Helping for Haiti

I took last week off from my life in order to help others with theirs. I figured that if all it took for me to make a difference in a part of the world that I will most likely never get to was to make the small sacrifice of my time, it would be worth so much more to so many people than I could even quantify!

When Starbucks took the initiative to include a way for customers to donate to Haiti Relief when they purchased their morning coffee, I was pretty amazed at the outpouring of my customers. These are the regular people that come in day after day and get the same drink without even flinching...and they opened their hearts for people they knew they'd never meet, but needed all the help they could get.

I took that initiative and ran with it. I searched online for places that would be able to use my help and after paging through about 20 places that looked like they'd be perfect, I settled for one that seemed like it needed all the help it could get. I talked to a very nice gentleman on the phone and coordinated my stay based on how much time I could afford to sacrifice and was on my way!

For one week straight I worked almost non-stop on split 6-8 hour shifts. Twice a day, a semi truck would pull up to the warehouse packed full of toys, shoes, clothes and household basics. We had a team of 12 people unloading, 5 people sorting and 10 people packing & sealing boxes. Most of the people were in the same situation as me...they had regular lives, worked normal jobs and didn't have too much themselves. We all bonded and busted our butts like we'd been a team for years and it was a really fun experience. To top it off, I know that the time I spent will make a difference for so many people who have so much less than the rest of us.

One week of my time saw more generosity in so many ways than I can ever remember. It was well worth it, but now I'm back to the daily grind of my life. BACK IN ACTION!