Ok mystery over Andria. I'm not sure why I didnt get the email notificiation of it from Paypal, but it is sat there in my account. So, sorry for the worry. I will pass it on to the organiser (Nancy) in the next day or two. Many thanks for your generous contribution, please check back on the message board to see how your donation is put to good use.
Phewww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fantastic news, Steve. I've been stuck in work and haven't had time to get to a pc today due to meetings etc so haven't been able to do any checking into why my hard earned cash was apparently floating around in Paypal cyber space lol soooo glad it turned up safe and sound! My kiddies and I are just thankful our little donation can now be put to good use, just wish we could do more Keep up the amazing work, it's just sooo cool what you are all doing If you all come up with any other way we can help out just let us know - always willing to help out if we can. Andi, Keira, Carey and Dan
Toys Andi...you have really been a sweetheart. You are exemplary for what Christmas stands for...times may be a bit tough for you but you are thinking of others less fortunate. What a wonderful soul you are! Thank you so much for the donation and every little drop in the bucket makes for a full bucket, after awhile. I'm glad Steve found the payment...I knew it would never be able to slip by him...he is SOO on top of this message board, I would really be surprised if it did. Have a wonderful New Year, Andui and we will be in touch! THANKS AGAIN! Nancy Claus
Update from Nancy posted by Steve First let me start with, I have alot more respect for Santa Claus than I ever had before. Handing out hundreds of toys was not an easy task and I couldn't imagine covering the whole world! With that said, I would like to tell you about our day giving out toys! We went out...WAY OUT...of Cancun, yesterday near Chiquila. Jorge, our best buddy here in Cancun, is Mayan and from Tikul. We told him he was Santa Claus for the day. He took us to some of the pueblos 2 hours away from Cancun. We saw some pretty poor children! Everyone was very happy with their toys, although when we were swarmed by over 40 or 45 kids, it was time to go! We would go on to the next little pueblo and give out toys. We really tried to target small groups of children so we could avoid the swarms and we even asked Jorge how everyone in a village finds something out within minutes and no one has a telephone! Jorge told us to listen to what the children were saying. They weren't saying "jugetes", spanish for toys. They were talking in Maya..."basha", toys! One little kid would go running and within minutes 40 kids would be around our truck saying in Maya, "give me a toy", pulling on my shirt. We were able to get a bunch out but then had to go because we couldn't give them out fast enough. We had a great time. One little boy was standing in front of his open-air shack, playing in the dirt with his brother.You could see his mom resting on a hammock inside the cement building. Andy ran over to him with a racing car track for him and a dump truck for his brother. Do I have to tell you about the smiles??? We had 'em, they had 'em', mom's had 'em, dad's had 'em! EVERYONE was loaded with smiles. It was a very warm feeling! My wonderful computer person, Life_N_Cancun is going to be posting pictures of all the smiles we received on our journey, at our website www.giveatoygetasmile.org. We have another 5 or 6 boxes to go. I am not handing out school supplies yet. I am going to give them out in August. We are going to give out school supplies to the government schools so that they can give it to the poor children that really have a hard time affording it. Back packs are a great thing to be bringing down and school supplies...pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, pencil cases, anything school related, for the August give-away. There are pictures of one family that I do believe is a special needs case. These are 6 children under the age of 12 that live with their grandma, that looks about 70-something. For Three Kings Day, I am going to take all the clothing, that is age appropriate and some more toys and some little bath soaps and personal things for grandma. This is the poster family for a family in need! I wasn't even sure they had a refrigerator and food because they did not want me to see their house inside. I could only imagine, since the outside was in such run-down condition. But they were sooo friendly and each one came over to give me a kiss and thank me for their toys. It was beyond really great! Andy and I came away with tears in our eyes. We had never seen this before...and now, we hope to be able to lend them a little support. We hope to give out the other half of the toys by Tuesday and then give this family their box of goodies on the 6th, El Dia de Los Reyes. On behalf of the children, thank you for your love and your interest. We had more smiles than we could have ever imagined. HAPPY NEW YEAR to all from "Give a Toy...Get a Smile" and SMILE! Cause you deserve it! Nancy Claus
Thanx for posting those, Steve. Make my heart ache...those could be any of our own children. How much more can a gift mean to them, when most times they have little expectation of receiving anything on Christmas. Cheers to all who participated!
Hmm what happened to the photo hosting account I posted the pics from that are now not showing up. Looks like they have been moved or deleted, wish someone had told me. :roll: Anyway, lots of pics can be found here: Give a Toy Project
Sorry, for the late follow up on this. Here are some pics of the kids with their toys The full size pics and many more can be found at: Give a Toy Photos Many thanks to all who contributed. I understand the IWC (International Womens Club) of Cancun are continuing to raise funds for underpriviledged kids throughout the year. As for us we'll get involved again next Christmas, all being well
Don't know what happened to the other pics Steve. We have been lagging a little bit in getting "final" numbers published and an updated mission statement put on the website www.GiveaToyGetaSmile.org but we will at some point. But for anyone who hasn't read the news section at the site. The 2006 drive was an outstanding success. The "leftover" toys and things are being handed out where appropriate and gathered for events for Mexico's Children's Day. Many of the "school supply" type things will be handed out next school year, and I encourage anyone who is coming down to continue to bring things and drop them off at MyPlace. Hopefully we will get better organized for this years efforts soon.
