1,000 pair of shoes to Africa and 1,000
pencils, too!
For just $1
you can send a pair of shoes or running shoes to Kenya. Children’s shoes from the
tiniest sizes to adult sizes should be delivered to the Richard M. Brodsky
Foundation, 1247 Mara Court,
Atlantic Beach, NY11509, on March 3, 2007 between the
hours of 10 AM and noon. For each pair of shoes donated,
a $1 donation needs to be contributed to the Richard M. Brodsky Foundation to
cover postage charges. I have seen firsthand children as young as five or six years
of age running barefoot alongside me during the 2006 World AIDS Marathon. If you want
proof, you need only visit the following link,http://yourdesign2.com/wam/index.html,and then scroll down to the fifth
picture on the left. I’m the guy in the yellow shirt and I am flanked by 4
running buddies whose ages combined barely equal half my 54 years of age. Even
though I have brain cancer and I’m HIV-positive, as long as these guys were
keeping up with me there was no way I could quit the marathon that I organized.
I’d like to
request that a few volunteers assist me in boxing the 1,000 pair of shoes and
then helping me to transport the shoes to the post office. High heel shoes,
boots and work shoes will be too cumbersome and costly to ship. We are
particularly interested in receiving running shoes since we know that Kenya’s
national pastime is running. In addition to the shoes I’d like to request 1,000
pencils. Why Pencils? When I had heard that Kenyan children were being sent
home from school because they did not have a pencil, my board members and I
realized that we needed to do something to alleviate that problem. In addition,
many of these children from the age of six and up would love to have a pen pan to
write to in America.
If you are interested in having a pen pal please contact Nicole Romich atnbrtweety@gmail.com, and tell her your age,
interests, and if you are a boy or girl and if you prefer to write to a boy or
girl. Children in America
want to help, and so do their teachers. We need to show the children of Africa that they have not been forgotten. Hillary and I
will be writing to orphanages in Africa to find
pen pals for the hundreds of Americans who have requested pen pals.
While these
may seem like small steps towards raising awareness of the plight of the
11,400,000 orphans living in sub-Saharan Africa,
it is a step that YOU can make happen with your act of kindness. Imagine, if we
can get the youth of America
to help the youth in Africa then it can be
proclaimed, ‘we are out brother’s keeper’.
For more
information about the Richard M. Brodsky Foundation and the 2004 – 2006 World
AIDS Marathon and related events the Richard
M. Brodsky Foundation has sponsored, please visit the websites,
www.richardmbrodsky.org and www.worldaidsmarathon.com.
Donations can be made via either website and are greatly appreciated.
***
The Richard M. Brodsky Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c) (3) public charity.
(c)2005 Richard M. Brodsky Foundation
The World AIDS Marathon and its logo are trademarks. All Rights Reserved.
