A Christmas Thank You

It is thanks to the support from extremely generous donations, that, since 2006 Be the Change Foundation has sent 31 boxes of Christmas gifts to the Maetang Tribal Children's Home in Thailand. And, these were not small boxes. I personally fit inside of them.

Believe me.

I tried.

I am not even going to guess at how much weight was in those 31 boxes. In 2006, Be the Change shipped the boxes and it cost us $500 to do so. It was a lot of money, but necessary to get the gifts to Chiang Mai.

In 2007 we learned that the United States Postal Service no longer offered the "by boat" method of shipping. This meant that shipping 11 boxes would cost us at least twice as much as it did in 2006.

Enter Plan B.

After some phone calls and telling the story about the children in Maetang, Federal Express told us they would take the gifts to Thailand. For free. And they did this again in 2008. However, in 2008 the boxes were hit with taxes from the Thai government. In 2006 and 2007 the boxes got into the country un-noticed and were not taxed. The cost of those taxes in 2008 was $500. Be the Change paid this, but we really started to think about a better way that money could have been spent. How many children could that money send to school? We know that $500 can help two women who have been rescued from trafficking start a business in Ghana . So, while we understand that it is WAY more fun to shop for these children (believe me, we know, Diane and I have pushed MANY full carts through Target over the past few years) it is a much better use of your donations to send the money to Thailand , rather than the gifts.

Last week a check for $500 (the amount given for the gifts this year in donations) was sent to Thailand , and the shopping will be done in Thailand . We wish the best of luck to those given the task of shopping for over 100 children :)

Whether we send 2 boxes or 22, $25 or $500, the true meaning and spirit of the holiday season is shared with these children.

And that is why we do this.