by Jonathan
From Melissa
As I sit here on a return flight back to the US after a week in Haiti with a Britsionary group, I can’t help but to think about my job and how much I love what I do. There are so many things I love about my job, but one of my favorite parts is how often I have the opportunity to travel to Haiti. I bring volunteer groups down to Haiti to Be Like Brit at least once a month, and it is always an amazing experience! Believe it or not, there is a LOT of planning that goes into our Britsionary trips here at Be Like Brit. Aside from the typical paperwork and travel details that go into planning our trips to Haiti, our minds are also on something else - how can we get more supplies down to Be Like Brit with us? Cue the importance of hockey bags!
Here at Be Like Brit, a common topic of conversation between our team is hockey bags! This sounds a little silly, but with there being no mailing system in Haiti, hockey bags are a large piece of our Be Like Brit puzzle when it comes to successfully getting supplies and necessary items down to Brit’s Orphanage. I suppose the next question would be - what do we do with these hockey bags? Cue the importance of airplanes and Britsionary trips!
Whenever we have Britsionary trips heading down to Be Like Brit, we plan ahead to see how many hockey bags we can bring to Haiti by way of the Britsionary group. The number of hockey bags we are able to bring down with us depends on the number of volunteers on each Britsionary trip – for example, if Holy Name High School has a group of 14 students/chaperones (plus myself), we can pack 15 hockey bags. Each of the 15 hockey bags are filled to 50 pounds, with certain items and supplies that are needed the most at Be Like Brit. Now for the next question – how do we know what exactly needs to be packed in these hockey bags? Cue the importance of inventory tracking and communication!
Each week, both in Haiti and in the US, we work hard to keep track of the different items and donations we have, as well as the different items we need. In the US, we have amazing volunteers who spend several hours each week at The OC in Worcester, MA helping us with sorting through donations, organizing items, making note of what we need more of, and of course – packing the hockey bags! We have recently begun with inventory tracking that can be accessed both in Haiti and the US, so we are easily able to tell what we need more of! Not only is this how we know which items need to be prioritized and packed into hockey bags to be brought down by upcoming Britsionary groups, but this is also how we know what we need to add to our Amazon Wish List and what to post for on #WishlistWednesday! Amanda and Peterson (in Haiti) keep track of items we have down at Be Like Brit, and I (in the US) keep track of items we have at The OC. It is definitely a team effort, and we wouldn’t be able to get the items we need most at Brit’s Orphanage down to Haiti without it!
From Amanda...
The arrival of any group to BLB is always an exciting time for many reasons. There are many new friends among those who arrive and the children are always excited to meet our newest Britsionarys. But there also comes the 10 or more hockey bags with the group! In those hockey bags come all the goodies and necessary items in order to provide the majority of things needed for the children who call Brit’s Orphanage home. Any variety of things might be in the bags from soap to hand held tablets, and we can’t wait to see what is inside.
The process of unpacking these bags is a project in and of itself. It’s usually best to do this without 66 extra pairs of hands hanging around, so we make sure to unpack the hockey bags while the children are off at the park. We gather the group and spread out across our 9 table dining room separating the items by category: soap, hand sanitizer, and shampoos in one area, clothes and shoes on another table, school supplies and games or toys on yet another table, and we certainly can’t forget all the peanut butter, cake mixes, cans of tuna and chicken!!! Each and every one of these items plays a vital role in the lives of our children. With these items we are able to teach them proper hygiene, provide daily nourishment for them at a lower cost, and of course allow them to play!
As the week goes by, our Britsionarys surely see the need of our items and the system that we have in place in order to provide these needs to our children. Many of our Britsionarys ask while they are at the orphanage what our most needed items are or happen to hear Melissa, Peterson and I discussing throughout the course of the week some of the items we may need. I always love getting the email from Melissa that one of our recent visitors stopped by The OC to drop off one of the items we had recently talked about needing. One of my favorite stories is when we needed diapers and pull-ups badly. Melissa sent me a message 2 days after the group got home that several of the Britsionarys showed up at the OC that day to drop off several boxes!
Once our groups leave, Peterson updates our inventory to see what we have gone through in the past week and determines what we might need when our next group arrives. We shoot off an email to Melissa once we decide and the whole process starts all over again.
So the next time you’re at the grocery store, pick up an extra jar of peanut butter or a couple cans of tuna. Or when you’re at Wal-Mart or Target, grab an extra bottle of shampoo or vitamins. They might just be little things, an extra few dollars on your order, but to us and our children, those little things from the many donors that we have surely add up and allow us to minimize our expenses on purchases that we need to make.
To look at a full list of what we need (which is constantly being updated!) visit our Wish List on our website www.BeLikeBrit.org/?wish-list. Don’t forget to check out our list on Amazon as well. You can join the Amazon Smile program and designate Be Like Brit as your foundation of choice and up to .05% of your order will be donated to Be Like Brit. smile.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1ENF8YBF7X76I?ref_=cm_wl_huc_view&pldnSite=1
We can’t thank you all enough for helping us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit!!!