We had a cluster birthday party for our March meeting. We played birthday party games, sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed cupcakes. We also completed a service project. Everyone brought supplies to create birthday bags to donate to the local food pantry. Each bag contained a cake mix, frosting, candles, and other birthday party supplies.
Back in May, we announced that our cluster would be celebrating Au Pair in America’s 30th anniversary year with 30 Hours of Service in 2016.
J-Day Shoe Collection Event
Storm Drain Marking Project
We have done three project so far:
April 10 – Making Sandwiches for the Homeless (5 hours of service)
July 31 – J-Day Shoe Donation (3 hours)
August 9 – Storm Drain Project (6 hours)
Still to come…
September – Making Cards for Hospitalized Kids
October – Bowie International Festival
In the spirit of Thanksgiving and sharing, our au pairs came together to make over 300 sandwiches for DC Central Kitchen. I would also like to thank the Seekers Church in Takoma Park for allowing us to use their space for a very reasonable cost.
A dozen au pairs from our cluster volunteered at Holy Trinity Church in Bowie on Sunday. The church was hosting a week of the Warm Nights Homeless Shelter Program. Our au pairs donated food and prepared bag lunches for the guests. We also led a few games of bingo, for an after dinner activity.
We had more donations than we needed for the number of guests. The bags of extra fresh fruit, bread, cookies, water bottles , peanut butter and jelly were donated to the Bowie Interfaith Food Pantry. So, it turned out to be a double service project.
Here are a few pictures of the lunch making assembly line…
At our Cultural Fair on Sat, 2/25, we will be collecting donations for Children’s National Medical Center. Several families in our cluster have children who have received care at CNMC. My youngest son has also spent some time there. Being in the hospital is a difficult experience for a child and their family.
One small thing that we can do to help is donate items to help kids pass the time during their hospital stay. Below are some suggested items. You will find the full CNMC Wish List here on their website. All items should be new.
Here are some popular items from the CNMC Wish List as suggestions.
What: Au Pair in America Central Maryland Cultural Fair
When: Saturday, February 25, 1-3 pm
Where: Bowie Library (Large Meeting Room)
15210 Annapolis Road (Rt. 450), Bowie, MD 20715
Local au pairs from countries around the globe, will share their cultures through visual displays, food samples, games and performances. Children will receive passports and have them stamped as they visit each country. Admission is free. If you have any questions, email me at cconnallyaupair @ gmail.com (without the spaces.)
We are collecting Wish List Items for Children’s National Medical Center, see details HERE.
Here is a video from a previous year’s Cultural Fair
On Sunday, November 7, we had a lot of fun for a good cause. Thirteen au pairs from our cluster worked together to make 393 servings of snack mix for the DC Central Kitchen. The only reason they stopped there was we ran out of cereal and pretzels. So, I bought some more cereal on my way home and my kids and I used up the rest of the ingredients to make another 77 servings.
That gave us a grand total of…
The snack mix is being donated to the DC Central Kitchen for a program called Healthy Returns. Healthy Returns brings healthy meals and snacks to agencies serving low-income children and at-risk youth throughout the Washington DC area. To find out more about the program visit the DC Central Kitchen website.
Special thanks to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church for allowing us to use their parish hall for the event.
Here are some more photos:
I had au pairs from France, Guatemala, Sweden, Costa Rica, Thailand, Brazil & Germany all show up and work together for this worthy cause. One au pair just arrived from orientation three days ago and another au pair will finish her extension year in two weeks and au pairs at all different stages of their au pair experience in between. I was very proud of these ladies!
Update: Sandra and I made a trip to the DC Central Kitchen to drop off the boxes of snack mixes. Here are a couple photos from that.
At our Cultural Fair on Saturday, 1/23, we will be collecting items to be donated to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. They collect and distribute items to people recovering from disasters, including the most recent devastating earthquake in Haiti. My goal is to put together at least 25 Hygiene Kits from our cluster. The necessary items are listed below. You may bring one item, multiples of the same thing, packages that I can split up like bars of soap or Band-aids or a complete kit. Anything you can bring will help. I will purchase any items needed to complete the kits and drop them off.
This project is something that you could involve the kids with. Many of them have been hearing about the earthquake at school. You can discuss what earthquakes are and how people need help afterward. They can help find the items at the store to feel like they are doing something to make a difference.
This would be a great activity to work on with them on Monday, when they are out of school. There has been a campaign in recent years, for people to look at the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday as a Day of Service to honor his legacy, rather than just a day off of work or school.
Hygiene Kit (previously Health Kit)
