DOMINICAN STARFISH FOUNDATION

REPORT

1st Quarter, 2015

On January 13, Toni ZoBell visited Elvis and Julia who had just moved into their new home that she donated the money for. Before she even met them, she had fallen in love with the family.

Elvis builds the windows and doors for our foundation homes.

January 14th held one of the trip’s most touching moments, Zoe Palmer (12) and Gemma Palmer (9) each took one of Leonida’s (18) hands and led her into her new home that they had helped raise the money for. Leonida is the mother of 3 children.

Facebook Message, March 22nd

Hi everyone, hope all is well. We are getting snowed on again here on the East coast. I'm writing to share some exciting news. Claire and I have been talking with family and friends about our experience in January. We were invited to do a presentation at my youngest son's elementary school. Claire was wonderful at helping the kids try to relate their own experiences here to what they were learning about from us. We have talked lots about Kates school. As a family, we have been in contact with Kate and have started sponsoring Chene, one of the older students that Kate has been caring for. We are sending monthly support as well as small gifts and needed supplies occasionally. We feel very privileged to be able to have a positive impact on this way. I wanted to let you know that the Foundation has connected us to a culture, community of people and purpose that we are proud to know and contribute to. Love to all, Jill and family

New people join our team that we meet at the

resort.

When we meet others at the resort, we always try to get them involved in our projects. In the picture on the right, Barry and Laura met someone at church that he grew up with him Mountain View. They accompanied us to the school in Maggiolowhere we gave out clothing and to Kate’s school to help with the breakfast program. They want to raise money to build a home in the future.

Gary Weller from Sherwood Park started a collection last year of donations of baseball equipment for the Dominican Republic. We also had a collection here and took 13 duffle bags of baseball equipment and uniforms with us this trip. The Wellers spend a day on January 24 delivering to 10 different teams in the Dominican. They were there also as part of building the Almonte home.

Last year Lisa and Bob Hunter and Mike and Miriam Hunter were part of a group that raised money for a home in the Dominican and came to present housewarming gifts for the family. This year they came back with their own group of family and friends. The raised money to build a home for the Kelvin Almonte family. The family moved into the home in February.

Charlotte and Doug Palmer who started the concept of Home-Make-Over Holidays for our foundation have chosen another family to build a home for. They will be coming with a large group in January 2016 for the house warming of this home. Ramon is a chef at Lifestyle resort. He has been living in his home for 17 years. He has a wife and 3 children. He has saved and purchased 500 cinderblocks for his home and has committed to purchase another 500.

Yanira is our much loved house-keeper at our villa at the resort. The primary sponsor for this home is Bobbie Peterson from Utah. She and other friends who have stayed with us at the resort are raising money to build a home for Yanira and family. She has a beautiful little family. She and her husband have raised the money to purchase land. This will be one of the next projects started on.

Jack, Louise, Sandra, Amarilis and Jose Luis were guests for 2 days of a wonderful couple that we met from Jarabacoa (about 2 ½ hours from Puerto Plata). Originally from Calgary, Lorren Lock is a Dental Technologist, his wife Kari a nurse practitioner. They have moved to the Dominican to do humanitarian work. They want to follow our home building model in their community with local workers and have started raising money for these projects. They are also assisting us in so many ways with some of our other programs.

When people come to the Dominican and see how the people live, their hearts are changed. Such is the case with Louisa and Chad Baker and their 3 girls, Sadie, Kate and Ruby, age 9, 10, 11 who have chosen to build a home for this family who live in desperate conditions.

ILP (International Language Programs) joins in a partnership with Dominican Starfish Foundation to bring an English program

to 3 schools in the Dominican Republic. Directors, Casey Glade and Jared Hansen came and spent two

days with us. We visited the schools and made all the arrangements with the schools. Approximately 350 children will

be enrolled in an 8 year English program.

Our commitment to the program will be to furnish 5 apartments for 24 teachers. These apartments will be used for many years. ILP will have all the ongoing expenses.

Mac and Debbie McCullar founders ofDominican Starfish USA

We met Mac and Debbie in 2014, when Jack gave them a ride on the golf cart at the resort. He told them about our foundation, toured them to Maggiolo and then to Kate’s and Jose Fernandez’ schools. Debbie is a retired teacher. They went home to Wyoming and created their own charity and have been supporting Jose Fernandez’ school. Louise met with them the night before coming home from this trip. They are excited to help support the English program and are willing to fundraise to help us with our part.

We hosted 8 university students who helped with various projects including medical, dental screenings, food pack deliveries and hospital visits. They really enjoyed their stay. With the hard work of Kari Lock and Sandra Nelson, health charts were made for nearly 200 students at Kate’s and Jose Fernandez’s schools.

The students are already planning a trip to return during reading week next year to help again.

Work is progressing on Luis Miguel and Katherine’s home. A special thanks to Joan and Bruce Harker for fundraising for this project. Not only will they have a home but will have a place for their business as well.

We met with other people on the resort who are helping in the community of Maimon. Pictured here is Harrison who works as a chef in the resort. Because his community is often suffering from severe flooding, he is working to build a large home where he can house people in cases of disaster. Brian Menard from Ontario is wanting to help with this and asked to do it through the foundation. We will be making a fundraising site for this project where he and his friends can raise the money.

Another group, another homeWhen people come, hearts are touched. Shawna and Don Tanner and Ashley and Chad Mueller spent a week with us at our villa. Now they have chosen to build a home for Ana and her family. Fundraising started March 23rd .

This lively bunch joined us in our villa the last week of our stay. Cathy Simkins from Edmonton and her husband were part of the first Home-Maker-Over Holidays with Charlotte and Doug Palmer. Now they too brought together a group to raise money for a home. They were overcome with joy to meet the family and present them with gifts. It is their plan to choose another family and come back with twice as many friends and family in 2017.

We met these people at a musical fireside at the church the last Sunday Louise was there. The two younger men are dentists, one from Utah and one from Idaho. They have asked our foundation to host them in doing dental work in Puerto Plata in February of 2016. They plan to come with their families. They would like to work directly in some of the schools where we are associated.

Sandra and Louise met Frank Pasqual and his family. Frank is a worker at the resort. Every Sunday he teaches children in his home, values and to speak English. They are an amazing family. He wants to build a school in the countryside where he grew up. Cathy Simkins and Louise spent the day with the family, saw the sight for the school and learned of his hopes and dreams. It could be a possible project for the foundation at some point. Frank talks only in English to his children. He knows what a valuable asset it will be in their lives if they learn English. He is an wonderful man.

After many delays and set backs, the library in El Estrecho is underway.

We were privileged to see the progress on it only 2 days before we left to come home. Now the first floor is on and the bricks are up to the roof on the second floor.

After 5 longs trips to Santo Domingo, Patricia finally got her leg, the day before we left to come home. She is so grateful and her mother Jhohaira is probably even more grateful. She thanks us over and over again for the wonderful blessing for her daughter.

Frank lives near the school where Kate Bateman is the director. He met her and offered his help to her day or night with anything she needs. He is very kind.

The very last night of the trip, Frank called Louise at 10:00 at night to say that he had found a possible home for us to purchase for Kate. At 10:45 pm, 5 of us went to see the home. It could have worked. Then we found out that the family was losing the home for $3000 US to a creditor. They had 3 days before they would be put out on the street.

None of us felt good about buying it. We decided that we would try to raise the money very quickly so the family wouldn’t lose their home. The next morning at breakfast the group asked Louise what had happened with a home for Kate. She shared the story with the group and the money was quickly donated. What a tremendous blessing. A few days later, Amarilis and other foundation members in the Dominican were at the lawyers office signing papers for the home.

More friends made on the resort = another home.

We met Sam and Jayleen Wycherly last year in the Dominican. This year they asked if they could sponsor a family for a home. They have chosen the Almonte family

• Funds have been raised for a bedroom for Anny, the girl with HIV. This will be the next project to be done after the library. These funds were raised by 3 Edmonton Seniors.

• Funds are being raised for Yanira’s home. Plans are to start that one after the bedroom is built.

• Funds continued to be raised for a home for Kate. We are looking for land or for a home that can be purchased and fixed up.

• Work continues on Luis Miguel and Katherine’s home as funds become available.

• Fundraising continues on a home for Berto. Pearl and Lynn Giles from Utah will be coming in July to help build the home. They are raising the funds for this project.

• Funds for a home for Esperanza continue to be raised by Chris and Stephanie Clark from Oregon. Projected time is also July.

• Louise will be hosting dentists again in July.

• We continue to raise funds for furnishing the apartments for the English teachers. Kari and Lorren Lock are our contacts on the ground there helping to put everything together for that.

• All of the homes listed on our recent newsletter for sponsorship have been chosen.

• We logged 1744 service hours for our combined activities in the Dominican, January 11-March 12.