As I heard my daughter begin to stir in the early hours of the morning (7AM – that is early or me lol).  I checked my phone for the time and usually have a quick scan of email before I get out of bed.

What a wonderful early morning surprise that was!

That morning I got an email from Dawn Bommarito, saying that she had left a letter on my front door step.  When I went to open the letter I found that she  had very generously donated to World Teacher aud in lieu of Christmas Gifts this Holiday season.  This was a $840 donation!

Thank you to Dawn and her family for their generosity this Holiday Season.

Stu, Maggie and I (as well as a few other volunteers) can not wait to drop the books off later this week.

I just checked into the order, and the shipment is still on time and scheduled to arrive early this week.

Happy Holidays to all students and teachers who took part in Write To Give this year.  We hope you enjoyed writing your stories and at the same time helping others in need.

Have a wonderful break!

So grateful to everyone for coming out and supporting World Teacher Aid, at our second annual Gala event.  The night was a smashing success, with over $9000 dollars raised in our Silent Auction alone.

Thank you to all of our sponsors, donors, family and volunteers who helped pull the night off!

I am just waiting for some pictures that were taken that night and will post those as well.

The funds raised will kick start our highschool in the community of Rongai, Kenya.

HUGE thank you to everyone!

Thank You To Our Sponsors:

The Greens at Renton
Sensational Sounds DJ Service
Now and Always
Devlin’s Country Bistro
Try Thai Tonight
Flowers by Ann
Windrush Bed and Breakfast
Grub and Stuff Catering
Robin Hood Technology
Snow Valley Ski Resort
Hidden Valley Ski Resort
Lady Strength
Gibb and Widdis Accounting
Nighs Concrete Forming LTD
Roulston’s Pharmacy
Napoleon Fireplaces
Christine’s Bakery
The Runners Den, Port Dover
Port Dover Health and Fitness
Blue Star Ford, Simcoe
Boston Pizza, Barton Street, Hamilton
Long Point Eco-Adventures
Unique Designs
Power Within
Simcoe Little Theatre
The Blue Elephant
Scape Spa
Scholastic Education Canada
Ingrid VanReenen
Bob Yin
Conor Collins
The Norfolk Hub
Lindsey Kincaid
Starvin Marvin’s
WishList Products
Brantford Sanderson Centre
Aqua Nail Studio
The Gay Blade
Liz and Tony Ferraccioli

We have some amazing prizes not only for the auction, but also for door prizes. 

Here are just some of the things you could win..

1. A top of the line Napoleon BBQ
2. Scape Spa Package
3. Designer handbags
4. African Jewelery
5. Art and much, much more…

We have only a few tickets left, until we are sold out. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Stu was on the cover of the paper, in front of our new school in Kenya.  For this article, I submitted an article called The Power of Focus, it talked about our growth as a charity.  I have posted the  link below for you.

Since the paper was published a few days ago, we have had several calls of local community members wanting to donate a prize for the Gala and or come.  Our Gala is being hosted at the Greens At Renton on October 14th.

Thank you to Scott and Monica from The Hub for featuring the article and placing our picture on the front page!

Here is the link:

http://www.norfolkhub.ca/

During their time there, they got to see and spend time with the Rongai community where they have had a massive impact, see the classroom they donated, meet Kenya Government officials, do a little construction work, meet Mamma Tunza and witness the Great Migration on a three day safari, plus much more.

It was a jam packed itinerary, but definitely a trip that all our guests will remember.

We are still going through the pictures and video and will upload some soon.

Due to the high success of this trip, we have begun plans for our next one, as well as locating area for our next school and/or a high school in the same local community.

If you or your company is interested in donating a classroom, please let us know

Please check back soon for pictures and video of the first World Teacher Aid Group Trip.  Thank you!

This trip includes some time at the IDP camp, helping to put the finishing touches on the school, as well as a visit to the orphanage that we help on a regular basis and then the end of the trip the donors will get a chance to experience a truce Africa Safari.

Make sure to come back soon to the site, to see some pictures.

If you are interested in coming with us next year, be sure to email us.  We would love to have you!

At the present time we are scouting out areas for our next school build, maybe you would like to help contribute to a classroom?

For further details on donation possibilities, please feel free to contact myself, amy@worldteacheraid.org.  Thank you.

Thank you to all of the community for your generosity, come back soon to see some more pictures.

They are a team who are dedicated to giving back to those in need, the team has organized cake sales, car washes and many other initiatives to help those around the world.

We are excited to have them on board to help our first school.  The children of Nakuru will LOVE their new soccer uniforms!

My husband, Stu McLaren will be traveling to Kenya with several of our donors this coming August.  He will be talking some of the jerseys then.

Special thank you to Laura Snow for contacting myself, as well as the soccer team and their dedicated coaches Bernie Solmar and Jim Millson.

We look forward to collecting the jerseys and returning with some pictures to show the children here in the Norfolk the difference their kindness has made.

Thank you.

Thank you to all teachers, students and volunteers involved!  This year marked some great success for the Write To Give Program.  It marked the first book published by Scholastic Education Canada, international involvement from India, Hong Kong and the USA as well as support from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Canada.

We still have some last minute orders coming in from our books published later this year, but I am proud to say that we have raised just over $8000 – which means this is almost enough to build one classroom!  THANK YOU.

So, you may be wondering what the scoop is for Write To Give for the upcoming school year.  Well, we are working towards improving our Member’s Area for teachers as well as putting together a Write To Give Kit with Scholastic Education, Canada.

Make sure you check the site over the summer to see our updates!

Thanks again.