Wall of Presents

We have all of the gifts in!  How exciting!  I had my mom help me gather them all together and we played Santa Claus.  We got out our list and checked it twice and loaded up everything in boxes.  We have a total of 119 gifts that fill six large shipping boxes that weigh about 300 pounds.  My project for this week is getting them shipped and out the door.  My dad is helping out there.  And what a week to finish things off.  All I can say is "I'm Thankful."  The support I've had from people near and far has been amazing.  Thank you all so much.  Thank you to Jamie and Lynn from Majengo for all of your help and support.  I will keep everyone posted on when the gifts arrive and will try to get some photos of the Christmas at Majengo.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!

Here's a photo of a family turning in gifts for the children
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Gifts are pouring in for the children. What a great response! Thank you everyone who has participated so far. We are well on our way to making a lot of children happy.

I have 80 gifts that have been turned in so far and more are on their way. How exciting!

Exciting: Turn-ins!

We have finally arrived at the most exciting.....well another most exciting part of the project. Turn in time! Already we have recieved a total of 12 gifts and many other donations for the orphanage itself!  I am so excited for the kids. Hopefully we will get pictures of them opening gifts on Christmas!

Just a reminder that when turning in you gifts YOU MUST TURN THEM IN WITH A RECEIPT! If there is no receipt, I will bug you until I get one : ) because I must know everything in that package to be able to ship and get it through custums without them opening everyone's boxes. Also if I am to complete the project successfully, the BSA requires that I have precise paperwork and records of all donations and the approxomate values!

I would like to thank all of you that have volunteered to help. There has been a posative response to my project and I am very thankful for that. Now, let's go help some orphans!

Community Enthusiasm

Wow! Thank you all for all of your enthusiasm. Yesterday there was a total of 73 kids "adopted" and as far as my records indicate, each child at Majengo will be recieving a gift for Christmas. Thank you all. You're amazing!

For everyone who is still interested. I STILL NEED HELP! Although it is fun and exciting for a child to get a gift for Christmas, school is something that they do every day. We are trying to provide picture books, EZ reader books (in English), musical instruments, and a few playground toys for the orphanage school. We also need to raise the funds to ship these things to Tanzania. Through education, Filipo can achieve his dream of becoming a pilot. Let's help him fly!

More Children!

NEWS FLASH!

Today I received word from Lynn Connell, founder of the Majengo Orphanage, that the orphanage will be admitting 55 new kids within the next few weeks! WOW! Those of you who read the Majengo story know that Lynn's goal is to be able to take care of 1,000 kids in the orphanage and as you can see she is well on her way.

Right now we have about 30 more kids that need to be 'adopted.' That means I need to ask for more help.  I many have given so much already but if you haven't already signed up for an orphan please help me out and if you have maybe you could take one more. I just think that it would be terrible to have Christmas come around and only have half of the orphans receive a gift. These children come from tough circumstances.  We can help them out.  I would really like each child to be able to unwrap his own package. 

This also means that shipping will be more expensive. I will be checking into some options on that, but any help you can give will be appreciated.

Please get fired up about this project and help me out. Tell friends, neighbors, relatives I don't care how far away they live or how much they give because every little bit helps!

Thank you so much for the help I have already received!

Shipped Today!

Goals Accomplished Today

1. Purchased supplies for the first package.
2. Shipped the first package of a CD player, 24 batteries, 8 children's CDs, 20 bars of soap, and 60 smarties.
3. Answered questions about my project.

Thank you to all who have donated to make this first mile marker possible! I also recieved a CD from Majengo with tons of photos of the kids and the facility in Mto wa Mbu. I'll try to get a slideshow of them onto my blog or maybe a link.

Just a reminder all donations and gifts are due on October 31st. Thanks again to everyone!

Faces of Majengo

Check out my new videos!

Who can resist?

Official start of my project today!  Today I put up posters and distributed donation slips. I also was able to talk to people in a few meetings about my project. Before I had even arrived home from my meeting someone had dropped off my first donation!Woot woot! Also almost half of the kids have been signed up for. The response to my project has been really enthusiastic and I'm glad that the community has been as excited about this project as I have been. I will try to put up more pictures and videos of the kids up today.

Antsy Pants!

Well, apparently it takes a little longer to go through the approval process than I thought. I'm still waiting for a preliminary approval before I can complete the paperwork. I am really excited now though because I have a list of all the children!  It is shown on the right if you haven't noticed yet. Also right above the list of children I added a link to bios of the children. Here you can find out just a little bit more about the kids I will be helping.  One other addition I added was a little history of the Majengo Orphanage. It is the link right under the "all about me" titled The Majengo Story. Feel free to check them out! I am so excited and am antsy to get going!

The Land Before Time

Everybody loves an orphan but take a look at these!  I was over at Andrew's house looking at photo's and video clips of the children at the Majengo Orphanage last week and that's all it took for me to catch the fire of this Eagle Project.  Right now I'm in the Land Before Time.  My project is in the approval process and I'm anxiously awaiting the time when they say, "GO!" 

More to come.  Stay posted.