Aid for Kids

Children's Food, Healthcare, Shelter and Education Fund

Improving life for chldren and families worldwide is the mission of Aid For Kids. Currently, the focus is on the "Other Maine" Project and sponsoring programs in Vietnam, Haiti, and Lesotho, Africa. Aid for Kids is a 501(c)3 organization and all donations are tax deductible. Our overhead is less than 1%!

	Dannette Ellis (left) with Dawn Degenhardt (Exec. Dir. of Aid for Kids) display new donated books, teaching aids, and school supplies for free distribution to Maine children and schools in need.
	Warm coats to be discreetly delivered to children in need by teachers in Lincoln, Maine

The "Other Maine" Project

Believe it or not, over one million dollars worth of new quality clothes, necessary household items, children's books and other merchandise has been delivered into the hands of those most in need in poverty areas of rural Maine in the last three years via more than 50 distribution partners such as homeless shelters, food pantries and Head Starts. This project, directed by experienced volunteer Dannette Ellis, has mushroomed faster than we have ever dreamt.

Although our primary focus is Northern Maine, we are now receiving calls from all over the state for our two latest donations — diapers and warm coats. We have been chosen by a major distributor for the national Diaper Bank Network to deliver 100,000 diapers thoughout Maine. We also received 1,500 new warm coats for the State of Maine last fall and hope to receive ever more this year. After all, we are often the coldest place in the nation and the need is so great. Recently, Catholic Charities, which has food pantries in small isolated regions of Maine, agreed to distribute coats and other needed items to those poverty areas.

We are very grateful for the donations received from the Houlton Rotary Club, Bangor Savings Bank, Machias Savings Bank, Katahdin Trust, the Maine Community Foundation and other donors. We are in continuous need of donations to pay for shipping and handling costs.

Dixie Shaw of Catholic Charities, one of 50 distribution partners, receiving new clothes for 25 food pantries in northern Maine

To donate to The Other Maine Project:

Rachel's Bridge

Our family sincerely thanks you for the very special opportunity to partner with you to help the birth family and village of our daughter, Rachel.

The “Rachel’s Bridge” project is an effort to raise funds to replace a very unsafe “monkey bridge” for a village outside of the city of Soc Trang, Vietnam. Our family saw first hand the great need for a safer, more dependable and permanent bridge in this area. The new concrete bridge will be 105 feet long and 8 feet wide. It will be strong enough for passage by bicycle, motorcycle, very small utility vehicles, and by foot. It will benefit the children, elderly and families of a very poor village where our daughter’s birth family lives.

Our goal is to raise a total of $15,000 by November 2012, so the bridge can begin construction during the dry season. See more details of the project (pdf).

Some of the primary benefits of this project:

Safe river crossing without fear of falling and possibly drowning
Children, elderly and families will have quicker and safer access to public services (health care, education and social services, etc.)
Provide quicker and safer access to schools for children who live in isolated areas.
Fewer students will drop out of school during monsoon season

Schedule for our bridge building process by the end of October 2012:

November 2012 – Hire construction company to create bridge drawing/plans. Apply for building permits from the local government
December 2012 – Finalize bridge plans and create work plan for building the bridge
January 2013 – Bridge construction begins! It will take approximately one and a half months to complete the bridge.

We welcome your help to get us to our goal. You can send your donation to Aid For Kids online/paypal or you can send a check to: Aid for Kids, 18 Market Square, Houlton, ME 04730, (remember to note "Rachel's Bridge")

For more information on "Rachel's Bridge" contact: Nancy Schultz at rachelsbridge@gmail.com.

Update on July 15,2012 from Nancy Schultz

We are so excited about hitting the $10,000 mark last month but we aren't slowing down until all of the $15,000 is raised by the end of October.

Thank you again for your generous support!

Vietnam Bridges Tour: JUne 16 - June 29, 2013

SAIGON – MEKONG DELTA (SOC TRANG) – NHATRANG – DANANG – HOI AN – HANOI – HALONG BAY

Outline Itnerary

Day 1: Arrive Saigon/ check-in hotel – Mid night
Day 2: Saigon relax/ brunch, cooking class in late afternoon, swimming on own then buffet dinner at swimming pool

Day 3: Saigon – AM early drive to Mekong Delta, Soc Trang Province / afternoon visit birth family / Visit the new bridge/ Dinner with birth family. Overnight in Soc Trang
Day 4: Soc Trang/ Morning “Rachel’s Bridge” opening ceremony with government official and local people / fishing and barbecue in Rachel’s Village
Day 5: Drive back to Saigon in the morning/ City tour around Ho Chi Minh City (Ben Thanh Market, American Embassy, Visit Thien Hau Pagoda…). Dinner in China town
Day 6: Morning fly to Nha Trang/ arrive Camranh and visit Camranh orphanage, have lunch with the kids at the orphanage and visit Cam Ranh Eduction project. Drive to Nha Trang, spend night in Nha Trang
Vietnam tour 2013 Day 7: Nha Trang island tour or visit Monkey island/ snorkeling option/ swimming off the boat
Day 8: Nha Trang: Fly to Danang / Drive to Hoi An bicycle/cyclo tour around Hoi An ancient town- spend a night in Hoi An.
Day 9: Drive to Ba Na Hills from Hoi An to visit Ba Na by the longest cable car in the world moving over Ba Na Hills with waterfall (Suoi Mo), huge rocks, mass amount of monkeys, a big butterfly within 15 minutes is to travel the 5,042-meter cable car ride. Afternoon return to Hoi An
Day 10: Hoi An free day shopping and relax, Afternoon go to the beach for swimming
Day 11: Hoi An / Fly to Hanoi/ water puppet show/ shopping/relax

Day 12: Hanoi – Halong bay
Day 13: Halong bay – Hanoi
Day 14: Free day/shopping (Open day for other optional orphanage visits) – fare well party
Day 15: Depart for US

***Arrangements will be made for those families with adopted children requesting to visit their orphanage and or birth family reuniting. Small changes may occur in the itinerary.
For more information contact joy@aidforkids.org