In response to a request by my dear friend Gail Thompson and the Reverend Erin Martin, the very generous congregation of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Scarborough, donated over fifty pounds of school supplies for me to take on my trip. Included in the supplies were calculators, math sets, work books, pens, pencils, erasers, chalk and just about anything else a student or teacher could use in the classroom.
In addition to all of the school supplies, several people donated gifts of cash, including the Reverend Erin Martin, Dave and Marlene White, Joe Turner, Beverly Dulall, Margaret Nelson and many others. Also, my former V.P. Lucille Cross Dagg donated to the cause. Because I had already reached my weight limit on two bags and because I also had soccer equipment to distribute, I asked Erin if it was ok with her if I purchased mosquito nets with the money and she said yes.
On Wednesday, July 21 we were planning on visiting a school in the afternoon. I asked if I should bring my school supplies, but was told we already had enough school supplies to take to this school, so my supplies would have to wait for another day.
We visited the George Fox School on Monday, August 2. I brought half of the school supplies with me and I gave them to the headmaster and teachers at the school.
On Tuesday, August 3, Linda and I took a taxi to the Gisimba Orphanage in Kigali and brought them the rest of the school supplies, and two soccer balls that had been donated by the Scarborough Blizzard Soccer Club. The director of the orphanage was extremely grateful to receive our school supplies. The children at the orphanage are very disadvantaged. The school supplies will go a long way towards helping them at school.
When I was handing over the school supplies at the school and at the orphanage, I was thinking of the people at St. Peter’s and their wonderful generosity. They gave me these school supplies so that I could take them to people who really were in need. Their kindness was truly overwhelming. I hope they understand exactly how many lives they changed for the better, and exactly how their generosity has touched others.
I investigated a number of charities to which I could donate the cash that people had so kindly given. I looked into mosquito nets for an orphanage, but because it was the dry season, there was not a big call for nets. Finally, I made the donation to the Tumerare Foundation, which helps poor Rwanda children to go to school, at all levels of school, from primary to university.
The two pictures below show me giving these supplies to the Geo. Fox school (lower picture) and to the Gisimba Orphanage.
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