Before you read the rest of this post please watch this video

Shortly before President Hinckley's passing and as the Committee Chair for the church's General Welfare Committee he spoke of the humanitarian efforts of 2007 and "expressed profound gratitude for the generosity of members and those not of our faith who have made this outreach possible. In behalf of the General Welfare Committee, we express our deep appreciation to the many individuals, families, quorums, and Relief Society and Young Women groups who are the good Samaritans of today."

"In 2007 the Church responded to major earthquakes in 5 countries, massive fires in 6 countries, hunger and famine in 18 countries, and flooding and severe storms in 34 countries. In total the Church and its members responded to 170 major events---nearly one every two days for the entire year. It was a busy year with many opportunities to serve" (And Who Is My Neighbor? Burton)

One of the great things about these humanitarian projects is that they have been broken down into fairly simple steps making it easy for almost anyone to participate. Shannon and I thought it would be a great idea to spend a small amount of time during our family get together this summer working on a family project.

The most urgent need right now for many of the flood and earthquake victims is to be provided with a simple hygiene kit which consists of 2 hand towels (not wash cloths or dish towels), 2 combs (with no handle), 2 bars of soap, 4 toothbrushes and 1 tube of toothpaste. The family activity would involve packaging them together and preparing them for shipment.

In the meantime, as a family we are going to be seeking donations of these items from the community. We have gone out and purchased items for a couple of these kits to put on display and are putting donation bins at Mieko's Fitness and Gold's Gym. We are also going to hit up a few dentists’ offices in the area for toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Our goal is to make 100 of these kits to send off. We are very open to any ideas that people have about how to collect as much of this as possible. We are also very open to anyone who would like to assist us in the actual collection. Our goal would be to bring the collected materials to the park where we meet for our gathering and have this as one of the activities.

Thoughts?

Marky Mark