Our North Ridgeville Rotary Club participated for the first time in 2008 in the Christmas Shoe Box project that Past District Governor Jack Young of our Rotary District 6630 has spearheaded since 2007.  In 2008, our district sent 450 shoe boxes filled with presents to the children of Chinandega, Nicaragua.  Our club was responsible for 43 of these boxes.

Rotarians have the shoe boxes ready to go to Nicaragua.  From left to right, Warren Blakely

Patricia Blakely, Adam Sonnhalter, Bob Bunsey, Shawn Mueller, and Hyacinth Williams.

The boxes themselves are filled with many basic necessities including t-shirts, sandles, underwear, toys, soap, toothbrushes, etc.  For most of these children who spend a good portion of their days scrounging through land fill dumps for food, this is the first time they have received a Christmas present.  These shoe boxes are awarded to those children who continue to go to school as an added incentive to help them stay in school and eventually get out of poverty.

The shoe boxes were delivered in early December by 15 Rotarians and friends, including our very own Emil Bagi.

North Ridgeville Rotarian Emil Bagi (in the blue striped shirt) helps deliver some o

the over 3,000 shoe boxes to make Christmas special.

Below are some more pictures from Emil's trip which include some shots of the dumps where these children spend many hours each day searching for food and other basic necessities.

Big group waiting around for the next load of "treasure" to be delivered.

Most of the people walk around barefoot among the piles of trash.

Families often comb the dumps together.

This young girl now has blue sandles to wear instead of going bare foot!

Here is a typical house for many families in Nicaragua.

More happy children receiving their shoe box presents at school!