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