Once again, lots of great stuff to share!

1. Thanks to The Hynes Family in Holmdel we now have enough money to buy a school bus AND build the clinic! And here it is! Thank you Hynes Family! You are making a difference in the lives of the children AND the village of Mbiriizi!

2. More good news ... Jeff Tuccillo will be running in the New York City Marathon again this year! The date is November 6 and we are looking for people to cheer him on and help him raise money for the computer lab. If you are a runner you can appreciate the fact he ran FOR THE FIRST TIME last year and ended up in the top 10%! And, he is getting ready to do an IronMan next year to help us raise money. AMAZING!

3. Thanks to 10 Starbucks ... Middletown, Matawan, Manalapan, Marlboro, East Brunswick, New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Westfield, Edison and Piscataway ... we are having our clothing (and all other stuff that is fabric!) drive through November 13. If you live in those areas, go into Starbucks and get rid of your stuff! To date we have raised $11,250 through this program since our start two years ago! Thanks, Starbucks!

4. Good news! I have been elected President of the Association for Promotion of Tourism in Africa for the NE chapter! Great opportunity to help Africa and become involved in the bigger picture!

5. October 22-23 I will be in Atlanta at the Adventure in Travel Trade Show and Faith in Travel Show. I will have a booth as well as presenting several seminars plus I will be able to reach 11,000-20,000 people with our wonderful message! Wish me luck!

6. We are collecting baseball caps ... if you want to do a collection of them it would be great for us! That will be one of the things that we will be putting in the Christmas goody bags.

7. With the advent of the new clinic we will need doctors and nurses for the March 2012 trip ... dates are March 15-27 ... let me know if you want to join us.

8. The summer trip is June 14-26 and this is the trip where we will be trekking with the gorillas. This trip will be $4,000 because we have to buy $500 gorilla permits and we can only take 8 people. We have 7 signed up ... just one more can go ... let me know if you want to join us!

9. Thank you all who contributed to our Christmas in July promotion ... we have enough money to put on a wonderful party for the children and giving each girl a new dress and each boy a new shirt. Your kindness is greatly appreciated.

10. We are looking for laptop computers to be donated; they would be used at the school and one given to Africa, the General Manager of the GolfLane hotel (where we stay) for his son who is entering college.

11. We needed drivers for the Starbucks pickups in Westfield, Edison and Piscataway and we have them! Francesca Vernoia and Ana Pereira (from Hoboken and Linden) are handling the pickups from those areas. Thank you, ladies ... you have made our job easier!

12. I am going to Uganda October 10 and am so excited because I will be there for Ronnie and Jess's engagement party! It will be Saturday, October 15 and should be fun!

13. While there I will visit with the 25 children we have in secondary school, meet with the architect and get blueprints/costs for production, take several children for echocardiograms and many other activities with Geofrey to continue our successful program.

Thank you all for your wonderful and on-going support and love for these children!