Generosity is Contagious

There was a lot of "Giving Back" and "Paying it Forward" in Northern Virginia last week.

On Wednesday night - Frank and Judy Kenefick bought a wheelchair on Craigslist for a man they had never met.  Kwadwo is the custodian at Wolf Trap Elementary School and has been looking for a wheelchair for his sister back in Ghana.

On Friday morning - I brought the wheelchair to Wolf Trap Elementary. Kwadwo has a contact who ships to Ghana monthly. So, his sister in Kumasi will get the wheelchair quicker than waiting for my shipment which is going through Accra. And, now, I have another contact for shipping donations to Africa. :) 

Diane Long, who works in the school's office, decided to send out a notice to other elementary schools in the area, letting them know that I was collecting their extra books and supplies to send to a school in need in Africa. Well, an hour later, I got a call from White Oaks Elementary School in Burke, Virginia. They had donations too! While I was driving to Burke to pick up their donations, Gail Magnani dropped off a wonderful selection of sewing needles and notions to be packed with the sewing machines.You rock Gail!

On Saturday morning, I ran out to meet a woman who had children's clothes to donate. I just had met her the day before and we struck up a random conversation about charities. The next thing I know she is offering to clean out her grandchildren's closets and she did!

On the way home I stopped at a garage sale and found a computer monitor and keyboard for sale so I quickly grabbed them. While I was numbering the boxes and putting bright pink duct tape on them so they could easily be spotted in the container, Marge Buzzelli, pulls up with her grandchildren's old bicycles. We are going to give them to Daniel, my shipping contact, because he also sends bikes to Ghana.

A few minutes later, Daniel calls to say that he is at the storage unit and could I bring the boxes right away. Yikes, my husband Ken woke up covered in poison ivy and we were hoping to take him to the doctor for a quick steroid shot before packing the truck. Well, that had to wait. We quickly sprayed some calamine on Ken's wounds and filled our car and our neighbor Tom's truck with as many boxes as we could and headed off to Public Storage in Woodbrige, VA.

Tom and Ken filling the truck.

Tom and Ken unloading the truck.

We dropped off 59 boxes

but the garage is still pretty full of donations yet to be packed.

Luckily Daniel agreed to wait one more week so that I can get the rest of the boxes to him. Whew. It was a busy weekend.