Cha Cha Cha Changes

We've changed the departure date, again!

Although it increases the probability that we will get caught in a hurricane, ourselves, we have decided to change the date of our departure to the 15th of July to accommodate for a pretty amazing contribution. We've been given an in kind donation of packing, crating and shipping by Jonathan Schwartz.

He runs an art handling and shipping bizness out of Queens, NY called
Atelier 4 . Our illustrious Kara Blossom has worked for him for 5 years and he has decided to support our efforts to get the goods ready for international shipping and arrange to truck it all down to Miami for us, all 3500 lbs of it! This is a huge contribution to the final push of phase one of our project! This is a very crucial step, one that requires diligence and experience so that all of the efforts of every single person who has helped this effort along the way can be realized. This ensures the success of moving all of our goods to the airport in Miami so that they can be air lifted to Port Au Prince on the 16th of July.

Thank You Jonathan Shwartz!!

Another shout out goes to Bryan Moore in Grand Jesture, Colorado for hosting a benefit movie screening for Domes for Haiti. He raised $370 for our project. Every bit counts as we've found many hidden costs along the way that we had not planned for. Thanks! You Be Moore.

Another special thanks goes out to Mutual Aid for Disaster Relief for donating the travel vouchers that are covering Kara and I's airline tickets. This enables us to utilize money to better support the orphanages we are going down to Haiti to serve.
The vouchers were left over from the Mutual Aid for Disaster Relief project. They were first responders, mostly street medics that went down in the first days after the quake and did some very important work. They decided collectively to donate enough to cover two plane tickets and they followed through with their commitment with the help of Olivia Katz who went way out of her way to make sure it happened. Thanks Olivia!

We are excited. The anticipation has been building for me, personally, for what seems like a very long time, all told, almost 5 months. I am so beyond happy to be gathering up some very cool gifts to bring to the kids!

We have another awesome human who has been inspiring folks over by St. Louis to donate food to bring to the kids. Anna Ieleggio found willing donors and arranged the shipping on 75lbs of organic peanut butter to Brooklyn!
She is also tracking down a sweet donation of sorghum for the kids to eat the peanut butter with. Thanks Anna! Great work. Now if Lundberg will donate a few cases of rice cakes, they;ll have something to spread that nut butter upon.

I am also looking into bringing soccer balls. At least 20! I contacted Russell Corporation today to ask for a donation. I think that would be something that the kids could truly appreciate. Having shelter is great and all, but these kids are like any kids in the world. They want to play. The World Cup has linked up people from all over the globe, each rooting for their team to win. Let's include the kids in Haiti in the fun. Who knows, maybe next time they'll have a team that will wow everyone with their skills.

Kara, David and I have been hard at work getting everything ready to go. We've been spotted eating delicious food at the new hot spot in Bushwick.
Yummus Hummus! They have a very cool new cafe on Waterbury right around the corner from 3rd Ward. Go have some of their delicious, home made food and enjoy the ambiance of their funky decor. BYOB is encouraged.They also make their own ice cream!

We made a trip to Materials for the Arts today with the help of Artistic Evolution's Serra Fels. I gathered up some really fine lightweight fabrics, a shit ton of thread, zippers and buttons to bring to Haiti to donate to some seamstresses to help support them to support themselves. Thanks Serra!
And thanks to Gaylen Hamilton for accompanying us and driving his very fancy red van on the wavy wavy roads to get us there. That place is a truly incredible resource for everyone in the community doing creative projects.