We like to give a shout out to UDS Board Member, Adam Pederson, held a Facebook Live Music Fundraiser on May 15 with his friends, Brian Carlson and Luke Kuha of the Scoop (photo below). They played original music for two hours and raised $845 from their audience. Their efforts brought us closer to our goal. Thank you so much, Brian, Luke, and Adam for a successful fundraiser!
Finally, this fundraiser along with your outpouring of love helped raise $2,525 of the $3,000 goal since our last post. Thank you!
Do you realize how much your support makes a difference? This crisis has brought some challenges but it also shows the best of humanity. In fact, your support as a Classroom Hero for Liberian Children & Youth gives them hope that things will be better soon. This is why we continue to Thank you so much for including UDS students in your charitable giving!
It is important to note that your primary and vocational training students are eager to get back to school. Last Saturday, your 2019/2020 vocational training students were set to graduate (April 25) but we had to postpone until further notice. This was disappointing for them because they are so ready to start their journey as tradespeople and to earn a living. We hope things will improve soon to reschedule their important day.
Now a quick update on COVID-19 in Liberia: 152 confirmed cases (up from 76 the last newsletter), 18 people who have died (up from 7), and 45 people recovered (up from 7). Sadly, the number of people dying has increased but the number that recovered has been much greater. We continue to hope and pray for all of Liberia as they mitigate the complexities of this virus.
With that being said, we are so grateful for you making a generous contribution to our COVID-19 Handwashing Package for UDS Families campaign. You have raised $1,522 (51%) of the $3,000 goal. Thank you! We sent $1,500 to buy the first half of the supplies in Liberia to store at the center. Help us reach our goal so we can buy the remaining supplies and distribute them to the UDS families.
As a dedicated and generous Classroom Hero, we ask for your help to keep UDS families safe by donating $10 to support one family with soap and bleach for hand-washing. Many of the families don’t have clean running water and rely on a bucket with a spigot. Your gift of a COVID-19 Hand-washing Package will save the lives of your students and families. The package will include two dozen packets of powdered soap and two liters of bleach.
Our goal is to raise $3,000 in the next week to meet this urgent need. Please help by donating today and sharing our campaign. We have raised $470 so far from Facebook, CashApp ($UDStars), and checks! Thank you!
One of the greatest achievements of Facebook is to allow people to raise funds for causes they believe in. Uniting Distant Stars (UDS) continues to benefit from these types of fundraisers. In July, our founding board member and “Recipes for Learning” Cookbook project lead, dedicated her birthday to support UDS. She and her eight donors raised $755, and their generosity bought three new treadle sewing machines. This brings us to a total of 11 sewing machines.
Our tailoring course has doubled in size from 6 last year to 12 this year. It is nice to see this course trending upwards because it is one of the first training classes we offered. In the past, we piloted a backpack project–transforming recycled plastic into a durable good–with the only four sewing machines. This launched the Backpacks for Peace Service Learning Projectin 2015. We increased our sewing machines to 10 and trained 20 students how to sew these backpacks. These backpacks filled with school supplies were donated to young school children later that year.
Thanks again to Mary and her eight generous donors for improving the training experience for 12 Tailoring Students!!!
We were honored to have our former board member, Florkime Paye, host a Facebook Fundraiser on the behalf of Uniting Distant Stars for her birthday last month. Her campaign raised $335 from family and friends that will go towards the vocational training of ambitious young people in Liberia. Florkime, we give you are bighearted Thank You for your continued dedication and support of Liberian Youth!!!
