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super volunteers
& companies who assist Hands... |
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At the start of a journey there
are many directions to take, many questions that need answers.
While the mission statement of Hands Across the Sea, Inc.,
is broad, we have decided to focus on helping schools while
we are sailing in the Caribbean. The words "healthcare"
and "environmental" will remain in our mission
statement because in other parts of the world where we cruise,
this type of help may become the priority for us. Below
are the sister organizations and wonderful people who are
helping us achieve the Hands mission, and we've also listed
other organizations that fulfill medical and environmental
goals in coastal communities.
Hands book donors
We are grateful to all of you who
searched attics, basements, and bookshelves for children's
reading books to donate to schoolchildren in the Caribbean.
Thanks to friends, neighbors, relatives, cousins,
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Great
job! A big Hands "thanks!" to Nita, Jessica,
and Rosemary of the Marion Library for donating many
boxes
of children's books to our current Caribbean project
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and to people like Rosemary, Nita,
and Jessica who packed the remainders from the Marion,
(Massachusetts) Library book sale,
Kathy Leavitt and Cindy Renaud of MedAesthetic Day Spa in
Dartmouth, Massachusetts, who collected books on our behalf,
and Connie MacSweeney of the Lady Bug Bookstore in Dartmouth,
Maassachusetts, who is providing storage for donated books.
If you are interested in collecting books for Hands Across
the Sea, or you have some children's books to donate, please
see the Book Drop page
on the Hands website and contact
us.
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An AIT Worldwide driver picking
up books donated to Hands
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AIT Worldwide
There are a few steps along the
way to transport books from your attics and library sales
to Nevis, Dominica, and Union Island in the Caribbean. Thanks
to Ray Vargo and AIT
Worldwide who helped us ship over 1,000 pounds of
books from Massachusetts to Boaters
for Books' Punta Gorda, Florida, storage facility.
And thanks to Matt Pollock of Harte-Hanks who introduced
us to Ray!
Boaters for Books
Kathy Oberle founded Boaters
for Books over 10 years ago as she and her husband
cruised the
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Solange Payne of Newtown Primary
School receives books from Esther Shillingford, Dominica
Lions Club President
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Caribbean on their sailboat. Now
land-based, Kathy continues her good work distributing books to Caribbean school children through
a network she has set up on various islands. We are grateful
to her and her team for shipping our books to Nevis, Dominica,
and Union Island. On Dominica, delivery logistics were managed
by Esther Shillingford and Louisiana Dubique of the Dominica
Lions Club. We attended a "handing over ceremony"
at the Lions Club in Roseau, Dominica, where Solange Payne
of Newtown Primary School received your donated books from
Esther Shillingford, President of the Roseau Chapter. Boaters
for Books also shipped our books to Stephanie Brown Primary
School on Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and
to the Special Education School in Nevis. Thank you to these
key partners of Hands Across the Sea. We could not get books
to schoolkids without your help!
True North Missions
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Dr. Alan Barber, founder of True
North Missions
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Hands Across the Sea is fortunate
to have Dr. Alan Barber, the founder of True North Missions,
on our board of directors. Dr. Barber has founded True North
Missions to provide healthcare to the children of Mayan Indian
tribes in Central America. These indigenous people were displaced
by Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1999. The
Mayans have migrated to isolated areas in bordering countries
to avoid persecution and discrimination, and as a result are
isolated from access to healthcare. A visit to True
North's website will fill you in on the outstanding work
Dr. Barber and his volunteer medical professionals are accomplishing.
To see who True North is helping, check out the wonderful
slide show of their recent mission
to Guatemala. True North Missions has inspired us in another
way: Dr. Barber utilizes a 47-foot catamaran, outfitted especially
for medical missions, to bring his teams to the site and provide
a base for their work ashore.
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Canvasback Missions' 71-foot catamaran,
Canvasback
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some other great organizations...
In looking for partner organizations we've discovered that
using a boat to bring help to communities in need is unusual
but not unprecedented. For example, the folks at Canvasback
Missions, Inc. (http://www.canvasback.org/index.html),
have been combining medical and ministry outreach in Micronesia
for 26 years. And other groups are using boats in the service
of medical and social assistance: Sail Vega (http://www.sailvega.com),
Oceans Watch (http://www.oceanwatch.org),
Project MARC (http://www.project-marc.org),
Endangered Islands Expedition (http://www.eiexpedition.com/pages/1/index.htm),
and Maritime Missions (http://www.maritimemissions.org),
to list only a few. We hope someday to have the opportunity
to work with additional groups as we continue cruising.
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ways you can work with Hands... |
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network
with Hands
If you have a project in which Hands can help or if you
want to help with projects near your location that we know about
contact us!
collect books for Hands
If'd you'd like to collect children's books for Hands, please
go to our Hands Book Drop page
join the Hands Log eNews group
If you would like to receive the Hands
Log (e-mail newsletter) please click
here. Just type "Subscribe" in the subject line of your
e-mail and we'll keep you updated on where Hands is and what's
next!
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