90 Days at Sea

We had the Students of Service Charity Auction on our 2nd November 22nd. It went really great - about $5,000 raised between raffles and the silent auction ($630 went into the internet minutes raffle alone!). We raised $11,000 at the live auction! Bringing the total to $16,000 raised during the SOS auction. Below are the three organizations we are donating to, a third to each one, all donated in Kurt's name. The last one is a woman who is a victim of acid attack, whom we learned about at the beginning of the year and watch a video about (two of the people on-board have made a documentary with her) ...and she is going to get her surgery now!

Operation Hunger
Operation Hunger is an NGO whose mission is “to create partnerships between vulnerable households and caring people to combat malnutrition which, when suffered by children, undermines the nation’s health, education and economic potential.” The objectives are to improve the nutritional well being of the poor; promote the dissemination of knowledge about poverty and malnutrition in South Africa; improve existing facilities to reduce malnutrition in South Africa and to render financial assistance to develop such programs; cooperate with communities, organizations and authorities to combat malnutrition; publicize and promote the objectives via lectures, exhibitions, meetings, conferences, pamphlets, newspapers, books, leaflets, radio, television and films. Operation Hunger’s integrated development program includes locally-managed growth-monitoring programs, targeted food support, water supply, sanitation facilities, health/hygiene education, income generation and livelihood programs, agriculture and food production. 

YMCA Viet Nam and Agent Orange Children’s Center
The YMCA Viet Nam sponsors many community outreach programs, including a sewing center, school support and a Disabled Youth Center.  The Agent Orange Children’s Center cares for children who have been affected by dioxin, the chemical in Agent Orange.  Many of the children are severely handicapped with physical and mental disabilities. 

Acid Violence Victim Assistance
Chour Sreya is a young Cambodian woman whose life was forever changed when she was attacked with acid (Acid violence involves the deliberate throwing of acid into the face of another person - usually young women and children -  and is a form of violence that has been on the rise in Cambodia since the late 1990s). Chour Sreya was twenty years old when she was attacked by an unknown assailant. She was blinded by her attack, and now works to support her entire extended family as a “Seeing Hands” massage therapist for Cambodia’s Association for the Blind.

Any funds raised for Chour Sreya would be administered through a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (Cambodian American Community of Oregon) that is actively working to assist Sreya in receiving reconstructive surgery in Cambodia so that – in Sreya’s words: “My daughter won’t be scared when she grows up and sees me.”


...2 days until Thanksgiving, but it doesn't feel like it at all! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy it with your family, friends, and loved ones. Miss you all and can't wait to see you soon!