BAG IT PROJECT

Some people have been asking how we are going to get all of the donations to Vietnam. We bought three boxes from UHaul for about $5.00 each and stuffed them full. It will cost $105 for each box and each one has to weigh 70 pounds or under. We are going by the baggabe regulations on Cathay Airlines. We are allowed to check two bags each. I am planning to bring two very large bags for the baby and I. One of these will be filled with donations that didn't fit into the three boxes as well as donations for the caregivers and officials. I think my husband is bringing one normal sized suitcase. He will only be staying nine days wo he doesn't need as much. So if it turns out that that is all we have, we will be able to check my two bags, Ray's bag nd one of the boxes and only pay $210 for the two boxes. Not bad. It might have made more sense financially to have filled the boxes with various things the orphanage can use instead of the bags, but no way would it have been as fun for the children to open. I plan on trying to keep this as an ongoing project. My two oldest children attend different high schools and each of the schools has clubs that do projects like this. I am going to go to both of them when I get back and present it to their schools. Also, I am PTO president of my younger chidren's school and I know the parents would love to do a BAG IT project. My plan is to get it to Jenny (at World Child) to bring with her when she flies over on one of her three to four trips a year or to ask another parent who is flying out of LAX to bring it with them. I'll pay the extra $. Jenny has suggested that I do it for different orphanages each time, which is a great idea.
If anyone is interested in doing the same thing or doing this on a smaller scale eamil me and I'll email you the letter I sent out explaining the project. People have told me that they loved shopping for the bags because it made them feel so good to do it! It was fun for me because it was like Secret Santa for a week or so. Every time I opened my front door I would have one or two bags on my porch!