our supplies are already bought and ready for our trip to cancun 4/2. We paln on going that night to My Place to drop them off and maybe see a few other TA ers there too!!

Thanks, LAM4 for thinking of the kids. Your help is appreciated.

Have a great vacation. Keep bumping me up, folks. My kids could sure use the help!

Ours bags are already busting at the seams...do you take $$ donations?

Also, do you have large corporations help out such as Walmart and Costco?

Costco provided backpacks filled with school supplies one year for all the students at the school I worked at.

Just a thought. :)

bump for neverwenthome

Nancy, I will be more than glad to help out when I come down in May. I will be down next week but don`t have any room this time.......trying to travel light!!

Last year we were in the Dominican Republic and visited a one room school in the mountains, we took a whole suitcase of stuff for them. Their faces when they saw it was all the thanks we needed.

Nancy ,

I would be glad to bring down some school supplies for the kids when we come down in May.Or I might even just run to Walmart or somewhere and pick the stuff up there. We will be bringing down firefighter gear and equipment for our Bombero amigos who lost so much at the fire at Plaza Las Americas(they also didn't have alot of the gear they needed so we are trying to get them what they need). So I will either bring school supplies from the USA or buy some while we are down there and drop them at My Place. I really felt good when we dropped the toys off in December. I went to Walmart and I think Sorianos while we were down and picked stuff up. I wish I could have seen all the kids when you delivered those toys. I know it must have meant alot to the kids and their parents as well. Kee p up the good work and thank you for being such a good person.

Colleen

Hi Nancy! Hope things are still going well for the effort!

Folks.... this is a wonderful, legitimate cause. Just remember that kids are the future & keep Christmas in your heart all year long!

Dropping the stuff by Joe & Janet also gives you the chance to have a drink & a meal in a wonderful establishment that can be real karaoke fun in the evening. Their "family" is good people. Mondays can be big TA visitor nights, & you may meet some of the local celebrities & folks you "talk" to on TA.

Take down some stuff for the kids, (leave some of your own stuff at home... I overweighted my bags with toys LOL) have a "neighborhood bar" evening out & test your voice with the other "entertainers" at MY PLACE.

Angela

Hi Nancy

We dropped a big bagful of school equipment at My Place on Monday 26 Feb, hope you have received this by now. Its a great thing you are doing and we are always happy to help where we can to those less fortunate - especially children.

Hey! Nice to see some old friends here (Colleen) and some new ones as well! Hope I can answer all your questions. We do have Walmart and Costco here and Walmart gives me 10% off any purchases I personally make for the Give A Toy Project. The other big companies support other charity organizations in different ways but I do not get alot of help because I am one person. I don't have a publicity staff, or any other staff. It's me. I have more success with the Trip Advisor people and the tourists that come down than I do spinning my wheels with bigger companies that have "provisions" as to how, why when, etc. they can donate. If you do drop off anything, please leave your name in the bag with the items so I can put your name on our website... www.giveatoygetasmile.org Someone mentioned the kids faces when they were receiving the toys. You can see them ALL on the website as well. They were all told (even the children that only spoke Maya, thanks to our friend Jorge Serralta) that all of the toys were donated by the wonderful tourists that visit Cancun. We asked all the children if we could take their pictures to show the tourists the difference they had made.

For those of you with exploding suitcases, yes we do accept money (or we do have Walmart, Office Max, Office Depot). Just give it to Janet or Joe in an envelope and it will get to me! DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR NAME ON IT PLEASE! Jaybird, I will check with Janet tomorrow to see what happened to that bag of supplies. I'm sure it's in the DJ booth where all my stuff seems to land.

I really have to thank you amazing people. I had a meeting with the Mayor's wife yesterday and told her all about how wonderful the tourists that come to Cancun are. She could not believe that this whole charity is based on the tourists bringing things down for the kids here. And as someone mentioned, kids are our future. It doesn't matter where they are from or what they look like, it's up to us to help and support them. We need to tear down the walls between the borders...not put them up! The common denominator is the smile. We give them and we get them!

Ney ag700...Thanks for backing me up here. And when are you coming back for another visit...the last TA meeting that you guys were at had a really great turnout. As a matter of fact, not long ago, ZsaZsa made a surprise visit to MY PLACE during a quick visit to Cancun and it was great to see her! COME ON BACK! Nancy