had their hands over their eyes.  Overall, the students had an absolutely amazing time.  The looks on their faces when they saw the fish in the tanks was priceless.  On the way back to school, they were so exhausted and most of them ended up falling asleep.  It was a tiring, exciting, and awesome day!  Thank you to the Georgia Aquarium for accepting our application and thank you to all the chaperones!

What's in a Doctor's Bag?

Rev. George connected us with Dr. Neil Shulman, the author of the book, "What...Dead Again?" that was made into the movie, "Doc Hollywood." Dr. Shulman came to Indian Creek Elementary to do a 30 minute program called "What's in a Doctor's Bag?" for the students.  They absolutely loved the program!

We spoke with Dr. Shulman afterwards and found out that he was part of an organization called The Global Humanitarian Summit, which was located on the Emory University campus.  He asked us to be a part of the organization.  There would be a meeting on Thursday at Emory.  It sounds interesting and it would be a great way to spread the word about our program.

Shallowford Presbyterian

Meeting today at Shallowford Presbyterian...we discussed the official launch day which would be on January 5, 2012.  We also discussed how far the grant money would be able to assist us.  Based on the money we have, we could buy food for 65 students until the end of May, which is the end of the school year.  After May, we have little or no money left.  So, our task between now and May 2012 is to find more funds to keep the Brown Bag program going.

Our goal, hope, and dream is to have this program continue for years to come.  We know that it is difficult when you start something new, but we hope that the kindness and love continue to pour in to support this program.

PATH GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was an extra awesome day!!  Rev. George informed us that we had gotten the PATH grant for our program.  That would be $5000 that would help us to finally get started in buying food and supplies for our students.  Yay!

Publix Donations!

We picked up our first donations from Publix today.  There were three boxes filled with sheet cakes, breads, and pastries.  We were so amazed at the generosity!  As soon as we picked up the food, we went to Willow Branch, an apartment complex that a lot of our students live at, to deliver some of the food.  

All of the families that we delivered to were very gracious.  But, before accepting the food, they were very hesitant because they thought that they would have to pay for the food!  After we told them that the food was free, there seemed to be a sigh of relief.  One of the kids immediately asked his mom to open up the bag of bread so he could have a piece.  As soon as his mom gave him the bread, he quickly started to devour it with a huge smile on his face!  It was at this moment we knew we were on the right path.  The Brown Bag program had started :)

 

Glenn Memorial

Diana finally got to meet Rev. Chris and his wife, Sara Hayden, today when they and Rev. George went to Glenn Memorial to see how they organized their Snack in a Backpack program.  The Brown Bag packing would be organized similar to the way Glenn Memorial does theirs.

Rev. Chris Henry

We found out from Rev. George that his friend, Reverend Chris Henry, was interested in our program and would like to partner with Memorial Presbyterian to help us.  Today, Caitlin met with Rev. Chris and Rev. George to discuss the program. 

Snack in a Backpack

 

Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church is located on the Emory University campus in Atlanta.  Going into there 2nd year, they have a program called "Snack in a Backpack" that they are doing with a school in downtown Atlanta. We first met at Everybody's Pizza in the Emory Village for dinner.  The pizza was delicious and we got the opportunity to meet more members from Memorial Presbyterian.  After dinner, Don, Carol, Tom, George, Doris, Tanya, Butch, Gloria, Carl, and us went to Glenn Memorial to see how it was organized.  This would give us a better idea of how to do the Brown Bag program.
 
We met Deborah Marlowe, who was in charge of the organization of the Snack in the Backpack program.  We learned that volunteers help to pack 150 backpacks every Thursday at Glenn Memorial.  On Friday, the filled backpacks are delivered to the school.  The students would bring the backpacks to school on Monday and the process starts again.  In the backpack there were items such as canned tuna, granola bars, juice boxes, an orange, and fruit snacks.  

Deborah was so nice to let us come and help out her program.  By doing so, it really helped us to see how much more organization and materials we would need in order to make our program work.  More things to think about....

Memorial Drive Presbyterian

Presentation Day!!  Talk about nerves.  We can speak in front of children without hesitation.  Now, in front of adults, nerve wrecking! We met Rev. George for a bit before mass started and we learned that we would be speaking towards the end of service.  Well, the speech we gave was not as nerve wrecking like we thought.  The best part of the speech? The Brown Bag program has its first official announcement to the public! 

After service was completed, several people from the congregation came up to us to express their interest in the program.  We were overwhelmed at the kindness!  One congregation member took out her checkbook and wrote us a check for $200.  Absolutely amazing.  This has been an awesome day!  We are looking forward to our partnership with Memorial Drive Presbyterian and Rev. George. 

Yummy, delicious peaches!

 

Today, we received 240 cans of peaches from Dave.  We were floored when he told us how many he would be donating to our students.  When the cans were handed out, some of the students immediately opened and ate them!  They were so delicious that they wanted more!! :)  Unfortunately, we only had enough to give each student in the class one can.  Well, lucky for them, Dave said that he had more peaches that he will donate.  Thank you so much, Dave!