Opportunity to help children of Costa Rica

We are traveling to Costa Rica in December. We will enjoy the great coffee, awesome mountains, Pacific beaches, and kind hospitality of the Ticos.

We usually pack fairly light when we travel, but this trip we will carry several large suitcases. The extra bags will be packed with donated items for needy school children in Costa Rica. We need your help to fill these extra bags.

We will be in the Turrialba Coffee region and will donate items to the Casa Milagro Foundation. Take a look at its website to learn more about their projects.

We will also visit Ginnee and Phil Hancock, who are very active in assisting the school children at the Cabecar Indigenous Reservation and the Mission Voz Que Clama. They are good people and they need our help for their good works.

When we see a good cause in the US, we usually reach for a checkbook or go online to make a contribution. It's not so easy in Costa Rica because the items are not as available as in the US. Shipping needed items to Costa Rica is very expensive, so we will be carrying as much as we can cram into several large suitcases.

You can help by either sending money to help us purchase items or you can gather or purchase the items and send them to us so we can take them with us. Try some of your area merchants to see if they would be willing to donate needed items. Many companies have budgets for charity you could help them use for a good cause. I have listed below the items needed.

Please email me with your plan to help so I can coordinate the donations and make sure I have enough suitcases for the trip. robertbadgett@comcast.net

This is a partial list of needed items. Scroll to bottom of list for a link to a website that explains the needs of the children much better than I have.

• 3-ringed binders


• Anything and everything educational


• Art paper and supplies


• Backpacks or small/medium duffle tote bags. Waterproof is good. Different colors would be fun for the kids.


• Blow up beach ball globes of the world (they have never seen the world round, only flat)


• Book bags


• Books: Used/new books in both English and Spanish, for adults, teens & kids


• Chalk


• Coloring books and crayons, markers, watercolors


• Colored paper


• Colored pencils


• Craft paper


• Craft type items


• Crayons


• Dictionary: Spanish-English (not English-Spanish)


• Face paint


• Finger paints


• Flash cards


• Games (Educational): memory/matching games/cards/coordination


• Geometry set


• Markers


• Notebooks


• Paintbrushes


• Paper - plain white, lined and construction


• Pencil sharpeners


• Pencils (either pre-sharpened or please send sharpeners)


• Pens


• Powder craft paint


• Rulers (metric)


• Science kits (must be in Spanish)


• Scissors


• Socks - all sizes, any color for everyday, most schools require NAVY or "Marine Blue"


• Tape


• Tissue paper

For more info and more ideas to help these kids, please visit A Broad in Costa Rica. Our friend Sally writes a very informative and entertaining website about living in Costa Rica.