blog

Cupcake Event - NYC - June 27, 2009

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:09:57 +0100

We raised over $1,000 dollars with this event which is being used towards buying discounted backpacks! It was a very fun time and we traded donations for cupcakes, pigs in a blanket and some beer. Thank you to all who came to the event and either donated a backpack or money, we really appreciate your support! - Give Back a Pack Foundation

GBP Event @ 925 Café and Cocktails

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:02:57 +0100

We had a very successful turn out for our first NYC event on May 22, 2009. Noe Burgos was the man in charge of organizing the event and he was able to collect a good amount of cash for the organization. Many people came out and even strangers at the bar contributed to the cause! A special thanks to all the Fordham and Penn people who came out and supported GBP. Bar owner Jozef Kuzmkowski was great to work with and of course did some fancy bartending tricks along with Ravi Kantha. Overall, it was a very successful night and one that we will remember.

Keeping the Wind in Our Sails

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:38:23 +0100

When we began this challenge, we all knew one of the toughest things would be to keep our energy up at all times. Fortunately, this has not been the case so far. Our adventure has had many different stages which have helped us stay focused and full of energy. When we began we had all sorts of ideas, our main challenge was to narrow them all down and try to draw up our game plan, set some goals for the organization and come up with a name. Once we thought we had a clear idea of the direction we wanted to take then our challenge became the logistics, where would we get our bags? How would we get them? How would we transport them? What was our timeframe? These and many more questions kept us busy for about a week. After we had that dilemma solved we moved onto the execution of our plan, we soon found out how different all our plans were from what we were actually doing.

That leaves us at present time, executing, reaching out to our friends, families, colleagues, and all those wonderful people that have given us a hand so far. Our initial goal was to take 1,000 bags on our first trip to Colombia. Today, June 9th, 56 days after the first idea was born we have incorporated our organization and filled all the paperwork to achieve non-profit status, collected over 250 bags, and started to put together a team of young eager-to-help individuals with a common goal, give our children a chance.

A Weekend of Cupcakes

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:21:02 +0100

Our Cupcake Event - May 31, 2009

Saturday: Early morning ingredient shopping was quite an adventure with Maria and her 4 little cousins. Once we had all the ingredients we needed we went to Maria’s house to begin the cooking extravaganza. While Maria and I cooked, the girls decorated the car and made signs which read “give a child a future and we will give you a cupcake”. By the time we were done we had 1 fully painted car, 6 signs, 85 vanilla cupcakes and 85 chocolate cupcakes.

Sunday: By 10am we were at the Parque del Virrey. We opened the trunk and displayed our masterpieces. At first, not that many people showed up but by 1 pm people started flocking our car. By 3pm we had given out 170 cupcakes and had received 70 back packs in return. The event was a great success and there will definitely be more to come. Thank you everyone for being so supportive of our cause.

Our First Drop-Off

Mon, 11 May 2009 15:07:51 +0100

Our trip was extremely succesful! It was capped off by our trip to La Vega, where we delievered backpacks to a small school. It took roughly 45 minutes from the town center to get to Escuela San Jose and it was a very swirvy and bumpy ride. The kids all flocked us as we were pulling in with smiles bigger than the mountains they were surrounded by. After the introduction, they began calling us "Los Ninos de Estados Unidos" which means "The Kids of United States". It was quite shocking at first...no air conditioning, no water, one teacher for kids ranging from 5-15, and few basics supplies. After playing with the kids, Alejandra sat them down and explained to them why we were there. They were instantly excited but she told them they should draw or write a thank you letter to show their appreciation. Reading those letters was very humbling and rewarding. One girl, Talia, wrote an entire page and basically said when she grows up and becomes a famous actress, she will go on T.V. and thank Give Back a Pack. After they finished the letters, they lined up in a single file and began choosing their backpacks. They would give Renzo their letter, shake his hand, run to the backpacks, select one and run back to their chair to play with it and the supplies inside. It was great! The trip was amazing because we were able to see first hand the real need the schools had but also experienced the gratefullness the kids had. We are very excited to collect as many backpacks as possible for our next trip in the fall. Please check the website this week to see the cute thank you letters from the kids. GBP

Colombia - An amazing country!

Tue, 05 May 2009 17:33:08 +0100

We are staying in Bogota, Colombia and everyone here is very kind. We've met with lawyers, accountants, school teachers, business owners etc and we cannot be happier about our progress. Tomorrow we go to La Vega for two days to pass out back packs, meet the children, meet the teachers, and learn more about their situation. Alejandra is an amazing guide and she has been working non-stop for the foundation (besides taking woderful pictures of the school kids). We hope to start making a significant change in this poor area of Colombia and give them an opportunity to learn. Stay tuned!

Our First Blog

Sun, 03 May 2009 05:00:58 +0100

Tomorrow we fly to Bogota, Colombia. Alejandra, our foot soldier in Colombia, will pick us up and begin touring us around the poorer villages of Colombia. We hope to document our visit and show others the conditions these schools are in. We can’t wait to see the smiles on the children’s faces. It’s a very exciting feeling and we’re so happy we were able to accomplish so much in less than a month. We’d like to thank Brian Lee from Pro Club for his enormous donation of back packs for this trip. There are enough to pass out to an entire school in La Vega, a village west of Bogota.