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For a number of years, the Kiwanis Club of George, Iowa,
has spearheaded an effort to provide crayons and other essential school supplies
for the 65,000 Haitian children attending the 325 plus schools operated by the
Baptist Haiti Mission in that country. Their goal was “one crayon for one child
for one year” and, at times that goal was not met. One year it required two
years to collect enough crayons to meet their goal.
With the added efforts of members from the five Kiwanis Clubs in Sioux Falls in
2006, the George, Iowa, Kiwanis Club shipped 2,880 pounds of school supplies to
Haiti. In addition to a plethora of crayons, 35 soccer balls provided through
the efforts of Sioux Falls East Kiwanis Club were included in the two shipped
crates. These balls went to a culture too poor to use anything but rags tied
with twine for school soccer games. They use layers of old cement sacks as a
source for their writing paper in school.
In 2007, Sioux Falls Kiwanis members were privileged to, once again, partner
with our friends from George, Iowa, in this unique and oh-so-meaningful “Young
Children Priority One” project. As a result of collection efforts invested by
members of Sioux Falls Daybreak, Diversity, Downtown, East, South, and West. Clubs as well as mothers and others
throughout the Sioux Empire, Allen Herboldt and Carol Woltjer delivered an
estimated 75,000 crayons to a grateful…and pleasantly surprised…George, Iowa,
Kiwanis Club on Thursday, July 12.
These crayons will be sorted and bagged by residents of the Good Samaritan
Society in George. The broken ones are placed in a box, and the full crayons are
stacked in zip lock bags. ALL are shipped to Haiti and treasured. This fall,
they will be crated and shipped to grateful children and teachers in Haiti. The
teacher issues the crayons to his or her students at the beginning of the class
and collects them at the end of the period. The crayons are counted “in” and
“out” and, at times, a search for the “lost” item is necessary. The crayons are
THAT valued by teachers and students.
To all who helped in this colorful project, THANKS! And, in between now and next
spring, keep your eyes open for “lonesome” crayons just waiting to take a trip
to Haiti. We’ll be petitioning for your help again in 2009.
2009 Collection
2008 Collection
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| Boxes of crayons were donated by SF
students |
Ali loading up the van |
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| The van is packed! |
Ready to roll... |
A thank you sent from Haiti:
Dear Gordon and Betty
Thank you for the new gathering and shipping of crayons for our school
children in Haiti. Just yesterday I visited a class and the children
were busy coloring their paper with your collected crayons and paper you
sent last time. I made some photos and will send them to you as soon as
they are developed. On a previous mail day, I sent you some drawings the
children did for the Clubs as their simple thank you.
To all men and women who are involved, I want to give thanks personally
for helping. A crayon is treasured, used up until the stub is no longer
giving color. So precious to see this in class. With 335 schools and
around 65 thousand children, we are blessed to have you on the other
side to provide this for our educational needs.
With gratitude to all the Club members and you, Gordon and Betty.
Joyfully, in Christ' service for the children,
Elsa Peterson
Haiti Field Coordinator 4C
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