The Jordan Garrick Initiative

It all started at a wedding about 3 weeks ago. Chrystal, my college roommate, was a bridesmaid in her sister's wedding here in Charlotte. Mrs. Gloria Garrick and her husband Ron were in attendance. They're Chrystal's godparents. Conveniently, we were seated at the same reception table as the Garricks. Awaiting the appearance of the newlyweds, we all began chatting and catching up.

We began getting into the details of our upcoming trip to Kenya. Each program participant is allowed to bring down 50lbs. of donations as we'll be visiting the babies in the homes. We weren't sure at that point how we were going to go about collecting clothes, toys, diapers, wipes, etc. for these babies. Mrs. Garrick said that her daughter Jordan might be interested in helping us get some of these things donated. She said she would have Jordan call me the following night and we would outline a plan.

Jordan called the next evening and I gave her a little background on Amani, the trip, and what we were aiming to collect. We agreed to meet in the next couple of days to iron everything out. After a productive meeting, Jordan sent out the following e-mail to a number of potential donors:

Hello,

My name is Jordan, and my mother, Gloria Garrick is helping me with a fund-raiser for the Amani Children's Foundation. Here is some additional information I would like to share, to gain your support in this effort!

I am working with Kristin, the daughter of Diane Hill, who is a rising senior and Robertson Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill to collect baby clothes for the Amani Children's Foundation. The Foundation is sponsoring several UNC Chapel Hill students on an upcoming Family Leadership Trip to Kenya, to visit the homes for abandoned infants and small children. The Foundation is focused on serving children, who have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa. Babies arrive and live in six "New Life Homes" across Kenya.

If you are wondering how you can help... We are collecting the following items, and need your support:

• New Baby Clothes (0 - 3 years of age)
• New sturdy Baby Toys (0 - 3 years of age)
• Disposable Diapers
• Baby Wet Wipes
• Baby Plastic Pants
• New / used books
• 2 new / used car seats

If it is easier for you to make a financial donation, please feel free to send money , and let me do the shopping for you!

It is our goal to collect over 100 pounds of baby items for Kristin and Diane's upcoming trip, so we will need to receive your donation by Monday, June 16th. Please respond back to this email, if you are interested in participating, and my Mom, Gloria will coordinate a pick-up time.

Here are some additional website:
Amani Children's Foundation: http://www.amanichildren.org
Kristin Hill Scholar profile: http://robertsonscholars.org/index.php?type=dynamic&source=scholarsProfilesDetail&at=student&id=383
Robertson Scholars Program: http://robertsonscholars.org/

Thanks in advance for your support!

P.S. I have attached some pictures of the children!

From there, the donations poured in! Let me tell y'all, that Girl Scout can move! She asked me for a flyer that she could take to dance, church, etc. I commissioned a good friend to design this:

With that, she was off again! After a good week and a half, Mrs. Garrick and Jordan came over to deliver the donations they'd collected from people. My mother and I were happily stunned! There was 145lbs. of donations in the form of books, clothes, diapers, and baby wipes!

Thank you so much Garrick family for organizing and collecting all of these items for the babies. Thanks to all of you who contributed, you are truly changing lives one baby at a time. Your help is invaluable to us!

Please send additional donations to this address:

The Amani Children's Foundation
c/o The Jordan Garrick Initiative
3288 Robinhood Rd. #107
Winston-Salem, NC 27106