Nutri-Lawn 2009 Food Drive Now On!

With our 2009 re;nourish Food Drive underway I thought I would share some of the fact from our 2008 efforts.

The Nutri-Lawn / re:nourish food drive program began in Kitchener, Ontario on 2007 when franchise owners Gary & Nancy Mulhall felt the calling to assist their local community food bank by collecting non-perishable food items. They contacted each customer the day before they were due to visit their property asking them to leave any item they wish to donate on their front door and the Nutri-Lawn representative would collect and deliver the items to the food bank.

Positive feedback from customers, staff and the food bank themselves in the Kitchener/Waterloo are soon lead to other franchise owners wanting to do their part in this very worth while cause.

2008 saw eight locations participate with over 12,000 items or 10,000 lbs collected and over $1200 in donations from customers.

With the 2009 efforts now underway we hope to have another great year. If you are contacted by your local Nutri-Lawn please consider giving some non-perishable food to this very worthy cause.

If you would like to donate and haven't been contacted please contact your local team by clicking here>

NPH Dominican Republic Summer Newsletter 2009:

Thanks to NPH DR home correspondent Megan Palacios' for her Summer Newsletter update.

Summer 2009 Newsletter

If you have trouble downloading News>Download>Look for June 22. 2009 posting.

Our soccer field lives on!

Well after nearly six months to establish itself our soccer field project is looking great!

Jordan had Damon from the Roco Ki golf course do an inspection last week and as a result has offered to do some weed control, fertilizing and top dressing of the entire field! Thank you very much Damon!

Damon had a plant pathologist from North Carolina with him during his visit and they took some soil samples and will do a nutrient analysis for Damon to work with.

Below are some pics from Damon's visit. It looks like when we return again early next year we will be doing some serious weed control around the perimeter of the field.

Update from Mark at the DR orphanage

This week is a time to catch up and re-group. Freda, Joanne, Willy and Tena are here working with the girls in the sewing room at the school. Many have completed the pajama bottoms and are in the completion stages of a reversible wrap-around skirt. Some want to make some special bags next week. We hope to move two of the machines to the tias home so they can continue projects at any time with the girls, not just during school hours. There was a small group of ladies from Nova Scotia connected with the Rotary here yesterday (Wednesday) helping in the sewing room.
Kieran, Ken and Dr. Chris left to visit the NPH orphanage and Father Rick’s hospital in Haiti on Tuesday of this week. They plan to return on Friday afternoon.
It is nice to have Connie with me this week. She has been helping Kelly the one year volunteer from the US with the English program for the past two weeks and again this week. It is quite interesting.
Nina, the therapist from Austria (one year volunteer), has her mother visiting for the next two weeks and then her father will arrive for the last week. Her mom is painting a mural in the therapy room at the clinic. I’ve been in for a peek and one wall is just about completed. Amazing!! She is looking for help from the next group to complete the other three walls.
Julie, from France, (one year volunteer), it teaching French class at the school and is also setting up a library room. The Canadians helped with getting shelves, books, a special desk and also purchased a new computer for use in the library for cataloguing the books. Her parents are visiting for a couple of weeks and are staying with us in our house.
Francisco is working on a roof framework for the new safari seat unit the Canadians made for the truck they purchased. The welder hopes to have it finished by Friday.
Our little group invited the office staff for a little get-together yesterday afternoon - tea, juice, cake and cookies.
Today (Thursday) we have invited all the teachers and support staff, for a Canadian luncheon at our house - BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, jello and cookies for dessert. We discovered they have their lunch at the school with their own children, so the group has grown to about 40. Should be exciting!
I’m working on getting the sleeping quarters organized, schedules, etc. in readiness for the next group. We will have two full houses and another 3 at the clinic - about 45 in all. There are many things for them to busy themselves with.
Saturday will be a busy day. I will meet the team from Nova Scotia in Punta Cana at about 11 a.m., pack them up and head back to the orphanage. Ken will pick up some that stayed a week at the resort and take them to the airport and wait for the Walkerton group to arrive about 4:30 and arrive back at the orphanage for a delicious spaghetti supper about 9 p.m. Sunday everyone can attend mass with Father Ed and all the children at the school.
Thanks for all your support and prayers.
Mark, Ken, Connie, Freda, Willy, Tena, Joanne

Update from team 3 - week 2

This is the second and last newsletter from Team 3 at NPH in Dominican Republic.
This week I am reporting on some different aspects of the Mission. Many pairs of donated and purchased glasses were brought down. Volunteers tested mostly people from the surrounding villages and then handed out glasses. Many of them had been unable to read due to declining sight and were just amazed and thankful for the gift of their sight back.
Some of us had a visit to a nearby Hospital. Many of the areas were dirty and supplies were few.
The electricity wasn’t even on in places. Behind the hospital was a huge pile of unusable wheelchairs and other supplies as well as three or four inoperable ambulances one of which was just sitting on the tire rims. This is such a huge difference to the healthcare we receive at home in Canada. All of the medical supplies that were not needed by NPH itself were distributed to three nearby hospitals.
We had to say goodbye to a few volunteers who left after the first week and we welcomed three more in.
The Medical Clinic continues to see orphans and villagers every day. We were very fortunate to have a multi-talented Registered Massage Therapist with us from the beginning. She treated patients, some of whom had immediate results from their longstanding problems . She also worked closely with the therapist at the Orphanage to teach her new techniques as she continues to work with the orphans that need treatment.
This therapist has also been chronicling the entire experience with uncountable spectacular photos.
The sports team continues to give out sports equipment to towns and schools and also set up and play sports with the orphans. This work has mostly been done in the very hot sun with temperatures over 45 degrees celsius some days.
Other volunteers have been driving vans and the tranportation truck to bring people from villages and towns into the Medical Clinic and back home again. They also drive us on outings we have had like a trip to see nearby caves and the Texas Rangers Training Camp.
Volunteers also continue to work on the endless handyman list.
When we came to Dominican Republic we got out of our chores at home, but not here. Volunteers have been keeping our sleeping areas, washrooms, and kitchen areas clean and also
working in the kitchen with the cook and doing endless dishes.
As we pack up we are reflecting on our experiences here and look forward to being home again.

An update from Team 3 at the orphanage

Below is an email from the third group to go down to the NPH orphanage they have been there for almost two weeks there now.

Greetings from Team 3 of the Friends of the Orphans Sports/Medical Team:
I bring you a condensed report of the goings on so far this week.

The sports team spent the early days of the week sorting 25 hockey bags of donated sports equipment, sports clothing and shoes. They have so far distributed equipment to the children of three nearby villages, one school and of course to the children of the Orphanage. An exciting time was had when six members of the Texas Ranger Farm Club played baseball with the children here. The entire group had a barbecue at Batey Monti Christy and fed many children of the village.

A baseball game was played between the volunteers and the children of the Orphanage and of course the children outshone us by far.

There has been many physical improvements of items like repairing sinks, toilets and other things that have been broken for a long time. New tables, shelves , towel hooks have been added. Some items have been painted and bulletins boards and a Code of Conduct sign was installed at the school.

The big pick up truck now has a frame , canopy and benches in the back for transporting people. A local company had built this installation and the volunteers worked tirelessly to modify it for safety purposes.

The tremendous amount of donated clothing, hats, baby formula and other items were sorted for several days and the distribution has begun to the orphanage children and to the Tias (caregivers of the children) for their own families. The rest will be given to the poor children of the nearby villages.
Volunteers have also been going into the Music and new English classrooms to observe and help.

Much fun has been had with the Music class seeing some instruments for the first time. The sewing class has been abuzz with volunteers helping the girls sew pajamas and skirts.

Lastly, the Medical Clinic was organized and up and running despite 25 of our 60 hockey bags of medical supplies and personal belongings detained at the Airport for two full days after arrival.
There is a flurry of activity every day in the Clinic as the Orphanage kids have been receiving Health Assessments and I am happy to report that they all seem full of joy, healthy and well taken care of. We have given Medical Care to close to 200 villagers.
All the volunteers have been working so hard and are really enjoying getting to know one another.

We are a committed, enthusiastic group of forty individuals!!!!!!!

Please pass this on to your friends.

An Inspiring Success Story

As you are probably aware our recent trip to the Dominican was coordinated through Friends of the Orphans- Canada. Friends of the Orphans(FOTO)-Canada is dedicated to seeking and providing support for the needs of orphaned and abandoned children in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua on behalf of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, which means "Our Little Brothers and Sisters."

Their website a very inspiring story that I thought valuable to share about one of the girls that was welcomed into the orphanage at age 9 after her mother passed giving birth to her youngest brother. I really encourage you to read this story and see the great work being done by NPH & FOTO-Can.

Please read Ana Maria's story at: http://www.fotocan.org/stories/