What are you doing for Valentine's Day?
At 3:30 AM on Valentine's Day, 40 sleepy, but excited, volunteers – the Edmonton component of Team One – will meet at Edmonton International Airport, check in about 40 hockey bags full of medical equipment and supplies (plus personal luggage) and fly to Quito, Ecuador, by way of Houston. They will be joined in Houston by the rest of the Team One members, who will have flown in from other parts of Alberta, Ontario, BC, Quebec, Missouri and Australia – 53 team members in all.
The next Friday, the 51 members of Team Two will fly to Quito to replace most of Team One, bringing another 14 hockey bags of necessities. These volunteers will be coming from Edmonton, Ontario, BC, Quebec, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Mexico.
All of our volunteers have been preparing for CAMTA Mission 2014 since they received their “Welcome to the Team” emails last September. Each member has raised at least $2600 towards Mission expenses through silent auctions, pub nights, jewelry sales and asking family and friends for financial contributions. In total their supporters have donated almost $365,000 towards Mission 2014. Three individual volunteers raised over $10,000 each!
Many volunteers will be using their annual vacation to go on this Mission. Why? Because they LOVE the energy and commitment of the team, the satisfaction of doing an important job well, and the heartfelt appreciation of the families that CAMTA helps.
We are looking forward to meeting many remarkable families, hearing their stories, and hopefully changing some lives for the better.
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