Helping Haiti

This weekend on the 4th floor:

Saturday we spent about 6 hours packing boxes full of clothes, soap, tooth brushes and tooth paste for children in Haiti who have lost their parents and family. We worked with 2 groups of very dedicated people: the fine folks of UPS & UNICEF in the UPS facility in Carteret New Jersey. (UNICEF staff wore UNICEF blue t-shirts, UPS wore UPS brown t-shirts=I gave mine to a UPS staff member at the end of the day-seemed the right thing to do.)UNICEF stickers were placed onto the boxes but secretly I wanted /wished I could have brought along a big red magic marker to sign each box with a heart. The reality is the boxes were built by UPS , handed to the assembly line of folks working in teams , filled and taped shut so fast that nothing personal could be done at any point in the process.

We came home slightly sore and feel like a truck has hit us today but we totally hope to repeat the process in the coming weeks if UPS/UNICEF calls for volunteers .

Sunday I have been digging through my tall kitchen cabinet , pulling out baking supplies and my tin of inherited cookie cutters (from my great Aunt Helen & Grandma Claire) and am just wrapping up research on what to bake. UNICEF is holding a bake sale Monday to raise funds for their programs in Haiti and it feels perfect to devote this weekend to helping Haiti, however we can. Wish me luck, I am not a baker by nature (one of the secrets to staying healthy:never become a master baker!) and do not have the usual stuff on hand nor does my oven (tiny apartment small and old and ailing)behave. It is one temp. in the back and another zone in the front so baking and cooking of any kind is always tricky. (Photo above depicts the collection of ingredients complied to make cookies. )