ANOTHER HALLOWEEN, ANOTHER FUNDRAISER FOR DR.HODES!


Another year has passed and with the Halloween Parade at Vista Grande Elementary School at Danville we had the opportunity to do another fundraise for Dr. Hodes!

We,ve raised $345 dollars! Amount already donated to JDC.

This year we have raffled a Halloween theme cake plus an inspirational poster from an art busisness created by one of the mothers of our group, named ThaisHelenaStudio.com, which annually will donate part of its profits to Dr. Hodes mission in Ethiopia as can be seen at http://thaishelenastudio.com/giving-back/

Through a sweet dessert or through visual art, the word about Dr. Hodes has been spread and some money has been raised on the way.

Thank you for Vista Grande Elementary School and all the students and parents who support our cause.

A few days ago our group received an amazing phone call from Los Cerros Middle School in Danville, letting us know that, after having communicated with the principal about our group and Dr. Hodes,  they decided to donate some money to support Dr. Hodes' mission, and they gave us $300! The money has already been deposited in Dr. Hodes account.
THANK YOU  LOS CERROS!!

HOW CAKES CAN HELP KIDS IN ETHIOPIA...

Let's think out of the box? This is what our group decided to do in order to have more ideas about how to raise money to help Dr. Hodes and...we have come up
with this: baking very ornate beautiful cakes and raffle them at schools, churches, organizations and wherever else there is a sweet tooth for good stuff and great causes!

The result so far? $555.00 dollars deposited into Dr. Hodes' account today!
The first cake raffle took place at Vista Grande Elementary School in Danville (during a Halloween Parade) last Thursday and the second cake raffle took place at Peace Lutheran Church also in Danville, yesterday.

During these two events we could spead the word about the magnificent of Dr. Hodes and also make the two winners' lives sweeter!

More funds raised at Vista Grande Elementary School's carnival!

For the second year our group has worked with Vista Grande's students and parents during this beautiful annual event to raise funds for the kids in Ethiopia.

Selling T-shirts (with our logo), beautiful hand made cloth wallets (made by Alex H., an 11 year old girl!) and photo cards we have raised $227.00 for Dr. Hodes!

Thank you to principal Hansen who continuely supports our sharing vision about the importance of educating children to help others in need.

Vista Grande Students helped to raise part of the necessary money to build another well!

Last week there was a second fundraiser at Vista Grande Elementary School at Danville for Dr. Hodes. We were there working with the students to raise money for a well for the new school that has been built in Ethiopia with the help of our friend Robel Haile, from Bottles for Poverty.

In five days selling ice creams, t-shirts and beautiful cloth wallets made by an eleven year old girl named Alex H., we were able to raise $772!

Thank you very much VG students! Thank you Mrs. Hansen and the mothers and kids who worked with us helping to make this another success!

Spreading Dr. Hodes' cause with Italian children

By the beginning of the year we had the opportunity to talk about Dr. Hode’s story to ITALIANS kids!

That vivid audience covered us with questions and comments about what Dr. Hodes has been doing in Ethiopia for the last 20 years of his life.

It made us very happy to have the opportunity to talk about Ethiopia kids and to sell our T-Shirts to those young european new friends! We have deposited $200 at Dr. Hodes account.

Grazie mille for your support amici!

More funds raised for Ethiopia!

In December We Are All Connected Group was capable to donate U$288,00 to Dr. Hodes due to the efforts of the children from Vista Grande Elementary School in Danville! Through their recycle program of bottles and old cell phones during November, they and us working together were capable to raise the money mentioned above and send it to JDC, the organization's that support Dr. Hodes's mission in Ethiopia.

In reponse of our efforts during 2013 to help Dr, Hodes' cause, he nicely took his precious time to write to us thanking our group and our precious children's team support!

Thank you everybody and let's make 2014 rock even more!

A special gift from a young heart

A few days ago we received this special gift from a six year old girl, a student at Vista Grande Elementary School.  

When Lauren had her birthday party a few weeks ago she told her friends she didn't  want any gifts - instead she wanted money to help fund Dr. Hodes' mission! 

This beautiful young lady not only raised a couple hundred dollars for Dr. Hodes' cause, but also shared a precious lesson, the lesson of giving, with the 12 friends invited to her party .  Then, Lauren took to the money she raised from the party, $150.35, then opened her piggy bank and added $53 of her own money, and gave it to our group to donate- over $200 raised by a six year old!

This is a big part of what our group hopes to accomplish - to plant the lesson of giving to the less fortunate in children's hearts and minds.  Below it's a picture of Lauren with the letter she wrote to Dr. Hodes:

"My name is Lauren.  I am six years old and I am in the first grade at Vista Grande Elementary School in Danville, CA. I have saved up $203.35 which I would like to give to you.  Please use the money for a little girl.  You can buy her food, medisin, a doll, books and some cloths.  Or you can buy what ever you think she needs.  When I have some more money I will give it to you".

Very, very well done little Lauren!  Thank you very much!

Spreading the word during Halloween season

When people want to help they find so many different ways to do it: our friend Marcela Luma opened the doors of her house (actually her barn!) during a Halloween party for kids so we could talk about Dr. Hodes to her guests, the little ones!

We talked to several children and their parents about the kids in Ethiopia and Dr. Hodes. We sold 4 books while witches and ghosts surrounded us!

Thank you Marcela!

Cans, bottles, and old cell phones = helping African children

On October 25, 2013 we had our first Recycling Event at Vista Grande. It was a good beginning. Some children (and their families, thank you Julie Domde!) really applied themselves and brought a lot of cans and bottles to us. 

Thank you kids! You are helping the environment and Dr. Hodes!

We also were able to collect 15 old cell phones with another four my husband gave to us. Yesterday we mailed 19 cell phones to Recycle Rewards, to be recycled for money for our cause!  As soon as the company informs us how much we raised, we will let you know.

So, please start to collect your bottles and cans for next even, November 22, and start to talk to your relatives and neighbors to see if they have old cell phones to donate to us.  And to all the students from Vista Grande Elementary School in Danville California, see you on the last Friday of November!

More funds raised at Vista Grande elementary school's carnival!

A big thank you goes out to Vista Grande Elementary School, you scored again!  

The annual Carnival held on a Saturday in October is always a bit hit for kids and parents alike- games, prizes, and food to raise money for the school.  Vista Grande was kind enough to let us spread the word about Dr. Hodes’ mission, and to sell books, t-shirts and cookies, raising funds for the kids in Ethiopia.

With the help of the school, kids, and parents we raised $205.00 for Dr. Hodes!

Thank you Principal Hansen for sharing the value of teaching our children the tremendous importance of helping. Thank you for being on board and helping us show the kids that yes, We Are All Connected, and yes, we can make a difference!

The Peace Journey Church joins our cause to help raise funds!

Today we had our table on the patio of the Peace Journey Church in Danville selling cookies and T-shirts for Dr. Hodes. 

From noon to 4pm we were outside and later we moved inside during the Jazz festival where we stayed until 7pm. We talked to several people, sold some T-shirts and raised another $126.12 for the kids in Ethiopia! 


Thanks to everybody who participated and who helped by buying our stuff. Special thanks to Pastor Steve who generously made room for us to be there. Big thanks also to the principal Mrs. Hansen who graciously gave us the beautiful extra T-shirts (from our previous fundraiser at Vista Grande) to be sold today, and to Eric Gayden who generously printed our first "professional banner" with the picture of Dr. Hodes, as well as some drawings made by our kids.

Skyping with Dr. Hodes (video)

Here we bring this new video with school children interviewing Dr. Hodes through Skype, asking questions about who he is, where he practices medicine, about children of Ethiopia and how children in our country can help them. It's only a few minutes long so take a look!

It's another wonderful educational video we all can show school children. The purpose is to provide information to educate the kids about Dr. Hodes' cause.

The children will not only find information about Dr. Rick, but will also see his enthusiasm and wonderful smile and laugh at the end of the clip, delighted to see kids from other parts of the world committing themselves to help kids in Eithiopia!

Children always bring a smile to our hearts, but when they are engaged in helping others...wow! Could we ask for better?! They bring not only happiness to our hearts, but a huge dose of HOPE for the future.

Please, take a look at it and be part of it!

Video about our cause - We Are All Connected (video)

We are glad to finally bring back to our blog and make available to all of you the video where we briefly tell a little bit of the amazing humanitarian story of Dr. Hodes and his wonderful cause to help the children in Ethiopia and East Africa.

The story is told by a group of children, in a way that it is narrated as if it was a "fairy tail". We believe that these two facts will help children at schools who will learn about Dr. Hodes, his mission and how each of them can make a difference by helping to naturally relate to the cause.

By the end of the video we have the participation of Dr. Hodes supporting our group and mission to help him.

Please, take a look at it and share it with your children!

Our goal is to make (through an educational and natural way) children of our area aware of other kinds of realities on the planet. It's also about inspirational people like Dr. Hodes and about how EACH OF THEM can truly make a huge difference by coming together and helping!

It has already happened here with real children exactly like YOURS. It's completely possible! We just need to want and put an effort on that direction.

Please, take a look at it:

A beautiful postcard from Ethiopia

Last week, from Dr.Hodes' group in Ethiopia, we received a post card thanking us for our support, sharing the beautiful news that 17 kids were recently sent for life-saving spine surgery!  They also shared with us that in the past year 5 patients regained the ability to walk! They finished their post card saying: "Please spread the word. With gratitude, Daniel".

So inspiring.

We would like to extend these beautiful news with all of you and mainly say that WE are the ones that have gratitude in our hearts. Gratitude for all Dr. Hodes team exist and have been doing what you have done. Thank YOU.

And thanks to everybody that has been supporting our small group to help them.

Spreading the word

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to talk about Dr. Hodes to a group of parents and teachers at Peace Lutheran Church in Danville. Our dear friend Pastor Steve Harms have generously opened the doors of his church for us to spread the word about Dr.Hodes work.

He wrote on the church website:

We Are All Connected:  This is an organization which Thais Ouzounian has initiated with a few parents locally to support the work of Dr. Rick Hodes in Ethiopia who has been assisting disabled and abandoned children for over 20 years.  Their goal is not only to provide financial support but equally important to raise the consciousness among the children of our community about the critical needs of other children around the planet.  She wants our children to experience that they are all connected and through working together they can make a difference on this world.  Thais and friends will be working primarily through our local schools.   I invite you to join her at her Brunch Table after worship on June 9 – especially the teachers at Peace and anyone interested in learning more.

http://www.peacejourney.org/

We would like to thanks everybody who participated in that meeting. And special thanks to Pastor Steve.

We are all connected group

Our second lemonade event

Today it was 98 degrees outside here in Danville, and I believe the only thing that was even warmer than the temperature was the passion and motivation of our kids to work on our second Lemonade Event for Dr. Hodes!

There were seven enthusiastic kids working with two moms in front of Lunardis and together we could share the word about Dr. Hodes with many people and we ended up raising $150.00 dollars!  For a lemonade event, it was a huge success!

Thanks to the generosity of the people who saw the true value of 7 kids working for a great cause.

Actually, that was the jingle repeated by our 7 "workers": Lemonade for a good cause!

Among the people that we talked to we had the opportunity to speak to a gentleman that suggested bringing our charitable group to the attention of the Rotary Club, where he is a member.  It will be an honor Sir!

On this blessed day, we also had the opportunity to talk to the vice mayor, Robert Storer, who was very polite and showed interest in our mission. We gave him a copy of the book"This is a Soul", with the hope that he will be as captivated by Dr. Hodes' story as we are, and some how, will join forces with us.

At last, we would like to thank Lunardis for the generosity of allowing us to set our lemonade event in front of their store. You helped to make it possible! Thank you.

Our first lemonade event

Last Saturday (May 18) we promoted our first lemonade event for Dr. Hodes' cause.  This took place on the beautiful Iron Horse Trail, close to the Farmers' Market area in downtown Danville, California.

With balloons, lemonade, our "We All Are Connected" stickers, and the book about Dr. Hodes "This is a Soul", we raised U$ 43.00 for his cause.  More importantly we had the opportunity to talk to several people about Dr. Hodes and how each of us can help him!

We were able to talk to some teachers, who hopefully will carry the idea to their schools for near future fundraisers.  And as you can see, we could count on the help of the most special and genuine helpers on this earth - the "little ones".

Thanks to these great helpers and to all of you who spent your time and money with us.

We raised $4738 for a new well in Ethiopia!

On March 19th, 2013, P.R.I.D.E. Vista Grande held the fundraiser for Dr. Hodes with the goal of raising $3,500.00 for the doctor to build a well for the children in Ethiopia. 

We are very happy to share that the children, the principal, the teachers and volunteers from Vista Grande, everyone together, made it happens by achieving the amount of $4,738.00!!  Now Dr. Hodes can put some of these funds toward a new well, and use the remainder for other needs (operations, girls scholarships, and more).

We would like to thank each and every child who made it possible by first believing (that it was possible) and then by buying the stricker and the T-Shirt with our logo!

Thanks to each and all of you!  Thank you all for being connected with this first fundraiser for Dr. Hodes!

We Are All Connected Group

Vista Grande fundraiser March 19th!

On Tuesday, March 19th, we will hold our first fundraiser sponcered by P.R.I.D.E Vista Grande for Dr. Hodes at Vista Grande Elementary School here in Danville, California.

Our sticker, a T-shirt (sponsered by Car West Auto Body, Community Bank of the Bay and HIA) and home made cookies (baked by a group of diligent school mothers from Vista Grande) will be sold as a packet for $10.00 each to raise funds for Dr. Rick Hodes.

If you are in town and want to join forces with us to help this honorable physician, please come on by, buy a cool and meaningful T-shirt (to proudly wear) and sticker (to use on your car, backpack, etc) embracing our cause!

Vista Grande Elementary School
667 Diablo Rd, Danville CA 94526  USA

click here to find Vista Grande on Google Maps

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 - from 10:10 to 2:00 pm




In addition, if you have an old cell phone you don't use anymore, please bring it with you to donate. We have a program to exchange them for money; funds we can send to Dr. Hodes.

Please, help us teach the joy of giving to our children.  



Sincerely
We Are All Connected Group