Distribution to Bibi Khala Girls School

Mark along with several women from FOB Smart were able to make a distribution of school supplies to over 500 children today! What a great day in Afghanistan!! Wish the news would cover this story tonight! To see all the pictures, click on the link here or to the left for Writing A Brighter Future. I'm so proud of Mark along with EVERYONE who has supported us in our efforts. It should also be mentioned that more boxes are going to be shipped from the Winchester, VA Stake Relief Society as they collected supplies on April 17th. I'm so excited that this service project has caught on with so many!

Also, here in Southern Utah, there is a VERY SMALL town called Circleville, Utah. This is where my mom was born and raised. We visited there recently and got to meet some of the women that mom is still friends with all these years later. The good women of Circleville, have supported our efforts all winter long by crocheting helmet liners for me to send off to Mark. While it is warm now ... I KNOW these hats will be appreciated here shortly as fall and winter approach. Thank you to so many sisters who have given of their means and talents for our project!

Beauty in Afghanistan

Mark sent these pictures to me today. They were taken by a professional photographer in the City of Qalat. The first two are of the bluff and the third is taken of Alexander the Greats Fortress. To see these pictures it all looks so peaceful. The hard fact is ... spring has sprung in Afghanistan and with warm weather the bad guys are back out in full force. Please say a prayer for all civilians along with our armed forces who are there working diligently to try and help the innocent and make life better for them.

New Blog Site

Since the article published in The Spectrum last Saturday, I have had a tremendous response from our local community and from our friends back east. Jill Mortenson, a mom here in St. George, created a blog spot for the Afghanistan School Supplies project. It is GREAT! There is a button on the top of this blog that you can click to take you directly there. Once you are at the site, please feel free to copy & paste the button on to your blogs to help pass the word along. I am excited to use this site to update the progress of this service project.

So, check it out .... http://www.writingabrighterfuture.blogspot.com/ or click on the button to the left!

THANK YOU JILL!!

Headline For A Day ...

The Spectrum, St. George's Daily Newspaper published an article on our School Supplies Project yesterday morning. I made the front page with a follow-up on A3. Here is the link that will take you to the full article. There are two pictures but, with the link you only see the REALLY bad picture of me. Of course it was large and above the fold line on the paper. It was kind of weird to drive to the gym yesterday morning and see my picture in all my neighbors driveway! The important thing was the article and so far I have had quite a few responses by email and phone from people here in town wanting to help support our project. Mark and I posted the link on our Facebook pages and have had several responses from that. One manager with Rubbermaid is contacting their sister company to see if they would donate chalk, markers, etc. that they produce. Several others are contacting their childrens school to see if they can collect supplies and have more letters written to the kids or the soldiers. Either way, the word is spreading about the need and I am so happy to be part of something bigger than our own worries! One lady here in St. George offered to make a blog spot for the cause and another lady called me to say that every fall when school supplies go on sale, she buys $100 worth and would like to donate all the supplies she has on hand to us. Another contact of mom's (Grandma Tippets) has made 8 helmet liners and will be bringing them down to us on Tuesday from Cedar City.

There are a lot of wonderful people who are willing to help & support complete strangers. For this I am grateful simply because I truly want to help the children of Afghanistan who can not help themselves with these basics. Again, Mark and I are grateful to everyone who can help with either spreading the word, donating their time, money or start a drive in their local area. This is a great way to start off the year!

School Supplies are Rolling In!

Just before Christmas, my neighbor contacted me about collecting some school supplies through her daughters 4th grade class. I was excited that she was interested in promoting this service project and sent her some information! This past weekend, she delivered to me the boxes of supplies that they had collected along with a class picture and letters that the kids had written to the kids in Afghanistan! They did an amazing job and as I was sorting through all the things, I decided to give our local newspaper (The Spectrum) a call to see if they would be interested in the story. Sure enough, a reporter called me yesterday afternoon and today she and a photographer came out to take some pictures. By the time the reporter had called me, I had already sent 4 boxes of things earlier in the day but, still had a couple more boxes to fill. Of course, I ended up crying as I was telling the reporter why I was doing this. I asked her, "Do you have kids?" She said no, but the photographer said yes, two. I said, when we can send our kids off to school knowing that they are safe to walk, have a warm building to meet in, a clean cafeteria, indoor plumbing, a fun and safe playground and not have to worry about getting hurt by any crazy explosions ... that's why I am doing this service project for these kids! The pictures of the kids is reason enough for me to want to help them! It seems so unfair that so many children are born in to poverty or in to extreme social and economic measures while so many of us were blessed to be born in to just the opposite circumstances. I pray that the educational supplies that we send will in the end help other children know that education will bring them a better future and hopefully one that is filled with hope and love. I'll be anxious to see how the article comes out and to see what other kind of response I get. See the side bar for the total amount of supplies that I have sent thus far.

School Supplies Arrived

This morning when I spoke to Mark, he was happy that he had received 4 packages in the mail today! Three of the boxes were the school supplies that I sent and the 4th package I had sent clear back on October 19th ... so I was so happy when everything arrived.

Mark is going to have one of the women on base speak with the Head Mistress at the school to speak to her about the supplies. Mark can NOT speak directly to her so, he is hoping that he will be able to go with them to deliver and get some pictures. I wish I could be there to see the kids faces!

Mark will be arriving in Las Vegas (if all goes well) on December 19th! He will start leaving to come home on the 16th but, it will take several days to make the commute. Justin will be joining us on the 23rd. I think I am starting the countdown already!

School Supplies for Afghanistan

Here are some of the pictures of the kids receiving supplies from Mark and or some of the men in on his base. So cute!

This is Shaw one of the interpreters holding a little girl with a new pair of shoes in hand.

Paper & Crayons ... the most basic!

These kids just received new shoes. Hard to see but some are giving a thumbs up!

Ring around the Rosie at the local girls school.

Since Mark has been in Afghanistan, I have been hearing about the children and the schools that he has been working on. In an effort to help the children and keep me busy, I have started collecting basic school supplies to send to Mark to distribute to the two local schools. The childrens schools are segregated and Mark has worked on each one. So far most of the supplies have been donated by us but, this past week while purchasing some of the supplies at a Dollar Tree, the lady behind me checking out asked me what I was doing. She then proceeded to hand me a $5 bill and said please put this towards the shipping. Another lady from our ward was also in the store and saw what I was doing. A few days later, she had gathered up several supplies of notebooks, pencils, pens and some candy and brought them by for me to send. This week I sent three boxes to Mark that include pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, filler paper, large notebooks and some paper folders. As I get the word out about how easy it is to send the packages, I am hoping that others will catch the spirit of service and charity and help to donate items to the children who have so little. Another wife, of one of Mark's co-workers, send shoes over to the children. I am including some of the pictures that Mark sent out this week of the kids and of him. If anyone is interested in donating or sending letters to the military men and women, please let me know. They would be thrilled to get your kids letters or pictures.