Meet The Uganda Hope For Peace Choir!

Special Update From Sylvia!

Just to keep you updated on our overall progress with Sylvia's Children! Here's is where we stand effective mid-April.

1. The Grandmother of the Year fundraiser was wonderful from an attendance and PR standpoint; however, I believe the economy has impacted people's abilities to spend money so our revenue was down.

2. Ken Bear, of Passport Health, has undertaken the project of raising money for the clinic and is making some headway. He has a person that will start soliciting for us!

3. Have contact with an automobile dealer who has a Nissan dealership in Uganda which is our lead to getting the van that Geofrey wants (and so desperately needs). Don't have the money yet but we are going to work toward that.

4. Spent three hours at the Foundation Center in New York and found 45 grants that we could be eligible for - general operating, agriculture (coffee and chickens), marketing and public relations. I have attached the list. Would anyone be willing to make some calls? If yes, let me know and I will tell you the questions we need to ask. If I can just have help here at the front end I can write the grant.

5. For those of you going on the trip, you have received your information from Sally, including the invitation letter. Please apply for your VISA's now (if you went last year you can do it right away) or when you have your yellow vaccination card filled out.

If you apply now you won't have to pay a rush charge. You know we are leaving July 4th and arriving midday July 5th. Be sure to bring a bathing suit ... the Tropic Inn has a swimming pool! Also, I would like to have Geofrey come on Sunday, as he did last year, join us for lunch and fill us in on what is happening at the school and give us an updated report.

6. Also, for those of you going in July, get your prescription for your malaria pills; you should have the sprays left from last year.

7. Tony and I are staying two extra days (July 15-16) as we are exploring a coffee export business that would contribute to the sustainability of the school. (Tony's idea and it's GREAT!).

8. There are now 905 students of which approximately 1/4 are orphans. We will have enough money to pay for all expenses for the orphans for the balance of the school year.

9. Thoughts for our upcoming trip to Uganda:

We have 11 guitars; thousands of felt markers; 2,000 pencils; 1,000 large pieces of chalk; erasers (thanks to Michele); a drum set (I think) and a woman is sending me t-shirts (I don't even know how many yet!).

Those of us going from NJ I would like to present each of you with one bag, you can have another of your own stuff! Vicky, would you like to come down the night before and stay over? 6:30 am is awfully early! Same for Dee Lewis ... Tony and Sally have said they will take us from my house to the airport (one car for people and one for bags). We can take two 50# bags.

10. If you look at the list of wants and needs for the school that Geofrey gave us last year, we are making headway. The library is built; we have a well; we have two new two-classroom blocks with desks; we have 75% of the money for the books for the library. Our revenue goals will be for books for the children, balance of the money for books for the library, money so each child can have a textbook; a van; shoes for all the children; sewing machines and a building to house them.

11. Speaking of shoes, if we raise $15,000 Samaritan Shoes can bring 1,000 pairs of shoes to the children. I am trying to find a school or church or organization that would raise that amount of money so we could take them for Christmas. The next trip will be December 5-12 and we will take gifts and plan a party for the children.

14 Michele has gotten quotes on children's uniforms from China but it would require more upfront money than we have right now. However, that is a back burner project that we can work on for the future.

15. Gene Sherwin got a great article in NYU's publication, NEXUS and Rick got one in the Charlotte, SC magazine. We have a good track record of PR but now we need to get more national PR. Does anybody know anyone on American Idol? They do Idol Gives Back ... let's see if Sylvia's Children can be the recipient next time.

16. Thanks to Joe's help with filing the right IRS forms, we are now a PERMANENT 501(c)3 non-profit. Very exciting!

17. For those of you coming in July, think about what your activities will be. We will need to update all the orphan records - photos, names, etc - which will take at least 15 hours, spread out over three days. Joe - do we want to take more sports equipment? Let me know if I need to write a letter. Doug and Erin - I am assuming you would like to do art projects again. Let's think about what we can do that can be revenue generating when we get back ... maybe Christmas cards, holiday cards, greeting cards, note cards, etc.?

17. Lastly, a special thank you to Rick Jones who gave a five minute commercial for Sylvia's Children to a group of 450 professionals in Chicago. It was wonderful, Rick; thank you SO MUCH.