How it all began....

While I was growing up I had the privilege of traveling the world and living with different people and cultures.   My father worked for the Canadian Embassy and we were stationed in Haiti and several other islands in the Caribbean.  After the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti I tried to teach my children about what the Haitian people were experiencing.  I realized that being so far away from those suffering and having never seen first hand how the Haitian people lived I could not get my children to truly understand and sympathize with these people.  How could I get my children, all under 10 years of age, to really understand what life is like for those who are less fortunate than themselves?  How do we as adults truly begin to love a people we do not know?

The answer was simple, service.  In order to love someone you have to serve them.  I had taught my children about the Haitian people but they could not connect because they had not served them.  What can a little child in Utah offer someone in need that they have never met?  I began to realize that although my children could donate clothing or toys they would never see how their donation had helped the children in need and it was not personal enough.  I wanted a gift from one child to another.

What do children give other children?  What do they make for mom and dad that is ever so personal to them.  I had the answer staring at me in the face from my fridge door.  Children give us art, pictures, cards, and stories that they have drawn, colored or written.  My children could give what means most to them, their own drawings and stories given from their heart and received with gratitude by children in need.