Winter Clothing Drive Spreads the Warmth
PP Joe Evans outdid himself with the amount of clothing he and the club gathered for distribution to needy people in the chilly hills of northern Thailand. Mounds of donated clothing filled the carport in front of Joe's townhouse before we delivered it to Shan hill tribe villages near the Burmese border, to migrant-worker shanty-towns in the hills outside of Chiang Mai, and to patients and caretakers at the Ban K. Kee Patient House here in the city.
CMIRC PP Joe Evans and Ursula von Oertzen delivered clothing, toys, and blankets to migrant workers living in tin shacks in the hills around Chiang Mai.
Idyllic scene from a Shan refugee camp in Piang Luang, a couple of kilometers from the Burmese Border. The 400 folks living here can leave the camp to work in the day time, but must return each night. Temps hit 11 degrees in the early, misty morning while we were there.
"What the heck is this thing?" The children of migrant workers search through clothes donated by the caring people of Chiang Mai.
Children weren't the only ones getting swag this year. A caretaker at the Ban K. Kee Patient House found a blast from the past t-shirt, and CMIRC members Imelda Tibbott (right), and Maliwan Kaew-Amphai (left), helped him show it off.
Women at the Ban K. Kee House found much to be happy about in the bags of clothing CMIRC members brought them. What's Tom Johnson doing back there in the women's lingerie department?
Mike Lake delivered clothing and "One World Play" indestructible soccer balls to two villages and a refugee camp just outside of Piang Luang, about five hours north of Chiang Mai. That's headman Sai Leng behind the boy in the blue hoodie. Thanks to Sallo Polak of Philanthropy Connections for arranging this wonderful trip for us.