In December I accompanied two CAA members, Martin R. and Sharon A., as they handed out toys donated by other members to underprivileged children. As we made our way through coffee fields and down narrow dusty roads to ramshackle structures that served as homes I noticed that many of the children were not wearing shoes.
A long-time friend of mine, Dorothy W., was planning a trip from Atlanta to San Ramón for a visit in January. I asked if she would be willing to scour a few Goodwill stores for children’s shoes and bring them with her. But she had a better idea.
Dorothy belongs to a group called Buy Nothing (buynothingproject.org), where people give away items for free that they no longer need, such as clothing and household goods, to those in the group who need it. Dorothy explained to her local group that she would like to take some shoes with her to children in Costa Rica who really need them. The response was overwhelming—FIFTY-ONE pairs of gently used children’s shoes were donated. Dorothy packed them all in a giant IKEA bag and brought them with her.
CAA member Linda D. volunteered her front-loading washer to clean the shoes that needed it. Martin went back to the areas we had visited before and wrote down genders and shoe sizes of as many children as he could find, and a few days later he, Sharon, and I were able to distribute 27 pairs of the shoes. About a week after that, I took the remaining shoes to Faithful Servant Mission, where they were placed in the mission store for children to “purchase” with points they receive by reading and doing homework at the mission’s after-school program.
I think we can all do something to help our community if we just look around and give it some thought. The article below really describes it best.
~Janice S.
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