Equipo de Peru en Abril!

I sat thinking yesterday as I left the Youthlinc office about how VERY little time is left until we all head out to Peru! crazy. no. absolutely insane. It feels like yesterday we were all at orientation, and talk of July felt years away. Now, we only have two more meetings to pull this all together. What a rush, right? There have been some sudden changes and things to work out, but we are definitely making progress. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our mentor Mikaela Ray, who will no longer be joining us in Peru! Mikaela you are awesome, and thanks for all your hard work! Tori Daun is now stepping up to be the team mentor, and we are also very excited about that!

We have some other new additions to our team as well! Robbie Levine will now be our mentor for the cross-cultural committee! Robbie is from Salt Lake and works for the Utah Attorney General's office, and serves on the Board Of Self-Reliance of Utah. She has an adult daughter will disabilities, as well as her youngest child graduating this year from West High School. She is most excited about getting out of Utah, and seeing the world now that all her kids have grown up! Thanks Robbie, we are excited to get to know you better!

Melissa Kunkle moved here from Ohio two years ago and works at Primary Children's Hospital. She will be helping as a mentor to the medical team. She heard about Youthlinc from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and thought it sounded cool to help out! She is very excited to meet the people of Peru and work with the Youthlinc Participants.

We began our meeting with these team updates, and then got the ball rolling. The new T-shirts were passed out, (which are awesome by the way!) and then Jeff showed us some items we need to remember to pack for Peru. A sample lesson plan was given to the Youthlinc participants so they can understand how to model their lessons for when we are in Peru. Remember to:

-use objects and pictures!

-be interactive, don't just lecture to the kids the whole time.

-teach them concepts, and try to play a game in which they can apply what they have learned!

I think one of the most important aspects of our meeting was when we discussed our clothing needs. Peru team members, listen up! We need to start collecting these items:

75 Adult Medium T-shirts

75 Adult Small T-shirts

75 Youth Large T-shirts

75 Youth Medium T-shirts

75 Youth Small T-shirts

Soccer shorts in all sizes

Socks-adult 150 pair, child 150 pair

Shoes-nothing larger than a men's 8, mostly smaller than this! tennis shoes and CLEATS

underwear in various sizes.

So refrain from your DI trips, and start collecting these clothes. Tell your friends and families too! These people are really going to appreciate any article of clothing they can get. thanks!

As for the education committee, our biggest goal at this point is to start collecting 125 school kits for the children in Palmeras. We are trying to obtain, notebooks, pens and pencils, rulers, crayons, chalk, and any fun interactive learning games! Also, we need bags for all these things as well. Our lesson topics will be divided out to each person on the team in the May meeting! So be prepared to start coming up with some awesome lesson plans! I am extremely excited for this.

Most committees at this point are working on fundraising for their specific supplies for Peru. Keep up the good work everybody, and keep in your hearts the people who are on the receiving end of all this hard work. It will be totally worth it.

I can't wait to see the finally outcome of each committees work. I know this is going to be an incredible experience, and worth the stress of fundraising. Until the may meeting, keep on asking for donations! We will take any help we can get. Buenos Dias!