10 pairs of shoes!

Soleful Suitcases had a great day yesterday!

Gary Gribbles, a local Kansas City running store, is offering us some donations of shoes. When people go to buy new ones there, they often leave their old shoes and Gary Gribbles gives them to local charities. I emailed to ask them if they would give SS some of their shoes, and they said yes! So yesterday we went to the Overland Park location and received 4 pairs of shoes with the encouragement to come back again for more. Yahoo! Thanks Gary Gribbles!

Later in the afternoon I met my friend Miranda Kennedy at the gym for a Pilates class, and she gave me 6 pairs of men's shoes. Yahoo!

Yesterday we received 10 pairs of men's shoes - how great is that! Now we just need 20 pairs of men's socks to go with them.



If you'd like to donate to Soleful Suitcases and our upcoming trip in July 2013, there are several ways to help. You can donate your in good shape, still life left, adult athletic shoes. You can donate brand new adult socks. School supplies are always welcome. Shop on Amazon via the link on the right hand size so we get credit to help pay for baggage fees. Or donate to our GoFundMe site at www.gofundme.com/solefulsuitcases

Donations Received Today!

Today was a good day for donations! A couple friends from KC Express passed along some nice donations, and I'm excited to share with you.

Jackie did some Spring Cleaning, and gave 2 suitcases, 1 large and 1 carry-on size. These suitcases are perfect, and we will put them to work in just a few months. She also passed along 3 pairs of shoes. These are the first pairs we've received for this trip. Thank you Jackie!

Patti passed along some paper, pencils, and index cards for the school. Yahoo! Thank you Patti!

Huge School Supplies Donation

As some of you may know, my parents were set to come with us last fall on our trip to Jamaica. They'd been gathering school supplies and donations from their friends in Oregon, and were planning on bringing several suitcases with them. However, my father became ill, and they had to cancel all together while we post-poned from October to late November.

My sister came out to visit us from Oregon, and was able to bring with her 2 huge suitcases stuffed to the gills with school supplies and shoe donations to take down to Jamaica. How exciting! So many crayons and colored pencils, pens and pencils. How exciting!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We will gladly take all of this down with us and make sure the school children are showered with new supplies.

If you'd like to donate to Soleful Suitcases and our upcoming trip in July 2013, there are several ways to help. You can donate your in good shape, still life left, adult athletic shoes. You can donate brand new adult socks. School supplies are always welcome. Shop on Amazon via the link on the right hand size so we get credit to help pay for baggage fees. Or donate to our GoFundMe site at www.gofundme.com/solefulsuitcases

Another Laptop Donation!!!

What a day for Soleful Suitcases!

I came home from running errands today to find the UPS man walking up to my door with a fairly good size package. Knowing that I hadn't ordered anything recently, I was getting a little excited. Who doesn't like getting fun, packages in the mail unexpectedly?

I open up the box from Bill Hart, and find a laptop, all the cables and cords, and discs of software. Wow, what a blessing. What a huge blessing. This is the second laptop that has been donated, and we are so thrilled to be able to take such hugely needed items to a school in Jamaica.

Thanks Bill! Your donation means more than you'll ever know. Teachers will be able to educate better, and kids will be given the chance to learn more. Thanks so much!



If you'd like to donate to Soleful Suitcases and our upcoming trip in July 2013, there are several ways to help. You can donate your in good shape, still life left, adult athletic shoes. You can donate brand new adult socks. School supplies are welcome. Shop on Amazon via the link on the right hand size so we get credit to help pay for baggage fees. Or donate to our GoFundMe site at www.gofundme.com/solefulsuitcases

Support SS via GoFundMe.com

I have set up a site for Soleful Suitcases on GoFundMe.com, a website designed to help people, projects, or events raise money to support their goal. I was trying to find an easy way for people all over to help with this upcoming trip, and GoFundMe seemed like a good way to go.

With GoFundMe you can contribute to the trip and designate what you want your gift to go towards; socks, school supplies, baggage fees, etc. Or you can just give to the general pot and all those proceeds will go towards whatever costs we incur. I'm hoping to have your support with this. Please consider helping out.

The link to Soleful Suitcases is here:
http://www.gofundme.com/2c1q08 

You can also share the GoFundMe site with your friends and family via sending them to this blog, sharing it on facebook, twitter, or pinterest. The more that know about our trip, the more help we can bring to Jamaica.

Also, don't forget that you can help out by shopping on Amazon through our link. You can find that here  in the box on the right of the page. -->


Just as a reminder, or for those just tuning in, my family and I are headed to Jamaica in July 2013. We are hoping to bring 75 pairs of adult athletic shoes to the local population of hotel workers. With each pair of shoes, we'd also like to give 2 brand new pairs of socks. The people that work in these hotels work hard all day long, and don't make a great wage. By providing them with a pair of shoes, it allows them more comfort each day while they strive to provide for their families.
We are also adopting a local primary school, and hoping to bring them so much needed basic school supplies like crayons, colored pencils, kid scissors, pencils & pens, construction paper, and books for their library. The schools here are over-crowded and under-funded (sound familiar?). Supply donations like this are huge to them, and don't happen often, if ever. 
On our last trip in November 2012, we were able to give 60 pairs of shoes, 120 pairs of socks, and roughly 150 pounds of school supplies. We received a rock-star greeting at the school, and huge smiles from the hotel workers when we saw one wearing a new-to-them pair of shoes.
By setting up this GoFundMe site, we are hoping to have more involvement from friends and family that on our last trip said we were doing such good work, and they wished they could help, but didn't know how. Here is your how. Baggage fees have sky-rocketed, school supplies are costly, and once we get into Jamaica we still have to pay for transportation.  Thanks for all your help. Spread the word of our trip by sharing this blog or the GoFundMe site on your facebook feed, with your friends via email, or tweet about it. The more people that know, the more involved people can get and the more help to Jamaica we can provide. 

Share your shoes, share your love, share your world.

Big News at Soleful Suitcases!

You may be wondering why there is a picture of a laptop at the top of this post. Hummm... what could that mean? Well, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. It means we got the very first donation for our upcoming trip back to Jamaica!!!

That's right, you read that correctly. We are going back. This next trip is scheduled for July 2013. Just 4 short months away. And with such a short window, that means we don't have much time to gather donations and get things set.

Today got things jump-started though with a donation from Patti from KC Express for a laptop computer to be donated to a school. I'm so excited about this. A school will be able to use this. Teachers will be able to create lesson plans, hand-outs, or research a top. Students will learn to type, play educational games, and do school assignments on it. The possibilities are endless.

On the last trip we went on in November 2012, we were able to give 60 pairs of adult athletic shoes, 120 pairs of brand new socks (2 for each pair of shoes) to hotel workers where we stayed. We gave about 150 pounds of school supplies, books for their library, & a video projector to a local primary school. This filled 5 suitcases, and we hope to do it all again, and then some! Can you help us? Below is the list of items we are gathering, at full speed, to help make this trip a success!

What we need for our 2013 trip:

6 suitcases full of goodies, including:

-75 pairs of athletic shoes

-150 pairs of *new* socks (athletic, not dress)

-150 pounds of school supplies including new or gently used children's books. Age from "picture" books through "chapter" books.

-Working laptop(s)

-Thumb drives for teachers to save work on

-Digital camera(s) (with cords and software?)

-Baggage Fees paid for 100% with donations/fundraising roughly $330

(Baggage fees went up. The first 3 bags will now cost $35 each and any after that will be $75 each. Ouch!)

-6 suitcases

Spring Cleaning?

So if you're like me, you are buried under a couple feet of snow. Kansas City has had the one-two punch from Mother Nature, and from the looks of it, we'll be seeing the white stuff for weeks to come. I don't know how it will all melt, or where all that water will go. I hope my Spring bulbs are not suffering from it though.

While being cooped up in the house, I've been trying to clean out closets and organize rooms. I've been working on getting my taxes ready to hand to the accountant, and hoping to make a dent in Spring cleaning and organizing. I made a new reading nook in my bedroom, and I already love it! Are you doing that as well? Have you cleaned out your office, or a closet yet? What about the art corner, or have you gone through the kid's pile of books and found some they no longer read? How about your hall closet with that pile of athletic shoes from last Spring and you already have a new pair?

Consider donating your treasures to Soleful Suitcases. We are looking for the following items, and would be happy to take them off your hands.

-75 pairs of athletic shoes 
-150 pairs of NEW socks (athletic type, not dress) 
-150 pounds of school supplies including children's book in good shape. (Age range from "picture" books through "chapter" books.) 
-Working laptop(s) 
-Thumb drives for teachers to save work on 
-Digital camera(s) (with cords and software?) 
-6 suitcases 

We are working on getting our trip planning going, and hoping to have some dates soon. Our plan is to go before August though, as our youngest son will turn two and we'd have to pay for an airline ticket for him. If we go before then, we can save $500+.

Also, as a reminder, we are not an official 501c3 charity organization, and as such, your donation is not tax deductible. Sorry. It costs a lot of money to get an organization like that set up, and right now, we'd rather spend that money on getting the items to Jamaica. So when you give, you are giving out of the kindness of your heart.