23 February 2008, 00:50
ramrod340Clothing Donation Pickup at the Houston Area Shoot N Hoot
I had sent this as a PM to a number of you late last year. At that time several said they had stuff to donate but we never made contact. I will be at the Shoot N Hoot so if any of you have anything you would like to donate to this good cause I would be happy to see that it was delivered. Feedback from her Christmas shipment ball caps and cheap leftover Marti Gras beads were a big hit."""Hello I'm Paul Kossmann, some of you know me as one of the Bubba's others only know me as "ramrod340". Since we are all big teddy bears at heart I wanted to share this with you.
Have you ever made a donation to a Charity here in the states only to hear later that 40-50% of it didn’t get to the people that needed it after paying the top dogs salaries and advertising etc.? Or hear the child that got the new tennis shoes was unhappy because they were not Air Jordan’s?
After going to Africa this May it helped my wife and I understand just how lucky we are.
So if you have a $$ or two or have a bag of toys and old clothes you were going to throw away or give to goodwill let me give you another option.
I'd like you to meet Uche Ejindu Baker.
She is the woman on the left with the purse. She is from Nigeria. She works at my wife's Surgery Center. She cleans up the operating rooms. Each year she has her boss hold back $$ from her paycheck to allow her to fly home and take some $$ back to help the people in her country. This year she saved not only her airfare but also $3000. She has organized a group to help her in Nigeria(all donating their time) to try and raise $$, help organize and to identify needy families. This year the state own TV network had a series on her trying to shame the richer people in country to help the poor. Uche doesn’t even ask her fellow workers or the DRs to help.She doesn't want them to feel pressured. Many now do because others have spread the word. She does have a couple local churches collect clothing and has worked a deal with a couple Airlines so they will ship that clothing to Nigeria for her for free.
This summer she took the $3000 she saved and combined it with $2000 her charity group raised and held a party for between 1500 and 1700 children under the age of 10. Gave them a nice meal, clothing and a toy. Seeing the DVD of that event with a 17 year old young man missing both legs sitting in his wheelchair so proud of the Texan's Jersey and cap left me feeling like I should have done way more.
As to the donations she receives from her fellow employees and friends she insures that money goes to needy families. Our small donation this year was not much more than dinner for two at Olive Garden and a glass of wine. It fed three families (20-30 people) 3 nice meals a day for over a week. Uche also tries to get pictures of the families and her helpers included a note from each. I’ve posted those at http://picasaweb.google.com/Ramrod340/Uche?authkey=sRUllpd1crA You can see a theme here. Not unusual for the woman to be on her own with a number of kids.
So if you have a dollar or two or some clothing you no longer need I know for a fact it would get to someone that needed and very much appreciated it."""
I'm sorry this is not a USA recognised charity but you have my word 100% of anything you care to donate will be put to good use.
""I edited this post. A non AR member had asked my wife if she could claim it on her taxes. So I had mentioned it above. After reading it in the post I elected to delete the comment"" I share Rich's feeling below.
If you aren't going to make the Shoot N Hoot and want to donate you can mail it to me or I can give you Uche's address at my wife's office via a PM or email.