Four Friends, Four Years, For a Difference

What's more fun than making a pie for someone who would really appreciate it?......How about making 10 pies for over 60 people who would really appreciate it! 
We gathered at one of our houses and peeled, mixed kneaded and baked  our pies to perfection. It didn't take too long as we played our favorite music and got to work. It was great knowing that they would go to our veteran friends for their  Thanksgiving. Many would only taste our homecooking for their holday and we wanted to make it special. Happy Thanksgiving!

Four Friends
 

As much as I can try to capture the experience and emotions of helping in an orphanage I will do my best. This by FAR has been the most moviing and "life Changing" experience of my life. I only wish I was there longer to make a bigger impact, but I know that I will do my best to return next summer with even more supplies and more time to spend with those beautiful children.
    When we first arrived at the orphanage, it was a bit overwhelming. We arrived with all the supplies our luggage could carry. We had bibs,cups, special spoons, botttles,books,toys, crib sheets,pillow cases, and clothing. The staff was so appreciative of all the items we brought and we were able to put many of the things to good use right away. Since many of the children were already up, we went right to work trying to stimulate  them with the toys in our kits we made, We used bubbles and watched as the kids tried to pop them. Seeing their  somber faces transform into bright smiles overwhelmed me with emotion!
 One of my favorite moments was when I got a chance to read to one of the little boys stuck in his crib. As I read in Spanish, I acted out the actions that the book was saying, Amazingly,the little boy began to  copy my gestures. He truly was understanding everything i was saying! It was the best feeling.I continued my way to the numerous other cribs trying to get some kind of reaction. It was so sad to see so many  children with so little stimulation! 
 Later, we had a chance to work upstairs helping the staff to feed the many babies with cleft pallate and other developmental disabillities. (I was able to feed an 18 day old baby! ) In just two days, we made many attachments and I knew it was going to be tough to leave. One boy named Jose really made an impression on all of us. He was 5 years old, but to look at his scrawny, malnurished body, you would have thought he was under two. . NO matter what any of us tried, we just could not get him to smile.All he wanted was to be held and we each took a shift as we walked him up and down the nursery. It was the hardest thing I had to do, when I put him down to leave for the last time. The last image I have is the vision of him, sitting on a stool as he realized it was time for all of us to leave. He cried and we  tried to conceal the tears as we all silently wondered if we would ever see him again.  

.Today Four Friends volunteered for a great cause called Habitat for Humanity. Through volunteers and donations of money and materials, Habitat for Humanity is able to build houses for people in need. Today we all went to one of the locations for the building of new houses. We learned how to insulate the house and ended up actually insulating it! It was a different experience from all of the other activities we have done in the past. It took a lot of hard work and determination throughout the day. We worked all day and learned many new skills. It was a lot of fun and we all knew that it was going to a good cause. We enjoyed the experience and would love to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity again! If you are interested in volunteering please go to:
www.habitatforhumanity.org

Today we babysat 10  great kids whose parents  were part a golf tournament to raise money for the "Connor Flanagan Foundation". This experience was amazing because we were doing what we love.....working with kids ......and helping a great cause at the same time! We decided to donate the money we would have raised to fund one "pizza party night" at Children's hospital. The Connor Flanagan Foundation started this 6 years ago when the Flanagan family wanted to raise money to "give back" something positive for  the children and staff of the Cancer units .As a result, every Friday night ....ALL YEAR LONG ....this foundation pays for a pizza party for children/family and staff on the cancer units! 
. We were all so excited that we were asked and were pleased to help out! All of the kids were wonderful and a lot of fun to spend to the day with. We would even go back anytime just to babysit, We had a blast! It was awesome too because we knew we were helping out a good cause. We passed the time by doing all different sorts of arts and crafts, watching a movie and eating ice cream sundaes, playing with water balloons and just talking and getting to know the kids! It was so much fun, especially since we love to work with kids. We can't wait to go back next year and help out and watch the kids! We sure will look forward to doing that project :)

Yesterday we dropped off the hygiene kits at the Sheehan house in our neighboring town.It was such a good experience for all four of us girls. Here we were pleasantly surprised when we were greeted by about 30 women who were staying there for treatment and a fresh start.They knew we were coming and invited us to join them in their living room.Everyone was so welcoming and friendly They told us their stories about their background and we told them about ours.They really appreciated everything we were doing for the community and told us we were all wonderful young girls. It felt good to hear people appreciating all of the work we are doing. All of the women there were very nice and they made us feel like their friends  We presented them with these kits that included shampoo,deoderant, razors,tissues and other personal belongings.The smiles on their faces were priceless. Once we presented the kits some of them shared their stories on how they came into the house and the  decisons they made that eventually led them down the wrong path`.  These women were inspiring and you could feel the warmth they had for each other and the Sheehan program. After, they asked questions about our group and seemed to be inspired by us. Some of them even wished they could buy one of our Four Friends T shirts! I guess we all could learn from each other....no matter how many bumps in the road you have encountered! We are glad we volunteered here because it was definitely one of the most  memorable and touching experiences we have had so far!  We would love to go to back soon and help them with whatever they need.

 Today was our second time doing the Walk for Hunger! We all woke up bright and early to make the train bound for Boston at 7:00a.m.!We  grabbed our Dunkin's and were ready to start our day!
Once again, we were walking in Project Bread's 20 mile walk for hunger.Taylor was unable to join us, but we had our friends Mike, Mike and Matt join in to create "Team Four Friends" We raised over 1000 all together, with Matt raising $600 of it by himself! The weather couldn't have been better! Last year it was brutally hot with temperatures in the 90's.  The walk  itself went off without a hitch,( other than Amy walking into a pole, Mike crossing the path of a stray biker and Lindsay bumping into a bike rack.) You really have to experience this amazing event with over 42,000 participants! It is such a great feeling to not only accomplish walking 20 miles but doing it with so many people that care about others. It's fun to motivate yourself to do something when you know its for a good cause. It took us about 6-7 hours but we enjoyed every second of it, even if it was a lot of work. We all made it fun and it was a wonderful way to spend the day!

With today being Earth Day, Four Friends decided to celebrate and help out our community by going to the Elementary School and cleaning up trash. Its unfortunate that it takes an actual holiday for people to want to get together and clean up their community, but its still great to be able to make a change! Once you start looking there is alot more trash than you think. We were able to fill six large bags filled with trash...and we tried stuffing them with as much as possible that two bags ripped open! We feel as if we were  able to accomplish alot in the couple of hours we cleaned, and we're hoping that the next time we go to the school that the areas we cleaned are still free of trash! Think about the next time you go to throw a wrapper somewhere but the trash....if you don't do something with it who will? Happpy Earth day :)

Tonight, we went to a local Brownies Troop meeting as guest speakers to talk about community service and volunteering, and to help them earn a community service badge. We loved this project because when we were little, we all were a part of a Brownies troop, so when we arrived at the meeting, it brought back a lot of memories that we had from our Brownie days haha.  To start off the meeting, we introduced ourselves and asked the girls what they already knew about volunteering. After this, we explained the reasons why we volunteer and why others should too.   We then showed them some pictures of projects we have done so far and explained them.  A few of the girls had gone to our Little Friends Camp over the summer, and we asked them what they remembered from the camp, and they actually remembered a lot!  Lastly, we played a trivia game with them to see what they remembered from earlier in the meeting, and to see what they already knew from community service.  They got all of the questions right too!  We loved talking with the Brownie troop, and we hope that we can talk to another Brownie or Girl Scouts troop in the future.