Leaving

My flight leaves out of New York tomorrow night a 7:00! I'm so excited to finally start this adventure! This will be the last update on my blog until I come back. I'll be taking lots of pictures and I can't wait to share my experience with everyone! Thanks to all who helped me get there. See you in August!

Letters to Africa

To send me letter in Africa, the address is:

Global Routes

c/o Amal El Hadri

6 Rue Caid Said

Quartier Administratif

Azrou 53100

MOROCCO, North Africa

My name and host community name must be written in the lower left hand corner of the envelope. The host community name will be on a blog on the Global Routes website, www.globalroutes.org. Letters have to be sent by July 6, because they can take up to two weeks to reach their destination. I'd love to hear from everyone!

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Cookbook/Morocco.html

I might eat some of this while I'm away!

Project Description

Global Routes posted details about the project I will be doing in Morocco! I will be renovating a school and building a playground in the town of Azrou, in the Mid-Atlas mountains. I will also be doing secondary projects, such as painting a mural in the school or helping package and market a local women's cooperative's product. It's going to be so much fun! To read more about the project, go to:
http://www.globalroutes.org/pdfs/morocco_project12.pdf

Applebee's

We're holding a fundraiser at Applebee's tomorrow! If you print out this flyer and give it to your waiter or waitress, Applebee's will give 10% of your bill to Global Routes. We really need people to participate in this, so please come and help!

Yard Sale

We made over $500 at the yard sale! Thank you to all who donated, your stuff really helped! We're now about 60% to the goal for fund raising!

Bidding Ended

The vermont Vacation home went for $325! Thank you to everyone who placed a bid, and congratulations to the winner!

Bidding Extended

The bidding deadline has been extended to 8:00 tonight in case people are out enjoying the beautiful day!

New Bid!

CPT raised the bid to $300 for the weekend vacation house! 

Bidding closes today for VT vacation home

Today is the final day for bids on this wonderful weekend away.  Place your bid now and I'll keep the blog updated with all new bids as they come in.

Check out the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce website for the many things to do in the area this spring and summer!

Vacation Home

There is a new bid on the vacation home for $200!

Final Bids

The bidding for the watercolor paintings has officially closed! The final bids are below. Thank you to all who supported me with this auction, and congratulations to those who won! This auction was really fun for us. For those who did not win but are still interested in bidding, my mom has offered to commission watercolor paintings, with the proceeds going to my trip. If you are interested, I can connect you to her.

We are still holding an auction for a weekend stay at a Vermont vacation home! Again, it is near Okemo Mountain and Woodstock, Vermont, and sleeps 8 comfortably. There is currently a bid on it for $100. Bidding for this ends April 15th. Please bid if you are interested!

The bids are now:
Monhegan Lighthouse: $225 by bidder WC
Franconia Notch: $300 by bidder ER
Breezy Sunflowers: $101 by bidder CCC

Thank you to all who have bid so far! Today is the last day for bidding, so make sure you get yours in by 5:00p.m. today!

Vacation Home Bid

There is a bid for $100 on the Vermont vacation home! Now's your chance to keep bidding, it's an awesome place and a great deal!

Bid updates

Thanks for all  the interest in the watercolors!  We are one week from closing the bidding.  We just received a new bid for the Franconia painting.  Here is the latest for each.

Franconia Notch - $225  By bidder El R.

Lighthouse - $200  by bider SQ

Breezy Sunflowers - $50 by bidder EH

Keep in mind we do have a vacation home weekend for bid as well.

Pictures of the vacation home!

These are some pictures of the vacation home for auction, and the are around it!

New Auction Item

Weekend Stay at Vermont Vacation Home

Family friends have kindly offered a weekend at their Vermont vacation home as an auction item supporting my fund raising.  This is fantastic!  Similar to the paintings for auction, please email your bid.  I will post the high bid on my blog site.  The auction will run until the end of April.  A description of the house and when it is available are below.  My dad stayed here last fall during the Vermont relay (which his team, the King Pins, set the course record for old guys).  He said it is very cool.  I will try to get pictures to post.

 

The house is located on 5 acres in Cavendish, Vermont.  Just 4 miles from Okemo, the house is close to lakes and the town of Woodstock.  Perfect location for hiking, road or mountain biking, canoeing or kayaking, and more.  The house is 2500 sqft and sleeps 8 comfortably.  Pick a weekend between April and Labor Day (including Labor Day weekend).

These are the Mid-Atlas Mountains, where I will be for the homestay. It's so exciting!

http://www.globalroutes.org/gallery.html?xmlfile=Morocco.xml&returnpath=hs_programs.htm&country=Morocco&country_name=Morocco

 This is the map of where we are going in Morocco, as well as a brief schedule for the trip, provided by Global Routes. We will be traveling all over the country!
















Map & Itinerary
MOROCCO 2012 July 2–July 29

July 2‐3: Group departs USA & flies to Casablanca, travels to Fez
July 4‐7: Orientation in Fez
July 8‐20: Homestays and Community Service Project
July 21‐24: Sahara Desert, camel trek
July 25‐26: Todra Gorges
July 27‐28: Marrakesh
July 29: Travel to Casablanca, group flight to USA

There are two new bids! One on the Franconia Notch painting for $201, and another on the Monhegan Lighthouse painting for $200. The Breezy Sunflowers painting is still at $50. You can see the lighthouse at On the Vine grocery store, and Franconia Notch at Travel and Nature. If you want to bid, e-mail me at kelsey_marin@yahoo.com.

There is a new bid on the Franconia Notch painting for $201!

Bidding

The current bids are $175 on Monhegan Lighthouse, $75 on Frankonia Notch, and $50 on Breezy Sunflowers.

Thanks to Alcie and John Gunn, Marie Ellen and George Cordeiro, and John and Andrea Richards for their donations! We are now up to $1,000!

I recieved another donation from Heidi and Jeff Wyman! Thanks guys!

The Monhegan Lighthouse bid has been raised to $175 and there is a bid for $50 on each of the other two paintings!

There is currently a bid for $150 on the Monhegan Lighthouse painting! The bidding has officially begun!

Pictures for Sale!

Today starts an auction in support of my trip.  My favorite artist and wonderful mom donated 3 watercolor paintings.  The bidding will continue until March 31!  Email your bid to kelsey_marin@yahoo.com.  I will update the blog as bids come in. There are pictures of them to the left, and each one is framed in beautiful cherry wood. On the Vine grocery store in Exeter agreed to let me hang one of my mom's pictures there! So go visit On the Vine and see one of the paintings.

I received two more donations from Ned Carney and Tom Bergeron! Thank you so much!

Just got a check from Kathy Rodrigues! Thank you so much, we're up to $200 now! We only need 57 more people to donate $100 to reach the goal of $5900, and I'll be all set to go to Africa!

I received two more checks for the trip! Thank you so much Marianne Pernold and Caroline Herter!

I got my first donation from my aunt and uncle! Thank you so much guys!

Fundraising Update

I just met with Sarah and we brainstormed some ideas for fundraising! None of these have been finalized, but you can look for these events in the coming months:

• Calendar pre-orders for 2013, with pictures from my trip
• A yard sale. To help us make the most we can from this, you can donate most anything you want to get rid of so we can sell it!
• An online auction-we may collaborate with the New Outlook Teen Center to raise money
• My mom's artwork being auctioned/sold in stores and at a farmer's market
• The sale of home-made fleece blankets

With all these activities for supporting my trip with Global Routes, there is one little idea with big results to keep in mind.  My goal is to raise $5900.  We need only 59 people to donate $100.  Be one of the few to help reach this goal.

Summer in Morocco

I am going on the Morocco trip with Global Routes! I will be in Morocco, Africa for four weeks with 17 other students and four trip leaders. The first week, we will stay in the city of Fez, one of the few remaining medieval cities that's still functioning. The next two weeks are the focus of the trip. We will stay in a village, teaching English and building a school or community center. The last week will be spent traveling around Morocco and spending time with the people. This trip will be a bit of a challenge, but I am so excited!
 For more details on this trip, go to:
http://www.globalroutes.org/hs_programs.htm?country=morocco

As you can imagine, this is an expensive trip. I need to raise $5900 to go on it. This will go towards tuition, airfare and the service project we do with the host village. If you would like to help me reach this goal, please donate using the button that says "Donate". This is a link to PayPal.

I will be doing lots of fundraising, as well. I will be selling pre-orders of pictures, calendars or cards with pictures from the trip. I will also hopefully be partnering with a couple restaurants to help raise money.

Thanks to Sarah Illingworth from the New Outlook Teen Center for telling me about this program, and helping me raise money!

Global Routes
"As peoples of the world become increasingly interdependent we must all recognize that we live in a global community. The future of this community depends upon our self-knowledge as well as upon mutual understanding and respect among diverse cultures.  Global Routes deepens these roots of our shared community as we foster personal and international development. Undertaking voluntary work overseas allows North American youth the opportunity to push past stereotypes and misconceptions to build strong relationships and self-understanding, as well as buildings."