The participants in the hugely successful Fourth Annual Pencil Case Project, “To Nicaragua With Love”, which included elementary schools in: Hamilton, London, Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo, collaborated to send two and half tons of school supplies to Nicaragua.
“Vincentian volunteers coordinated with the many teachers and principals, who encouraged their students to be part of “a good thing”. They picked up in their respective cities and delivered their collections to Waterloo for sorting, counting and packaging.
“Vincentian youth along with their family and friends packaged 5,500 lbs. of used school supplies, clothing, toys, arts/crafts, back packs, pencil cases, shoes and sporting
goods. This is our largest collection to date! A 20-foot container was loaded and sent on its way on August 7th and is due to arrive in Corinto, Nicaragua on September 24th.
“The National Council of Nicaragua will arrange ground transportation from port to a local site, where all items will be re-sorted and bundled for distribution to the many poor children and schools in their country.
“Thank you to all the members of the Vincentian Family who participated in making this a successful project, ‘from our youth to theirs’. A special thank you to Lillian Mulder from London, Ron Trent from Cambridge and Guido Kelly and Lorenzo Mostacci from Hamilton, for taking the time to be part of the organizing, collecting and delivery team! It would not have been possible without each of you! A great deal of thanks also goes out to CGI, who funded the shipping of the collection and offered valuable support during the early and later stages of planning.
“Many teachers, principals, families, students and community members have already expressed their excitement in participating again next year. They are already thinking of
ways to do more to bring awareness to our students. To show by example that every ruler, pencil, eraser and crayon they donate here, makes a huge impact on a student in a poor time, one student at a time.”
Humbly submitted by Carmela Addante, Waterloo
Enjoy the photo gallery in this 2012 Pencil Project.
Tags: poverty, strategies, SVDP
