Hello and welcome to the Sunshine Girls website!
We are five friends- Ranithri, Athena, Neesha, Shaila and Madhuni- who want to make a difference in the world. This program was established to help those who are less fortunate than most of us. We are helping three established charities that have impacted many lives around the world with their efforts to improve the lives of the underprivileged: lions Club, Soles 4 Souls, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka.
We are collecting eyeglasses for the lions Club Eyeglass Recycling Center, shoes for Soles4Souls, and summer clothes for the St Vincent de Paul Society. We would greatly appreciate your donations of eyeglasses, shoes, summer clothes and recyclable items such as plastic bottles (water, soda, juice & Gatorade) and soda cans! Thank you!
UPDATE- Although we planned to help 3 charities when we started, we found out that some of our plans were not possible to accomplish. For example, our recycling fundraiser didn't work as no place in the Dallas metroplex pays for recyclables. We also found that collecting eye glasses was not easy. So we decided to be more flexible and find different charities that we can help and do as many projects as possible. You can see what we have done so far in our updates section below.
If you want to donate to our charity, please contact us at [email protected] and please feel free to write your comments on our blog (http://sunshinegirlsfoundation.weebly.com/blog).
9-23-15- The most significant thing that happened this summer was two of our dear sunshine girls members, Neesha and Madhuni moved to California at the end of summer!!!!! It was a shock to all of us as the decision was so sudden. We already miss them so much and sunshine girls will never be the same without them. But we wish them all the happiness and success in California and we will definitely keep in touch.
We added a new member, Sanuli, to replace Neesha and Madhuni. So now, Sunshine girls have 4 members: Ranithri, Shaila, Athena and Sanuli. We will continue the work we have been doing, but we will definitely miss Neesha and Madhuni.
We are five friends- Ranithri, Athena, Neesha, Shaila and Madhuni- who want to make a difference in the world. This program was established to help those who are less fortunate than most of us. We are helping three established charities that have impacted many lives around the world with their efforts to improve the lives of the underprivileged: lions Club, Soles 4 Souls, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka.
We are collecting eyeglasses for the lions Club Eyeglass Recycling Center, shoes for Soles4Souls, and summer clothes for the St Vincent de Paul Society. We would greatly appreciate your donations of eyeglasses, shoes, summer clothes and recyclable items such as plastic bottles (water, soda, juice & Gatorade) and soda cans! Thank you!
UPDATE- Although we planned to help 3 charities when we started, we found out that some of our plans were not possible to accomplish. For example, our recycling fundraiser didn't work as no place in the Dallas metroplex pays for recyclables. We also found that collecting eye glasses was not easy. So we decided to be more flexible and find different charities that we can help and do as many projects as possible. You can see what we have done so far in our updates section below.
If you want to donate to our charity, please contact us at [email protected] and please feel free to write your comments on our blog (http://sunshinegirlsfoundation.weebly.com/blog).
9-23-15- The most significant thing that happened this summer was two of our dear sunshine girls members, Neesha and Madhuni moved to California at the end of summer!!!!! It was a shock to all of us as the decision was so sudden. We already miss them so much and sunshine girls will never be the same without them. But we wish them all the happiness and success in California and we will definitely keep in touch.
We added a new member, Sanuli, to replace Neesha and Madhuni. So now, Sunshine girls have 4 members: Ranithri, Shaila, Athena and Sanuli. We will continue the work we have been doing, but we will definitely miss Neesha and Madhuni.
7/12/17- We have some very exciting news. We added two new members to Sunshine Girls! Two sisters, Alanna and Daniella Shafer, are our new Sunshine Girls. They will be joining us for our next Little Free Pantry project. Now we have 6 sunshine girls and of course Zayd, Shaila's brother, who always helps us with our projects. It will be so much fun having a big group to do our projects.
UPDATES...........
3/16/19- They did their first project for the year today. Ranithri was home for the spring break and Sanuli, Daniella and Shaila were also having their spring break. Alanna couldn't come as she had to volunteer at the North Texas Cat Rescue. They collected money, came to our place ,went to Costco, and bought rice and a lot of other things to donate to the little free pantry. Shaila had some work and left after going to Costco but the others came home after buying the stuff and made 2 cup bags of rice from 50 pounds of rice. Then we went and donated everything to Mckinney little fee pantry. They really enjoyed doing the work together. It was so nice to be able to do this project after some time. We rarely get to do projects as everybody is so busy. This was their 17th donation to the Mckinney Little Free Pantry and they really appreciated it.
This was written on their Face book page.....
Sunshine Girls 17th donation!
Lots of small bags of rice, canned goods, TP, water, snacks...Y’all amaze me.
Thank you so much Little Free Pantry for giving them the opportunity to do something good for the community.
Shaila, Sanuli, Alanna and Daniella also bought 90 slabs of chocolates and donated to a feeding the homeless project done by Nelum Walpola and Chauntal Ansari. But none of them were able to attend the event because of their busy schedules.
☀️❤️😍😊🌺🌻☀️
12/24/18- Ranithri was home from college for the Christmas break and she really wanted to continue the cookie project we have been doing the past two Christmases. But everybody was busy or out of town. So she decided to make 25 bags of cookies and donate to the LFP with my help. We made 4 different kinds of cookies and made 25 bags with about 10 cookies in each and left them at the little free pantry. Really hope that they made someone happy on Christmas eve. She also donated some winter clothes that she had.
11/18/18- After a long time we were able to do a Little Free Pantry Project today. Allana, Dannie, Shaila, Sanuli and Zayd came to our place and we went to Costco and got rice and many more things to donate to the pantry. Came home, made about 70 rice packets and went and donated to the little free pantry. They had a lot of fun getting the maximum number of items they could within their budget and also making the rice packets. This was their 15th donation to the LFP.
LFP had this on their Facebook page.
We love our sunshine girls!! They have been a huge and consistent support for the life of this pantry. Happy Thanksgiving!!
LFP had this on their Facebook page.
We love our sunshine girls!! They have been a huge and consistent support for the life of this pantry. Happy Thanksgiving!!
9/29/18- Only Alanna and Sanuli could go to the Unity Park as Dannie and Shaila had other commitments. The ones who went had the most amazing experience of their lives. They joined others from the DFW Sri Lankan community to serve over 250 homeless people. The line for food was so long and we ran out of food before we could serve everybody. But they got so many compliments for the cupcakes and it sure was an unbelievably rewarding experience. We plan to do this next year too and have booked a date in August of 2019 for the project. Here are some photos from the event.
9/28/18- Sanuli, Alanna, Dannie and Shaila came to our house after school to decorate 200 cupcakes for the "Feeding the Homeless" project. Alanna and Dannies mom and aunt Candy, Sanuli's mom and Shaila's mom came to help too. 200 cupcakes were a lot to decorate. But from past experience they knew exactly what to do. It took a while. But they did a great job of decorating and they look absolutely beautiful. They are all packed and ready to be taken to Unity Park, Fort Worth tomorrow morning.
9/16/18- I am Ranithri's mother and I will help them continue the good work they have been doing for several years. After a long absence Sunshine girls are planning another big project. The Sri Lankans in the DFW area are planning to feed 200 homeless people through the Feed By Grace Ministry at the Unity Park in Fortworth on the 29th of September. Sunshine girls will be making 200 decorated cupcakes and serving them at the event. We plan to continue with the monthly project to do food drives for the Mckinney Little Free Pantry. The rice packets were dropped off at the Little Free Pantry later in the summer and they were happy to receive them as they were running low on rice.
6/15/18- With everybody being very busy with end of the year exams and AP exams we didn't get to do a project for a while. As for me I was extremely busy with AP exams, school work and my high school graduation. I graduated from McKinney Boyd High School and I will be heading to UT Austin this Fall. But my mother will hopefully continue the work with the other sunshinegirls after I leave. I plan to join them when I come home for holidays.
To start the summer we decided to do our monthly food drive for the Little Free Pantry. Alanna, Dannie and Athena had other commitments and only Shaila, Sanuli, Zayd and I were able to do the project this time. We made 2 cup rice bags with 50 pounds of rice and then we went to Costco and used the money we collected to buy water, canned fish and snacks for the little free pantry. We donated the food to the Little Free Pantry as we always do. In the rush we forgot to take the rice . But we will donate the rice to them soon. It was nice to do a project after a while. But we plan to do more projects in Summer as we all have more free time. This was our 14th donation to the LFP and we hope to continue this as long as we can.
The Little Free Pantry wrote this on their Facebook page ...
Thank you to our amazing and consistent donors, The Sunshine Girls! Your service and dedication is so appreciated!! ☀️
To start the summer we decided to do our monthly food drive for the Little Free Pantry. Alanna, Dannie and Athena had other commitments and only Shaila, Sanuli, Zayd and I were able to do the project this time. We made 2 cup rice bags with 50 pounds of rice and then we went to Costco and used the money we collected to buy water, canned fish and snacks for the little free pantry. We donated the food to the Little Free Pantry as we always do. In the rush we forgot to take the rice . But we will donate the rice to them soon. It was nice to do a project after a while. But we plan to do more projects in Summer as we all have more free time. This was our 14th donation to the LFP and we hope to continue this as long as we can.
The Little Free Pantry wrote this on their Facebook page ...
Thank you to our amazing and consistent donors, The Sunshine Girls! Your service and dedication is so appreciated!! ☀️
3/31/18- Getting up early on a Saturday morning has never been this easy. I was excited to finally take our cupcakes and serve them. Sanuli and her mom came to our place early. We carefully loaded the cupcakes in the vehicle, picked up Alanna and Dannie on the way and started our one and a half hour journey to the Unity Park in Fort Worth. Unfortunately Shaila and Athena couldn't come as they had other commitments. When we got there, we were shocked to see so many people waiting to get food. There were more than 200 homeless people, men, women and kids. Although we have seen pictures, we have never experienced anything like this and it opened our eyes to how many people are suffering in this country. The organizers and many volunteers were there setting up tables. We helped them and then arranged our cupcakes on a table and took our places to serve. After a prayer by a pastor, they lined up very quietly and came to get the food. What a rewarding experience! We were surprised that many of them took time to admire our cupcakes and thank us for taking the time to decorate them. There were lots of food donated by many and so many volunteers. Our cupcakes were over very fast. It sure was an unbelievable and a humbling experience to all of us and we are so glad we did it. There were lots of left over food items and the organizers gave what ever we could pack in our vehicle to donate to the little free pantry. After having lunch at Chick Fil A , we drove back to McKinney. We put some of the banana's and tangerines in the little free pantry cupboard, then took the rest of the fruits to Samaritan Inn in McKinney, and finally dropped off all the non perishable items at Mrs. Kim Sanchez's porch as requested by her, to be used at the little free pantry. After an amazing day we all came home very tired, but happy and content. We would like to thank Mrs. Nelum Walpola and Mrs. Chantal Ansari for giving us this opportunity and to all who helped us with this project. We were happy to hear that the Sri Lankan community in DFW booked a day in September to feed these people. Looking forward to participating in that too.
3/30/18- What a wonderful day! My mom and I got up early and baked 144 cupcakes. She also made butter cream frosting to decorate them. A few days ago we made flowers and leaves and left them to dry. By 1:00 PM everybody (Sanuli, Athena, Alanna, Daniella, Shaila and Zayd and Sanuli's mom) came to our house and we decorated the cupcakes. All of us have decorated cupcakes before and knew what to do. With my mother's guidance, I must say that we did a great job! We all felt really happy and accomplished seeing our work. We learnt a lot during the process and hope to do this again some day. Since there were extras we got to enjoy some of our creations with a cup of tea. We packed them in foil trays to take them to Fort Worth tomorrow morning to serve the homeless people. All of us enjoyed this project very much and look forward to finishing it tomorrow. A BIG thank you to our parents and everybody who helped us with this project.
3/26/18- We are planning on doing a big project during the Easter weekend. Some friends of our family are having an event next Saturday to feed the homeless people in Fort Worth. We are planning to join them this year. We will make 120-150 cupcakes on Friday and take them to Fort Worth and serve them at the event. Everybody is excited as we all love to decorate cupcakes. Since Friday is a holiday we plan to meet at my house and make the cupcakes and then meet again Saturday morning to go to Fort Worth with my parents to serve the cupcakes.
2/19/18- Since it was a three day weekend, we wanted to do the cat blanket project today. Unfortunately only Athena and I were able to come today. The others couldn't make it as they had other plans this weekend. But we went ahead as planned as we needed to finish this project. My mother helped with cutting the fringes and Athena and I made 30 blankets with fringes and 10 with out. Then we packed them in Ziploc bags with labels. It was not the same doing the project with out the others. We really missed them. But we got the job done. We will donate them to the North Texas Cat Rescue soon, as we heard that they need blankets ASAP.
2/2/18- Finally we were able to donate the blankets we made to the Little Free Pantry today. This was our 13th donation to the Little free pantry. We were planning on doing this since we made the blankets. But for various reasons we were not able to find a time do it. Shaila, Dannie and Athena couldn't come as they had previously planned events, but they all agreed that we needed to donate the blankets ASAP due to the very cold weather we are experiencing right now. Mrs. Kim Sanchez , the lady who started the Little Free Pantry and her two daughters, who are the reason for her to start the pantry were there to meet us. We put some of the blankets in the pantry and then loaded the rest into her car, had a nice chat with her and came back happy, knowing that somebody will feel warm today because of this project. We still have some more fleece fabric to make blankets. We plan on doing a project soon to make some cat blankets for the North Texas Cat Rescue and about 15 adult blankets to be donated to the Austin Street homeless shelter in Dallas. We hope to collect more money if possible and make more blankets for the shelter as they really need blankets.
Little Free Pantry had this on their facebook page....
Big appreciation for the dedicated Sunshine Girls that brought blankets and White Dove Montessori for the food donated to the Pantry! ☀️❤️
Little Free Pantry had this on their facebook page....
Big appreciation for the dedicated Sunshine Girls that brought blankets and White Dove Montessori for the food donated to the Pantry! ☀️❤️
12/28/17- We have been planning on making 20 adult size blankets for the Little Free Pantry for a while now and today we finally got to finish it. My mother helped cut the fringes on the blankets like in the previous projects and everything was ready for us to make the blankets today. Alanna and Dannie couldn't come as they had other plans. Athena couldn't come, but she took her blankets home and finished them at home and dropped them off today. Shaila, Sanuli, Zayd and I got together at my place in the morning and we started making the blankets. It was a LOT of work and it took us over 7 hrs to finish the blankets with just a 30 minute lunch break. But we had a lot of fun doing it. Then we folded and packed them in big ziploc bags. It was one of the hardest projects we have done. But knowing that it will help keep 20 people a bit warmer makes us so happy that we did it. We couldn't deliver the blankets as there was nobody to accept them that day at the little free pantry. But we will donate them very soon. We would like to thank our parents and Dr. Vipuli Dharmawardena for their donations and help with this project.
12/23/17- We got our Christmas holidays yesterday and wanted to do a project before Christmas. So we planned for each member to make 50 cookies of one kind and meet at my place on the 23rd and make 50 cookie bags and donate them to the little free pantry like we did last year. We met today as planned and Alanna and Dannie brought oatmeal peppermint cookies, Shaila brought chocolate chip cookies, Sanuli brought m&m cookies, and my mom and I made snow man cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Athena couldn't come today as she was going to visit her grandma. But before she went she made these beautiful, meaningful Grinch cookies with his growing heart, when he decided to be nice! We made the cookie bags while listening to Christmas music and tied curling ribbons. We also got to enjoy the extra cookies! It was a fun project for sure. Then we took the cookies to the little free pantry, placed them in the pantry cupboard and came home. Glad we could start the holidays in the true spirit of Christmas and we really hope that we made some people happy during the holidays!. We would like to thank our parents and Dr. Vipuli Dharmawardena for their contributions to this project.
Little Free Pantry had this on their facebook page....
Thank you 🙏🏻 to the Sunshine Girls ☀️ for all the holiday treats they thoughtfully brought to the Pantry! What a lovely surprise for those we serve! ❤️
We hear the Sunshine Girls are starting on a big blanket project next!
Thank you little free pantry. We will be there soon with the blankets.
Little Free Pantry had this on their facebook page....
Thank you 🙏🏻 to the Sunshine Girls ☀️ for all the holiday treats they thoughtfully brought to the Pantry! What a lovely surprise for those we serve! ❤️
We hear the Sunshine Girls are starting on a big blanket project next!
Thank you little free pantry. We will be there soon with the blankets.
11/26/17- We had big plans to do a project this Thanksgiving to make 20 adult blankets for the Little Free Pantry. We collected money and placed the order for the fabric on the 15th of November. When we ordered the fabric from Joann the delivery date was set for Wednesday the 22nd. But then they postponed it several times and finally to Monday the 27th. So we decided not to wait for the fabric and to do a regular donation to Little Free Pantry this month and to make the blankets next month. Athena, Dannie, Shaila and I got together at our house today and we went to Costco and bought a lot of food items like rice, canned black beans, canned tomatoes, cans of tuna, toilet paper, water bottles, snacks like chip packets and cookies, hot chocolate, Mac and cheese and a lot of other things. Unfortunately Sanuli and Alanna couldn't come for different reasons. We came back home and made 2 cup rice packets and then took everything to the little free pantry. Mr. Sanchez met us there and after taking a picture we helped load everything in his truck and came home. Then we made X'mas/thank you cards for all the people who have helped us this year with our projects and called it a day. Everybody was relaxed as there was no school work and we really enjoyed the project today.
Little free pantry posted this on their facebook page.....
These awesome ladies keep making such a dedicated effort to their community! Thank you Sunshine Girls for your sincere donations on a regular basis ~ this is their 11th to the Pantry!!
❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️
Thank you little free pantry for all you do for the community. We are more than happy to do what we can to help you out.
Little free pantry posted this on their facebook page.....
These awesome ladies keep making such a dedicated effort to their community! Thank you Sunshine Girls for your sincere donations on a regular basis ~ this is their 11th to the Pantry!!
❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️
Thank you little free pantry for all you do for the community. We are more than happy to do what we can to help you out.
10/7/17- After a short break from the Little Free Pantry project due to some urgent natural disaster projects, we finally made our 10th donation to the LFP today. Shaila, Sanuli, Alanna and Daniella came to my place today and we made 51 bags (1 cup each) of dry black beans and 51 bags of pinto beans. Unfortunately Athena could not come today as she had to attend a Youth and Government event. It took us a while to make these bags. Then from the leftover donations we bought bottles water, toilet paper, Ramen noodles, Chef Boyardee cans, pop tarts, and many boxes of snacks and went to the new location of the Little Free Pantry. We also took some school supplies given to us by Mrs. Sonia Perera to be donated to the LFP. The new location is closer to our place and it is in a beautiful, peaceful area of the premises of the Trinity Presbyterian church. Ms Tanya was there to meet us and we loaded all the things into her vehicle. We just hung around for a little while and came back very happy knowing that our little donation will make some people happy. We are very grateful to our parents and Mrs. Sonia Perera for their donations. Also we would like to thank Mrs. Tina Ruberu for helping us buy the beans from Sam's club as Costco does not carry large bags of dry beans.
Little Free Pantry posted this on their Facebook page....
The Sunshine Girls made another huge, generous donation to the Pantry. Thank you ladies for your dedication to community service!! We appreciate all your efforts!! ☀️❤️☀️❤️
Thank you Little Free Pantry for the great service you do for our community. We are so glad to be a tiny part of it.
Little Free Pantry posted this on their Facebook page....
The Sunshine Girls made another huge, generous donation to the Pantry. Thank you ladies for your dedication to community service!! We appreciate all your efforts!! ☀️❤️☀️❤️
Thank you Little Free Pantry for the great service you do for our community. We are so glad to be a tiny part of it.
9/24/17- Watching the horrifying aftermath of the earthquake in Mexico and seeing how so many people were affected by it really made us want to do whatever we can to help them. We all wanted to do something immediately to help and we
came up with the idea of collecting gently used clothes and shoes and sending them to the earthquake affected areas of
Mexico. Collecting the clothes in a hurry was the easier part. We just could not find anybody around here who accepted
donations for the earthquake victims. So my mom asked a friend, Mrs. Diana Stimax, who had relatives in Mexico, whether she knew of anybody who collected things to send to Mexico. We were so fortunate as her parents who are visiting them
agreed to take the clothes we collected and give them directly to the people affected by the earthquake. So, Shaila, Sanuli, Alanna, Daniella, and I got together at my house today with all the clothes and shoes we collected. We sorted, folded
and packed them in bags and delivered them to Mrs. Stimax's house. Mrs. Stimax and her parents were so nice to us and we are extremely grateful to them for helping us with the delivery of the clothes to the victims of this terrible earthquake. Without their help we wouldn't have been able to complete this project. We also like to thank everybody who donated
clothes. We all felt good knowing that we were able to make a small contribution to help someone in need.
came up with the idea of collecting gently used clothes and shoes and sending them to the earthquake affected areas of
Mexico. Collecting the clothes in a hurry was the easier part. We just could not find anybody around here who accepted
donations for the earthquake victims. So my mom asked a friend, Mrs. Diana Stimax, who had relatives in Mexico, whether she knew of anybody who collected things to send to Mexico. We were so fortunate as her parents who are visiting them
agreed to take the clothes we collected and give them directly to the people affected by the earthquake. So, Shaila, Sanuli, Alanna, Daniella, and I got together at my house today with all the clothes and shoes we collected. We sorted, folded
and packed them in bags and delivered them to Mrs. Stimax's house. Mrs. Stimax and her parents were so nice to us and we are extremely grateful to them for helping us with the delivery of the clothes to the victims of this terrible earthquake. Without their help we wouldn't have been able to complete this project. We also like to thank everybody who donated
clothes. We all felt good knowing that we were able to make a small contribution to help someone in need.
9/7/2017- After doing the last project, we all decided that we were going to donate the goodie bags to the hurricane Harvey victims. So we contacted the Collin county Sheriff's Office and they agreed to accept our donation and take the goodie bags to the kids affected by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. So today, after school, Alanna, Daniella, Sanuli, and I delivered the goodie bags to Investigator Candace Herron, who is incharge of the Hurricane Harvey donations. Even though it was not our original plan, we all believe we did the right thing by donating the goodie bags to the kids who have lost everything due to Hurricane Harvey. Hope the crafts and the other items will make them happy and keep them busy for a while.
9/4/2017- We did one of the most rewarding and meaningful projects today. We made 100 bags of toiletries, each with a travel size toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, lotion, body wash, facial and body soap bars, razor, face towel and a comb. After a very long time all of us were able to get together today at my place to do this project and we sure had so much fun making these bags. We packed the extras also for whoever could use them. We had our favorite music on while working and stopped only for a snack break. We were planning on taking these to the Trusted World donation center in Garland. But unfortunately they were not open for donations today. We found out that the Collin County Sheriff's Office was collecting toiletries and other things for the thousands of first responders who have come to Houston area to help out with the relief effort. So we called the Sheriff's office and the lady officer who answered the phone said that although they were closed to day, she will open the door for us to come and make the donation. We were so thrilled to be able to go and make the donation ourselves. When we went she not only opened the door for us but took time to talk to us about the sad situation in Houston and also about the people in shelters. She was extremely nice to us and agreed to our request of taking a picture with her. After talking to her we really felt that we should change our plans about donating the goodie bags to the hospital and donate them to the hurricane affected children in shelters. We felt that at the moment they can make better use of them. We can do a project for the hospital later I am sure. We will call the Sheriff's office and see whether they can deliver the goodie bags too and if they agree, we will drop them off at the Sheriff's office this week. This is one of the most heartfelt projects we have done and we all felt great after doing this. We all hope and pray that things will get back to normal for all the hurricane victims very soon and if possible, we might do another project to help them out the way we can. A HUGE thank you to to all our parents and to Mrs. Ayodhya Fernando, Mr Hiran Fernando and Pulasthi Fernando for all their donations. Without your help this wouldn't have been possible.
8/30/17- After seeing the unbelievable damage Hurricane Harvey is doing to people in Houston area, we felt that we had to do our next project to help the hurricane victims. We all agreed to make 100 bags of toiletries to be donated to the shelters. We will meet at our place on Monday as it is a holiday for all of us and make these bags and donate them. We are in the process of ordering everything. We were lucky to get donations from all our parents and also Mrs. Ayodhya Fernando. Thank you for all your donations. It sure will help us help the hurricane victims. Can't wait till Monday to finish this project. Hope and pray that things will get better in the hurricane affected area very very soon.
8/5/17- What a great feeling! We finished our BIG summer project today. With the help of many friends and our families, we were able to make 100 goodie bags for the kids at Scottish Rite hospital. We ordered many craft items, games, small jewelry items, crayons, activity pads and more from the money we collected and everything was ready for us to make the bags today. Sanuli, Alanna, Dannie, Shaila and Zayd came to our house today to do the project. Sadly, Athena couldn't join us as she had another thing planned today. We got to work right away as we knew this would take a long time to finish. Each one of us was responsible for making sure that one of the items was placed in each bag. We had to do two rounds to get all the items in the bags, but it was so much fun just chatting and listening to music while filling the bags and checking to make sure every bag had all the items. We finished packing the bags by the scheduled time. Then we attached sunshine girls labels, tied the bags with curling ribbons so that the items won't come out of the bags and packed them in two boxes, 50 pink bags for girls and 50 blue bags for boys. Each bag had about 12 items, a lot more than our previous projects. We will take them to the Scottish Rite hospital in Dallas as soon as we find some time that is good for everybody. Our heartfelt gratitude to Mrs. Liza Bhuyan, Varun and Madhur, Mr. & Mrs. Ben Wikramanayake, Mr. Anil Perera and Mrs Sonia Perera, Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena and our dear parents for their generous contributions. We couldn't have done this without your help. We sure do hope that we will be able to make some kids at the hospital happy during their stay there.
7/16/17 - We had a great work day today. Our two new members Alanna and Dannie joined me and Sanuli at our place in the morning for our 9th little free pantry project. Unfortunately Shaila and Athena couldn't come as they had other things to do. We made about 70 rice packets and as always we went to Costco with our moms and bought lots of water bottles, canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned tomato paste, 48-roll pack of toilet paper, pop-tarts, 48-pack of snack \-size assorted cookies, tuna cans, box of 60 packs of pretzels and some other things. After having lunch at Costco, we took all the stuff to the little free Pantry. Stephanie from the little free pantry met us there and we donated the things to her and helped put some of the stuff we took in the pantry. We also helped pack the rest of the stuff in her vehicle and then the real fun began! We took our cat blankets and went to the Allen Petsmart where the North Texas Cat Rescue was having an adoption event. We all went absolutely crazy when we saw all the cute cats and kittens they had for adoption. We even got to hold some of them. It was so much fun. After donating the blankets, we just hung around the cats and other animals there for a while. Then we left Alanna there as she volunteers at the adoption event and came home happy & content about a very productive day!
This was posted on the North Texas Cat Rescue facebook page today-
- The kitties say thank you to these lovely Sunshine girls for the go home comfort blankets. Lots of work went into making them and we all appreciate it. #happytailswww.sunshinegirlsfoundation.weebly.com
Thank You NTCR for giving us this opportunity to do something for those cute kitties. We really enjoyed spending time with them. Hope to do this again in the future.
This was posted on the Little Free Pantry facebook page today-
These ladies are amazing! The Sunshine Girls Foundation made their 9th donation to the Pantry this weekend ~ they brought rice packets, bottled water, toilet paper, canned veggies and many snack items. We thank you so much for your dedication girls! Much appreciated!! ❤️☀️
Thank you LFP for giving us this wonderful opportunity to serve our community. We will continue to do this every month.
This was posted on the North Texas Cat Rescue facebook page today-
- The kitties say thank you to these lovely Sunshine girls for the go home comfort blankets. Lots of work went into making them and we all appreciate it. #happytailswww.sunshinegirlsfoundation.weebly.com
Thank You NTCR for giving us this opportunity to do something for those cute kitties. We really enjoyed spending time with them. Hope to do this again in the future.
This was posted on the Little Free Pantry facebook page today-
These ladies are amazing! The Sunshine Girls Foundation made their 9th donation to the Pantry this weekend ~ they brought rice packets, bottled water, toilet paper, canned veggies and many snack items. We thank you so much for your dedication girls! Much appreciated!! ❤️☀️
Thank you LFP for giving us this wonderful opportunity to serve our community. We will continue to do this every month.
7/6/17 - After a long break we finally did our first project for the summer today. Some of us were on vacation until the 4th of July and we couldn't do any projects as a result of that. Sanuli, Shaila and Zayd came to our house today and we made 48 small blankets for cats at the North Texas Cat Rescue. Athena couldn't come as she was out of town. My mom helped cut the fringes in the blankets and everything was ready for us to make the blankets. These were much smaller than the ones we made for the children's hospital. But the pattern we picked was harder to make than the big ones and took a lot longer to make. But we somehow finished them and packed them in ziplock bags and labeled them by the end of the day. It was so much fun to do this together and we definitely missed Athena. We plan to donate them to the North Texas Cat Rescue on a day they have cat adoptions at Petsmart. We have not forgotten our monthly project for the Little Free Pantry and we will be doing that as soon as we can. We are also collecting money for our "BIG" summer project of making 100 goodie bags with craft items for the Scottish Rite hospital. Already I have got several donations. Mrs. Liza Bhuyan and her children Varun and Madhur made a donation of $100, Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena donated a $25 Amazon gift card, Mr. Ben Wikramanayake and Mrs. Grace Wikramanayake donated $25 and Mrs. Sonia Perera donated 20 coloring books and $10. Thank you so much for your generous donations. We really appreciate your help with our projects.
5/28/17- We made our 8th donation to the Downtown Mckinney Little Free Pantry today. Both Athena and Shaila couldn't come today as they had other plans. So Sanuli and I got together at my place today and made 73 packs of rice. It took us a lot longer to make them as just the two of us had to do it. We really missed the others! Then we went to Costco and we were able to buy a whole lot of things like paper towels, water, canned chicken, canned beans, canned tomatoes (different kinds), many microwave rice bowl meals, pop tarts, and many other things. Our donation today was probably the biggest so far thanks to Mrs. Nelum Walpola who donated so many items from many boxes of fig bars and so many other food items to small bottles of Aquaphor and Eucerin to add to this donation. Thank you Mrs Nelum Walpola for your BIG donation. We really appreciate it. Although it was not the same doing the project without the others we are so glad that we were able to continue our monthly donation.
Little Free Pantry posted this on their FB page today...
The Sunshine Girls have consistently made monthly donations (this was their 8th) to the Pantry and look what a huge contribution they made over this holiday weekend!
Thank you, thank you Sunshine Girls! You certainly brought out the ☀️today!!
Thank you for giving us this opportunity Little Free Pantry. We will happily continue to do what we can to help you out.
5/24/17- My mother had a BIG surprise for me today when I got home from school. Knowing that all 4 of us are huge animal lovers, she has bought 8 yards of fleece to donate to Sunshinegirls to make cat blankets for the cat shelters in this area. We can make 48 cat blankets with the fabric. Can't wait to tell the others when we meet on Sunday for the monthly project. This will be our first big summer project and I know we will enjoy making them.
4/23/17- We made our 7th donation today to the Little Free Pantry. This morning Sanuli and Athena came to our house as always to do our monthly project. Shaila couldn't come because she was busy with another activity. But she made a donation towards the project. My grandfather's death anniversary falls on the 25th of April and my parents donated rice and homemade banana muffins in his memory. We made 69 packets of rice in ziplock bags. After that we went to Costco and bought 2 packs of water (40 bottles in each), 1 box of easy mack, 1 box of peaches (20 cups), 1 box of mini pretzels(60 packs), 2 packs of canned ranch beans, 1 pack of canned black beans, 1 pack of diced tomatoes and chillies , 12 cans of tuna, 2 packs of canned stewed tomatoes, box of canned peas, 2 packs of peanut butter crackers, and 24 home made banana muffins. We took them to the Little Free Pantry and Mrs. Miranda, the sweet lady who takes care of the pantry on Sundays was waiting for us there. We donated the things and put some of the stuff in the pantry cupboard. Then we helped put everything in Mrs. Miranda's car and came home happy and content about doing something good to help our community. Even though we do this every month, the happiness we feel after the project is unbelievable. A huge thank you to our parents who made contributions to make our project successful.
This was posted in LFP Face Book Page. "The Sunshine Girls outdid themselves with a huge donation of water, snacks, and clothing. Thank you ladies for the time and energy you have all put forth in community service this year! What a difference you are making!! ☀️❤️😀"
We sure will continue to help you every month. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help our community.
3/31/17- We shipped more than 20 cubic feet of gently used clothes, shoes and soft toys to ST. Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka today. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO DONATED CLOTHES AND SONALI AND HER "RECYCLE 4 SMILES" CHARITY FOR THE GENEROUS DONATION FOR THE SHIPPING COST. Also a BIG thank you to Mr. Gamini Watagoda of Colombo Express Shipping Company for coming all the way from Houston to pick up the boxes.
3/31/17- Finally, the 4 boxes are packed and ready to be shipped to the St. Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka. We expect Mr. Ruchira Pathirana from Colombo Express Shipping Company to pick them up today. A huge thank you to Sonali for helping us with the shipping cost and for everybody who donated clothes and shoes to make this project a success.
3/26/17- Wow what a great day! Today we made our 6th donation to the little free pantry and it was our best experience so far. This morning Sanuli and Athena came to our house as always to do our monthly project. Unfortunately Shaila couldn't come because she had another event. We made 62 bags of pinto beans and then bought 2 packs of Gerber baby food(30 in each pack), 2 packs of fruit cups (16 cups in each) and Ramen noodles (48 pack) from Sam's club. Mrs. Tina Ruberu donated 2 packs of water ( 40 bottles in each). Sanuli's mom, my mom and the three of us took the things and went to the Little Free Pantry. When we got there, one of the LFP elves was waiting for us. We donated the items and helped put a few things on the shelves. We couldn't even get back to the car when we saw something very beautiful. We really saw how the LFP helps people in need. There were 3 people waiting to get what they needed. They took bags from the drawer, took what they needed from the pantry and thanked us and went. Then more people came. In less than 10 minutes we saw 8 different people coming with bags and taking what they needed. They thanked us for helping them and it was the most beautiful feeling we have experienced. We are ever grateful to the Little Free Pantry for giving us this opportunity to help others in our community. We will definitely continue to support LFP as best as we can. We like to thank our parents and Mrs. Tina Ruberu for helping us with this donation.
Today, we also sorted, folded and packed a lot of clothes to be sent to Sri Lanka. We got a big donation of clothes from Alanna and Daniella Shafer yesterday and we are so grateful to them for giving us enough clothes to finish the fourth box. It feels great that we will be able to ship the 4 boxes on the 1st of April to Sri Lanka. This is the third year we are doing this project and it is the only one of our originally planned projects that we have been able to continue. We are extremely grateful to Sonali Ranaweera and her charity, "Recycle for Smiles" for giving us the money for shipping. Thank you everybody for donating clothes and shoes for this project.
This was posted on LFP Facebook page today. Thank you ☀️Sunshine Girls☀️ for your generous donation today!
This amazing group of friends visits and donates to the Downtown McKinney Little Free Pantry on a regular basis. It is so heartfelt to see their smiling faces as they fulfill their organization goal "to make a difference in the world". We can't thank you enough!
☀️❤️😍😊🌺🌻☀️
A BIG THANK YOU TO SONALI RANAWEERA AND HER "RECYCLE FOR SMILES" CHARITY FOR DONATING $250.00 TO COVER THE SHIPPING COST FOR THE ST. VINCENT DE PAUL PROJECT.
2/20/17- We completed our second project of the year today and it felt so good to do something for our community. We made our 5th donation to the downtown Mckinney Little Free Pantry. The four of us and Zayd met at my place as we always do and we made 59 rice packets (1lb each) in zip lock bags. Then we packed another box of donated clothes to send to Sri Lanka. Sanuli's little sister was so happy to help out with our work although she just turned 2! After a snack break Zayd and Shaila had to go home as they had another thing to attend to and Sanuli, Athena, myself, my parents and Sanuli's dad and sister went to Costco to buy the things to donate to LFP. One of our family friends Mr. Kushan Kurukulasuriya made a donation to our project this month. Athena's parent too gave extra money and with all our parents donations we had more money than previous times to buy more things for LFP. We thank all of you for your donations. I am sure you helped someone in the community with it. Our donation this time included rice, 2 packs of water (40 bottles each), Several packs of canned black beans and ranch beans, 2 packs of peanut butter crackers (45 packets in each), Beef chow mein (12 pack), pack of peaches (20 cups), 1 pack of mandarin cups (20 cups), 2 packs of diced tomato cans, 24 cans of tuna, 2 packs of nutri grain bars (48 in each pack), and a 20 pack Irish Spring soap bars. Two LFP volunteer ladies were waiting for us when we took the things to LFP. They were so nice. They let us put some of the things in the pantry and took the rest to the storage unit. We came home happy and content that we did something good to help some people in need. It sure is a nice feeling!
This was posted on LFP Facebook page. "The Sunshine Girls are the sweetest group of five friends that made their fifth donation to the Downtown McKinney Little Free Pantry today. One of the their goals is to make a difference in the world and they are sure on their way...making a huge impact helping in our community. Thank you so very much Sunshine Girls!"
They always appreciate what everybody does for LFP. We will continue to support you with our monthly donation. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.
This was posted on LFP Facebook page. "The Sunshine Girls are the sweetest group of five friends that made their fifth donation to the Downtown McKinney Little Free Pantry today. One of the their goals is to make a difference in the world and they are sure on their way...making a huge impact helping in our community. Thank you so very much Sunshine Girls!"
They always appreciate what everybody does for LFP. We will continue to support you with our monthly donation. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.
1/21/17 - It feels great that we were able to do our first project for the year 2017! Sadly Athena couldn't come because she had to attend a Youth and Government conference. Today we had our work day for this month, and it was a special one because we made something by ourselves to be donated to the pantry. They were in need of winter items and we found a no sew fleece scarf pattern on pinterest and decided to make 48 scarves. Our parents agreed to our idea. My mom and I ordered enough fleece to make 48 scarves. We picked patterns suitables for men, women, girls and boys. When we received the package, we found that Joann fabric has sent some extra fabric for no charge. So we had enough to make 55 scarves. My mom offered to cut the fabric as it was very time consuming and also had to be cut very neatly. She had to cut the selvages, then cut them into scarf size strips and cut 1" fringes on the two edges so that we can make the scarves the same way we made the blankets for our blanket project. When we got together today, everything was ready for us to make the scarves. The experience we got from the blanket project really helped and in about 3 hours we were done making the 55 scarves. Then we packed each one in a gallon ziplock bag and labeled them with a sunshine girl's wish. They looked great and we were thrilled that we were able to do it ourselves. After the project we had a snack break and then went to Walmart to buy more things for the pantry with the leftover money. We were able to buy 3 packs of bottled water (35 bottles in each pack), Lots of different kinds of canned beans, several packs of dry beans, 2 big boxes of Ramen noodles, and several packs of peanut butter crackers. My mom and Sanuli's mom had jackets and blankets to donate too. We took all these and went to the Downtown Mckinney Little Free Pantry. Mrs Sanchez was waiting for us there. We put some of the donations in the pantry and helped put the rest in her SUV. She invited us to go see the storage unit that has been donated to the LFP. It was nice to see how neatly everything was stored on the shelves. We were happy that we bought the beans as her stock was very low on beans. We helped her put them on the shelves and came home feeling very happy. She loved everything we donated, specially the scarves that we made. A big thank you to our parents who donated the money. Sanuli's mother made an extra donation in honor of her late mother on her birthday. We thank you for that and hope this good deed will give merit to her soul. |
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12/24/16- What a great way to start the Christmas Season! Today we had a work day to do our third project for the Downtown Mckinney Little Free Pantry. We decided to make 50 home made cookie bags and decorate them as a part of our donation this time. We thought it will be a nice holiday treat for who ever gets to enjoy them. My mom made decorated snowman christmas cookies, chocolate mint kiss cookies, red and green thumb print cookies with a little help from me. Dishan Abeysinghe, a friend of ours donated yummy chocolate chip cookies that he made. So, as always Shaila, Athena, Sanuli, Shaila's brother Zayd and I got together at our house this morning and we made the 50 cookie bags, each with 4 cookies and put a label and decorated the bags with ribbons. We had a lot of fun making and decorating these and of course eatings the extra cookies! Then we went to costco and with the money we collected, bought 4 packs of bottled water (40- 16.9 oz bottles per pack), box of chips (54 packets), 36 cans of Tuna and 2 packs of toilet paper (30 rolls per pack) and donated to the LFP. Since the owner of LFP was out of town, one of her helpers was waiting for us there to accept our donation. We were so happy to help put some of the stuff in the LFP. We helped pack the rest of the stuff in her van to be taken to their new storage unit for later use.
A very special thank you to Dishan and my mom for making the cookies and for all our donors for helping us with this project. We really hope we made the holidays a little brighter for some people. Doing this sure made our holidays a lot brighter.
This was on the LFP Facebook page about our donation- "The generosity of this group of sunshine girls (and siblings) is ah-maz-ing!! This is their third huge donation. And it came with homemade cookies!!!!"
We are the ones who should be thanking you for giving us this opportunity and for the service you are doing to our community.
A very special thank you to Dishan and my mom for making the cookies and for all our donors for helping us with this project. We really hope we made the holidays a little brighter for some people. Doing this sure made our holidays a lot brighter.
This was on the LFP Facebook page about our donation- "The generosity of this group of sunshine girls (and siblings) is ah-maz-ing!! This is their third huge donation. And it came with homemade cookies!!!!"
We are the ones who should be thanking you for giving us this opportunity and for the service you are doing to our community.
11/28/16 -We were so happy to see this in The Little Free Pantry's Face Book page. Thank you Little Free Pantry.
https://www.facebook.com/McKinneyLFP/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE
https://www.facebook.com/McKinneyLFP/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE
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11/27/16- Today was one of the happiest working days that we had. We had a working day to do our monthly donation for the Down Town Mckinney Little Free Pantry. The four of us and Shaila's brother Zayd got together at our place in the morning to work on this project. My parents donated a big bag of rice in memory of my grandfather on what would have been his 88th birthday. (Sri Lankans give food to the needy to remember their loved ones who have left this world, on their birthdays, death anniversaries and all the special days.) Also we had a 5 lb bag of mini candy bars left from Halloween and about 30 bags of sunchips. So we made 55 bags of rice (1lb each) and 71 candy bags with 4 mini candy bars in each to include in our donation. We also collected money from our families and friends and we took this money and went to Costco with my parents and Sanuli's mom and bought 36 cans of tuna, 1 box of Soft and Chewy Granola Bars with Chocolate Chips (60ct), 1 box of Nutri grain bars (48 ct), 2 boxes of Trailmix bars(48ct each), 4 boxes of Austin Toasty Crackers w/Peanut Butter (45ct each), 1 box of hot chocolate (60 packets),2 packs of black bean cans (8ct each), and 1 pack of mac and cheese boxes (18ct) and some other things. We took all these and went to the Little free Pantry in downtown Mckinney. When we went there we were so thrilled to see Mrs.Kim Sanchez, the lady who started and runs the Little Free Pantry. We were able to donate the stuff we bought directly to her. She was extremely nice and was very happy with our donation. She talked to us for a while and we helped her a bit by adding a few things to the pantry and taking all the extras to her vehicle. Meeting her definitely was the highlight of our project today. She is totally dedicated to running the Little Free Pantry and she comes there many times a day to fill the pantry and to take the extra donations to be stored for later use. When we saw how hard she works to keep this pantry alive, and how many people benefit from it, we really wanted to donate more and more every month to make her mission a success.
A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR PARENTS AND TO MRS. AYO FERNANDO, MR. HIRAN FERNANDO AND PULASTHI FERNANDO FOR DONATING MONEY FOR THIS PROJECT.
11/27/16- Today was one of the happiest working days that we had. We had a working day to do our monthly donation for the Down Town Mckinney Little Free Pantry. The four of us and Shaila's brother Zayd got together at our place in the morning to work on this project. My parents donated a big bag of rice in memory of my grandfather on what would have been his 88th birthday. (Sri Lankans give food to the needy to remember their loved ones who have left this world, on their birthdays, death anniversaries and all the special days.) Also we had a 5 lb bag of mini candy bars left from Halloween and about 30 bags of sunchips. So we made 55 bags of rice (1lb each) and 71 candy bags with 4 mini candy bars in each to include in our donation. We also collected money from our families and friends and we took this money and went to Costco with my parents and Sanuli's mom and bought 36 cans of tuna, 1 box of Soft and Chewy Granola Bars with Chocolate Chips (60ct), 1 box of Nutri grain bars (48 ct), 2 boxes of Trailmix bars(48ct each), 4 boxes of Austin Toasty Crackers w/Peanut Butter (45ct each), 1 box of hot chocolate (60 packets),2 packs of black bean cans (8ct each), and 1 pack of mac and cheese boxes (18ct) and some other things. We took all these and went to the Little free Pantry in downtown Mckinney. When we went there we were so thrilled to see Mrs.Kim Sanchez, the lady who started and runs the Little Free Pantry. We were able to donate the stuff we bought directly to her. She was extremely nice and was very happy with our donation. She talked to us for a while and we helped her a bit by adding a few things to the pantry and taking all the extras to her vehicle. Meeting her definitely was the highlight of our project today. She is totally dedicated to running the Little Free Pantry and she comes there many times a day to fill the pantry and to take the extra donations to be stored for later use. When we saw how hard she works to keep this pantry alive, and how many people benefit from it, we really wanted to donate more and more every month to make her mission a success.
A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR PARENTS AND TO MRS. AYO FERNANDO, MR. HIRAN FERNANDO AND PULASTHI FERNANDO FOR DONATING MONEY FOR THIS PROJECT.
11/9/16- We are planning on our next donation to Little Free Pantry during the Thanksgiving break. Still haven't decided on a date. But we plan to take food items this time. We will include baby food too. Hope I will finally get to see the place myself. Also we have one more box to pack before we can ship the clothes. We are still collecting clothes for that box. Hope we will be able to finish it on the same day. Because of the shipping costs, we decided to send only 4 boxes (about 20 cubic feet) of clothes this time.
10/10/16- What a day! We had a work day today and we sorted, folded and packed 5 cubic feet of clothes to be shipped to Sri Lanka. Now we have 3 boxes packed. Need more clothes for one more box before we can ship them.
After I wrote the last update, my mother decided to ask everybody whether they wanted to start our next project today itself. As always everybody agreed. So we decided to collect money from the 4 families and buy toilet paper, paper towels and canned fish for the little free pantry in down town McKinney. These were the most needed items at the moment. Unfortunately for me, I had swim practice and I had to skip this part of the work day. But Shaila, Athena, Sanuli and Shaila's brother Zayd got to go to Costco with my mom, Shaila's mom and Sanuli's mom and buy 48 rolls of toilet paper, 24 rolls of paper towels, 36 cans of tuna and 10 cans of sardines from the money we collected. Then they have gone to the Little Free Pantry in down town Mckinney and put some of the things in the pantry and left the rest of the things there. We plan to continue this every month from now on. Hope I will be able to go there the next time.
https://www.facebook.com/McKinneyLFP/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf
http://www.mckinneyonline.com/September-2016/Little-Free-Pantry-in-Downtown-McKinney/
UPDATE-- Little free pantry has already sent a Face Book message thanking us for the donation. You are most welcome little free pantry. We are planning to make this a monthly project.
9/26/16- We will meet on Columbus day to pack one more box and to discuss our next project. We just found out about the Little Free Pantry in down town Mckinney. We are thinking of giving a donation of food and other supplies to the little free pantry as a monthly project. If everybody likes the idea we will collect money and the 4 of us will go shopping and buy as many items as we can with the money we have and take them to the Little Free Pantry once a month. We feel that it is a project we can afford to do on a monthly basis.
9/5/16- We got a so many bags of clothes from Ms. Patricia Caplan. Thank you so much for donating all those clothes to us Ms. Patricia. We can fill a whole box with your donation. We also want to thank Mrs. Sonia Perera who told Ms. Patricia about our charity and for bringing the clothes to us. We really appreciate your help with this project.
8/2/16- Today was a great work day for the sunshinegirls. All four of us and Shaila's brother Zayd started our next project. We had enough clothes and shoes collected to fill 2 boxes (5.1 cubic feet each) for the Vincent De Paul Society, Galle, Sri Lanka. I decided to give away most of my soft toys that I have collected since I was a baby. That helped fill more than half of a box. We selected the good clothes and folded them nicely, paired all 45 pairs of shoes with rubber bands and packed these and the soft toys in the two boxes and taped them. We are going to collect a lot more clothes between now and October and hope to ship between 20-25 cubic feet of clothes to Sri Lanka for the third year in a row. Our parents were surprised at how little help we needed this year to do this work. We sure have grown older and learnt a lot from our past projects. We had so much fun doing this work today. We were tired at the end of the day and we made a whole tray of brownies disappear in no time! We like to thank Mrs. Catherine , Elijah, Isaac and Alice Mae Kelley, Mrs. Sharmen Fernando, Mrs. Tas Moosajee, Mrs. Nishani Kulasuriya and Suram Pathirana for donating shoes, clothes and toys to fill these boxes. A special thank you to Mrs. Moosajee for buying the boxes for us. We hope to reach our goal before the end of October shipping date.
7/30/16- Although it is not good to expect anything in return when you do something for someone, it makes you feel good when you hear from them to show their gratitude. We received 2 thank you notes during the past few weeks from the Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka and the Children's medical center in Dallas. We all felt happy to know that we helped someone in some way.
7/13/16- We finally finished the blanket project today! We took the blankets and donated them to the children's medical center in Dallas. We all felt so good after we donated. We sure do hope the blankets will make some kids warm and happy. A huge thank you to all our donors and everybody who helped us with this project. We wouldn't have done this with out all your help. After the donation we went to FROST with Athena's mom and my mom and had ice cream to cool us down from the 100 degree heat. It was fun!
7/13/16- We are finally going to Children's medical center of Dallas to donate the blankets today! So excited that we can finish our biggest project so far. Athena's mom is taking us there to drop off the blankets. Unfortunately Shaila can't join us today as she has some other commitment. But Athena, Sanuli and I will be going there. All the blankets are packed into two big boxes and we are waiting for Athena's mom to pick us up.
6/15/16- Although we got the pattern and directions from the Linus project website , we found out that the local chapter of the Linus project do not accept blankets made at home. They want people to bring the fabric to their office and make it there during one of their meetings. We got kind of disappointed to hear that. Wish they mentioned it in the Linus project website. But we found out that Children's medical center accepts blankets for their little patients. So we are going to donate them directly to Children's medical center in Dallas. We feel this is even better, as we get to donate them directly to a hospital. This is our 3rd project with the Children's medical center and we hope to do more projects for them. As soon as we can find a time that is good for everybody we will deliver the blankets. Athena's mom has agreed to take us there. Can't wait to finish this project and find an idea for our next project.
We have started collecting gently used clothes and shoes for the St. Vincent De Paul project. Already have some clothes and shoes. Hope to collect a lot more. Please donate gently used clothes and shoes and soft toys to our charity.
We got a nice surprise from Neesha and Madhuni! My dad went to California for work and he was able to meet up with Neesha and Madhuni's family. They sent us $20 for our next project! That was very sweet of them. We miss them so much when we do our projects. It was a lot more fun when they were here. Thank you so much Neesha and Madhuni for thinking about Sunshine girls.
We have started collecting gently used clothes and shoes for the St. Vincent De Paul project. Already have some clothes and shoes. Hope to collect a lot more. Please donate gently used clothes and shoes and soft toys to our charity.
We got a nice surprise from Neesha and Madhuni! My dad went to California for work and he was able to meet up with Neesha and Madhuni's family. They sent us $20 for our next project! That was very sweet of them. We miss them so much when we do our projects. It was a lot more fun when they were here. Thank you so much Neesha and Madhuni for thinking about Sunshine girls.
5/29/16- Yesterday was a great day for Sunshine girls. We worked hard together to finish the 42 blankets as we planned. Our moms, and Mrs. Sharmen Fernando, Mrs. Sonia Perera and Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena and the four of us worked the whole day to finish the blankets. Then they were folded nicely and put in extra large zip lock bags with a sunshine girls label. It was probably the hardest project we have done, but definitely one of the most rewarding experiences we had. We felt very happy and proud of what we accomplished. We couldn't have done it with out the help of the adult volunteers and all who donated money for this project. Thank you for all you did for us. Also a big thank you to Mr. Anil Perera for the lovely photos. We are going to contact the Linus project local office and plan to deliver them soon. Looking forward to doing more projects this summer.
5/28/16- The BIG DAY is here! We are all set to finish the blanket project today. All the blankets are cut and ready to go. Waiting for everybody to come. All four of us, our moms and 3 of our donors, Mrs. Sonia Perera, Mrs. Sharmen Fernando and Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena will be here to make the blankets. We decided to keep the blanket count at 42 and use the rest of the money to buy extra large ziplock bags to put each blanket in. Hope it will be a great success like all our other projects!
5/13/16- Finally we are ready to finish the blanket project. Everybody was busy with school and other things and we couldn't find time to get it done. My mom has started cutting the blankets and she has done about half of them. If everybody can come, we plan to finish it one day during the memorial day weekend. Glad to see things coming together finally.
3/28/16- Sadly our plans didn't work out!!! The Sunday before Easter, my mother came down with the flu. She was quite sick and she didn't even want to touch the blankets until she was completely well as it would have been dangerous for the kids who will receive the blankets. By the middle of the week the whole family was sick and we postponed our project until we are well again. We are getting better slowly and hope to finish the project as soon as we can.
3/19/16- We already got everything we ordered! Fabric for 42 blankets. One got back ordered. So we need to buy fabric for two more blankets. My mom has started cutting them. She has already cut the selvages and cut them into one and a half yard pieces, the right size for the blankets. She will start cutting the fringes and preparing them for us to make the blankets on Friday. It is a huge project and really hope we will be able to finish making all of them on Friday.
3/15/16- Shaila is back from her vacation and her family donated $50.00 towards the project to buy blankets and also to buy the cutting equipment we will definitely need for the project. A big thank you to Shaila's parents for their donation. We were lucky enough to find another great deal and we ordered enough fabric for another 24 blankets. We hope to do the project on Good Friday as it is a holiday for all of us.
FINAL COUNT- 44 BLANKETS
We are so happy that we have more than doubled our original goal. Hope we will have fun doing this and the project will be a great success.
FINAL COUNT- 44 BLANKETS
We are so happy that we have more than doubled our original goal. Hope we will have fun doing this and the project will be a great success.
3/14/16- We had high hopes of doing a project during spring break. We found a transition home for homeless teens who liked home cooked meals. But we couldn't get a date to do the project and we couldn't do anything during the Spring break. So we looked for another project to do as the first project for this year and found " Project Linus". (http://www.projectlinus.org/about/). It is an organization who makes and donates quilts and blankets for kids in hospitals. They accept donations of quilts and blankets from volunteers and groups who make them according to their specifications. While going through their website we found an idea for NO SEW FLEECE BLANKETS! It looked like something we can do with a bit of help from our moms (They require some serious cutting!!!! (:). Luckily my mom agreed to do the cutting for us and we decided to make this our first project for the year. We decided to make 20 no sew fleece blankets for "Project Linus" that will suit girls and boys! I sent a letter asking some of our family and friends to help us with the project. So did the others. Just in one day I got 3 donations which will let us make 8 blankets. Athena wants 7 blankets and Sanuli has collected money for some too. Haven't heard from Shaila yet as they were out of town for the spring break. Since our parents also want to contribute we will definitely be able to make a lot more than 20 blankets. What a great start to our first project of the year and we are so grateful to our donors for helping us with this project. Since there was a BIG fleece fabric sale yesterday, my mom and I went ahead and ordered enough fabric for 20 blankets. With the sale our cost per blanket was $7.80. It would have cost us 60% more if not for the sale. But we will definitely need more and we will buy as we collect more money.
UPDATE- This is the count so far:
Donations for Ranithri:
Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena & Mr. Rukshan Jayawardena (2 blankets)
Mrs. Sharmen Fernando & Mr. Palitha Fernando (3 blankets)
Mr.Ben Wikramanayake & Mrs. Grace Wikramanayake ($25.00 for 3 blankets)
Ranithri's parents (5 blankets)
Mrs. Sudam Pathirana & Mr. Saliya DeSilva (8 blankets)
Mrs. Sonia Perera & Mr. Anil Perera ($10.00 for 1 blanket)
Athena:
Athena's Parents (7 blankets)
Sanuli:
Mrs. Chammi Miller (2 blankets)
Sanuli's parents (6 blankets)
Blanket count as of now 37
So already we have surpassed our goal in one day and we still haven't heard from others . A BIG thank you to all our donors. YOU ROCK!
12/22/15- Athena, Sanuli and I went to the Plano Children's medical center with Athena's mother and my mother to drop off the goodie bags. Shaila was not able to come as she had other plans. It felt so good to finish the project and we really hope that we made some children happy this Christmas.
12/21/15- Yesterday was a great day for us. We have a new sunshine girl! Sanuli De Silva (9 years) joined us as a new member and we are so excited to welcome her to the Sunshine girls charity.
We finally had a work day yesterday to finish making the 100 goodie bags for the Children's medical center in Plano. Athena, Shaila, Sanuli and Shaila's brother Zayd came to my house and we made the bags. My mom and Sanuli's mom helped too. We really missed Neesha and Madhuni and all their help. It was so much fun doing this project as a group and we took breaks in between for snacks and for a little bit of fun! . The experience we got from the same project we did last time really helped us. We finished much faster than last time because of that. Each bag has a Christmas picture frame craft kit, a Santa ornament craft kit, a funny Christmas magnet craft kit, a tiny yo-yo, a little Christmas top, two sets of Christmas foam stickers and a sticker craft. Hope we will be able to make some kids happy this Christmas. Tomorrow Athena's mother is going to take us to the Children's medical center to drop these off. Can't wait to finish this project tomorrow.
We finally had a work day yesterday to finish making the 100 goodie bags for the Children's medical center in Plano. Athena, Shaila, Sanuli and Shaila's brother Zayd came to my house and we made the bags. My mom and Sanuli's mom helped too. We really missed Neesha and Madhuni and all their help. It was so much fun doing this project as a group and we took breaks in between for snacks and for a little bit of fun! . The experience we got from the same project we did last time really helped us. We finished much faster than last time because of that. Each bag has a Christmas picture frame craft kit, a Santa ornament craft kit, a funny Christmas magnet craft kit, a tiny yo-yo, a little Christmas top, two sets of Christmas foam stickers and a sticker craft. Hope we will be able to make some kids happy this Christmas. Tomorrow Athena's mother is going to take us to the Children's medical center to drop these off. Can't wait to finish this project tomorrow.
12/3/15- We are all set for our next project. Received everything we ordered and we will have 7 items per bag. Crafts, stickers and tiny toys. We are so excited and can't wait till we get the Christmas break to do this project. We want to take the goodie bags to the hospital before Christmas and really hope it will be a success like last time. A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR PARENTS FOR FUNDING THIS PROJECT!
10-26-15- We decided on our next project!!!!! We want to make 100 goodie bags for the Children's Hospital in Plano, just like we did for the Children's Hospital in Dallas. This time we hope to do a Christmas theme and finish the project as soon as we get the Christmas break. It will be just Shaila, Athena and me this time and we will definitely miss Neesha and Madhuni and their help. We are so excited to do something nice to make some kids happy during Christmas time. Hope it will be a success just like the last time.
10-22-15-We shipped more than 25 cubic feet of gently used clothes to ST. Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka today. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO DONATED CLOTHES AND SONALI AND HER "RECYCLE 4 SMILES" CHARITY FOR THE GENEROUS DONATION FOR THE SHIPPING COST. Also a BIG thank you to Mr. Ruchira Pathirana of Colombo Express Shipping Company for coming all the way from Houston to pick up the boxes.
9-23-15- Sorry for the delay in updating. So many things happened from the time we had our last project. Then school started. The most significant thing that happened was two of our dear sunshine girls members, Neesha and Madhuni moved to California at the end of summer!!!!! It was a shock to all of us as the decision was so sudden. We already miss them so much and sunshine girls will never be the same with out them. But we wish them all the happiness and success in California and we will definitely keep in touch.
We are in the process of contacting the shipping company to finish our next project, shipping out the boxes to St. Vincent De. Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka. Hope we will be able to finish that project soon. We are working on some more new projects and will write more about them when we have more information.
We are in the process of contacting the shipping company to finish our next project, shipping out the boxes to St. Vincent De. Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka. Hope we will be able to finish that project soon. We are working on some more new projects and will write more about them when we have more information.
7-1-15- Today was a great day! We got to finish our cupcake project today. Athena, Shaila and I left home with Athena's mom and my mom around 10:00AM. We went to Sam's Club, picked up 180 cupcakes, then we took them to the Boys and Girls Club of Richardson. When we went there, Mr. Geo told us that we can serve the cupcakes to the kids when they come for lunch. We were not expecting that and were thrilled to be able to serve the cupcakes ourselves. The lady in the kitchen gave us a cart to put the cupcakes and we went around and served the cupcakes to all four different lunch groups. The little kids were eager for seconds and we happily gave them more, but then we realized that there were a lot more kids to come. So the rest of them only got 1 each. However, we had enough for everybody, including the staff. Every kid had a cupcake, and it was nice to see them enjoy their little treat. It was fun to see their reaction, and we all felt great to be able to make them happy!
Thanks to all the donors and our parents who helped us with this amazing project! We hope to do this again in the future.
Thanks to all the donors and our parents who helped us with this amazing project! We hope to do this again in the future.
6-29-15- We have plans for our next project. We decided to take cupcakes for the kids at the Richardson Boys and Girls club on Wednesday! They were happy with our idea and told us that we can bring them around 11:30 AM when all the kids are in one place for lunch. We already got 3 donations from Mrs. Sonia Perera & Mr. Anil Perera, Mrs. Sharmen Fernando and Mr. Palitha Fernando and Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena and Mr. Rukshan Jayawardena. Our parents are going to help us with the rest of the money. We are so grateful to all of them for helping us out with this project. You sure will make a lot of kids very happy! Athena's mom will take Athena, Shaila and me to Sams club to buy the 180 cupcakes we need and then we will take them to the Boys and Girls club. We are so excited about this project and hope it will go well.
6-24-15- We finished our first project for the summer today. We took the books to the Boys and Girls Club in Richardson TX today. The McKinney Boys and Girls club had enough books and they didn't need more at the moment. But the one on Belt Line Road in Richardson was more than happy to accept our donation. It was so wonderful to see the children there having a great summer with supervision and a safe environment. We found out that there are 167 kids in that facility alone. We definitely plan to do more projects with them. They do have a library and we are sure they will put these books to great use.
6-10-15- Finally it is summer break time! We want to finish some of the projects we have started and do as many new projects as we can. But it is very difficult to get things done as we all have different activities and vacation plans. So we will be doing our projects either individually or with who ever is here to join. We wanted to donate the books before the end of the school year. But everybody was busy with final exams and we never got to do it. Unfortunately Neesha and Madhuni won't be here most of the summer and Shaila will be very busy with her Dance team auditions. So we decided to donate what Athena and I (Ranithri) collected to the McKinney boys and girls club and Neesha and Madhuni will donate what they collected to the Plano club when they come back from their vacation. Athena and I collected 285 books! We sorted them and packed them in boxes today. Next week Athena's mom will take us to the boys and girls club to donate the books.
5-6-15- We got a thank you card from the Children's Medical Center for our donation. It was very nice of them to send it. It felt good to know that some one appreciated our little project.
4-20-15- Our book project is going well. Neesha and Madhuni have collected a lot of book too. We should be able to finish the project very soon.
4-12-15- Great day! We finally got to take the gift bags and the craft supplies to the Dallas children's medical center and donate them to their Child Life Department. A sweet lady from the child life department at the hospital came and accepted the donations from us. She told us that these will be given to the kids at the hospital who cannot leave their rooms as they don't feel good. We really hope that the craft items, the activity pads and the stickers will bring a smile to their faces and keep them busy for some time. It felt great to finish this project knowing it will make some kids very happy!
Thank you so much to all who donated money and helped us with this project. We couldn't have done this with out your help. Unfortunately Athena couldn't come with us as she was out of town. We missed you Athena and hope you will be able to join us for the next project.
Thank you so much to all who donated money and helped us with this project. We couldn't have done this with out your help. Unfortunately Athena couldn't come with us as she was out of town. We missed you Athena and hope you will be able to join us for the next project.
4-4-15- Thank you to Sonali Ranaweera for her monetary donation of $250 towards the shipping of the clothes for St. Vincent de Paul.
4-1-15- We have started our next project for the year. The boys and girls club of McKinney is in need for gently used story books. So we decided to collect books to donate. Ranithri has already collected over 100 books and the others are collecting too. We hope to finish this project soon. Our goal is to collect closer to 150-200 books.
3-9-15- Today was a great day for us. We had a long service day to work on our Children's Medical Center project. All 5 of us, Shaila's brother Zayd and some of our moms got together to sort all the items we have bought and make the 100 goodie bags that we want to make for them. First we attached labels to the bags and then added 2 individually boxed crafts, a box of 4 crayons, an activity pad and a sheet of stickers into each bag. We had to separate some of the crafts and put into individual packages before packing them into the goodie bags. We made 50 bags for girls and 50 bags for boys. Packing the bags was much easier than putting the curling ribbons and curling them. But we had enough snacks and good music to keep us going. Other than a reasonable lunch break, we worked really hard to finish the project. Although it took time, we were able to finish everything as we worked as a group.
As I mentioned below, we received some more donations and we were able to order more things from their wish list to be donated to the Children's medical center. Some of the items we bought are 300 piece pack of adhesive truck foam shapes, 2 packs of bright mosaic squares (each has over a 1000 tiles) ,playing cards (one dozen packs), card game assortments (2DZ), Color your own all about me posters (30 posters), beads (pack of 5000 beads), color your own alphabet puzzles (2 dozen), Bracelet craft kits (18 kits), glue dots (2 boxes of 500 dots each), decorate your own crafts packs, stickers, and color your own felt poster craft kits. We decided to donate them as bulk supplies for them to use as they wish. We are so glad that we were able to finish this project. We plan to take them to the Children's medical center this week. We are waiting for one of our parents to take us there.
As I mentioned below, we received some more donations and we were able to order more things from their wish list to be donated to the Children's medical center. Some of the items we bought are 300 piece pack of adhesive truck foam shapes, 2 packs of bright mosaic squares (each has over a 1000 tiles) ,playing cards (one dozen packs), card game assortments (2DZ), Color your own all about me posters (30 posters), beads (pack of 5000 beads), color your own alphabet puzzles (2 dozen), Bracelet craft kits (18 kits), glue dots (2 boxes of 500 dots each), decorate your own crafts packs, stickers, and color your own felt poster craft kits. We decided to donate them as bulk supplies for them to use as they wish. We are so glad that we were able to finish this project. We plan to take them to the Children's medical center this week. We are waiting for one of our parents to take us there.
3-8-15- A big thank you to our parents for their donations and support towards the Children's Medical Center Project.
3-6-15- Thank you Dr. Tharanga Rajapaksha, Mr. Chaminda Fernando and Thenula Fernando for your donation for the Children's Medical Center project.
3-5-15- Thank you Mr. Ben Wikramanayake and Mrs. Grace Wikramanayake for your donation for the Children's Medical Center project.
3-1-15- Thank you Mr. Palitha Fernando and Mrs. Sharmen Fernando for your donation for the Children's Medical Center project.
2-22-2015- We already received the first two orders of things for the project! Waiting till Spring break to finish the project. Hope we will be able to get more things before the spring break.
2-15-2015- We had a workday today to plan our next project. After doing a lot of research we found a project that we all want to do. The Children's Medical Center in Dallas is in need of things for the children who are there for treatment. They have a list of things they need like craft items, coloring books, crayons, stickers and lots of other things that will make the children there happy. So we decided to make 100 goodie bags with these items to be donated to this cause. We searched the internet for items that we can include in the bags at the best price and with the money we have so far, we were able to order a few things like a box of 4 crayons, a coloring/activity book, 2 individually boxed small crafts and a sheet of stickers per bag. If we can find more money or donations we want to get more items to donate. We plan to finish these bags and donate them during the spring break. We also made 100 labels to be attached to each bag. We are very happy with the work we did today and the progress we made with the project. This is the list of things they are asking for and if anybody wants to donate any of these items or money towards this cause please let us know by sending a e-mail to [email protected]. Thank you.
Children’s Medical Center (Dallas)- Crayola Model Magic, stickers, color markers (broad and thin), crayons (4, 16, and 24 count), coloring books, Play-Doh, clay, glue dots, glue sticks, 8 oz. glue bottles, jewelry art supplies, craft kits, paint by number, foam art, velvet posters, individual art activity kits, glitter wands, plain color wrapping paper, and gift bags will all help sick children in the Dallas area.
Children’s Medical Center (Dallas)- Baby dolls (plastic and multicultural), Barbies and clothes, dramatic play clothes and accessories (boys and girls), remote control cars, Magna Doodles, I Spy Books, plastic play food, Fisher Price play sets, Fisher Price Little People, action figures, Lego kits, doll houses and doll furniture, doll house people (multicultural), sound books (English/Spanish), Little Tykes toys, Fisher Price toys, BRIO trains and accessories, Little Tykes child sized cars, plastic animals and dinosaurs, pretend medical kits, bubbles, sports balls, diaries and journals, travel games, model cars w/glue (levels 1 and 2), photo albums and frames are requested. Games including Monopoly, Sorry, Connect Four, Guess Who?, Battleship (board or electronic), Operation, Hungry, Hungry Hippo, Trouble, Life, Bop-It, Dominoes, playing cards, UNO, puzzles (wood toddler puzzles, 25, 50, 100, and 250 piece), teen games (Cranium, Jenga, and trivia games) will all help sick children in the Dallas area.
Children’s Medical Center (Dallas)- Children’s Medical Center needs NEW books for their family resource library. Books in English and Spanish are greatly appreciated. Look here for their English book list and Spanish book list.
Children’s Medical Center (Dallas)- Crayola Model Magic, stickers, color markers (broad and thin), crayons (4, 16, and 24 count), coloring books, Play-Doh, clay, glue dots, glue sticks, 8 oz. glue bottles, jewelry art supplies, craft kits, paint by number, foam art, velvet posters, individual art activity kits, glitter wands, plain color wrapping paper, and gift bags will all help sick children in the Dallas area.
Children’s Medical Center (Dallas)- Baby dolls (plastic and multicultural), Barbies and clothes, dramatic play clothes and accessories (boys and girls), remote control cars, Magna Doodles, I Spy Books, plastic play food, Fisher Price play sets, Fisher Price Little People, action figures, Lego kits, doll houses and doll furniture, doll house people (multicultural), sound books (English/Spanish), Little Tykes toys, Fisher Price toys, BRIO trains and accessories, Little Tykes child sized cars, plastic animals and dinosaurs, pretend medical kits, bubbles, sports balls, diaries and journals, travel games, model cars w/glue (levels 1 and 2), photo albums and frames are requested. Games including Monopoly, Sorry, Connect Four, Guess Who?, Battleship (board or electronic), Operation, Hungry, Hungry Hippo, Trouble, Life, Bop-It, Dominoes, playing cards, UNO, puzzles (wood toddler puzzles, 25, 50, 100, and 250 piece), teen games (Cranium, Jenga, and trivia games) will all help sick children in the Dallas area.
Children’s Medical Center (Dallas)- Children’s Medical Center needs NEW books for their family resource library. Books in English and Spanish are greatly appreciated. Look here for their English book list and Spanish book list.
11-25-2014- This year too we found some time to have a day of service during the Thanksgiving break. We got a LOT of clothes and shoes that were in excellent condition from several donors and we decided to repack the boxes so that the Vincent De Paul Society can get more money for their charities. We unpacked the boxes, sorted all the clothes that we had, separated them, folded them and repacked the boxes with the consideration, which ones will get them the largest amount of money. We also got a huge box of Lego from a donor who wanted it to be donated to a home for disabled kids rather than selling it. So we found a home in Sri Lanka to donate it and we packed that too to be sent to Sri Lanka. It took us a long time to finish this work. When we were done, we were tired, but very happy with the work we did. We have 5 boxes and more than 25 cubic feet of things to be sent to Sri Lanka. This exceeded the amount we sent last year and we are so happy and proud of it. Sonali has agreed to help us this year too with the shipping. We need to collect more money to cover the rest of the shipping and as soon as we get the money we are going to ship the 5 boxes. Thank you all the donors for helping us this year too.
5-21-2014- It was hard for us to get together for a service day this summer as most of us were out of the country at different times. But Neesha, Madhuni and Ranithri found some time to pack some of the clothes and magazines they have collected during summer to send to Sri Lanka. Now we have 4 boxes (20+ cubic feet of clothes to send to the Vincent De Paul Society in Galle Sri Lanka) We are glad that we have matched the amount we sent last year.
5-16-2014- Mr. and Mrs. Lanka Santha and some other donors were in Sri Lanka for the summer and they were able to donate 85 bicycles to needy students in Siripura, Dibulagala, a very remote village in Sri Lanka. We are glad that we were able to donate 2 of those 85 bikes. Here are some photographs from the Bicycle donating ceremony.
5-5-2014 - WE ARE SO HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE COMPLETED OUR SECOND PROJECT FOR THE YEAR 2014.
Ranithri's mom got an e-mail from a relative about donating bicycles to needy kids in Sri Lanka. A Buddhist Monk in a very rural area of Sri Lanka has asked the Sri Lankans here to help kids from that village go to school by donating bicycles. There is no public transportation in that area and their only way of going to school is by walking or by riding their bikes. They have to walk so many miles in hot humid weather to go to the only school available for them. Each bike costs $85. When she told us about this all of us and our families agreed to take on this project. With the left over money from the book mark fundraiser and contributions from all 5 of us [ with our parents help (: !!!], we collected enough money for one bike. Ranithri's parents donated money for another bike, in memory of her grand father. So we were able to collect enough money to donate 2 bikes for 2 needy children in Sri Lanka.
This is the e-mail about the project. For those of us who can't read Sinhala, that is the letter sent by the Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka asking for bicycles.
Dear Friends,
I hope some of you remember that five years ago as a community we were able to donate 35 bicycles to children at Siripura, Polonnaruwa. According to Ven. Maeliye Dimbulalankara Thero some of those children are in the University today. Please see below for the letter he sent me four days ago. Can we do this again? I have checked the bicycle prices in Sri Lanka and found that one bicycle will cost US $ 85 (with luggage, lights and delivery to Siripura). Please consider helping these children. I strongly believe that education is the best thing we can give to children, especially in Sri Lanka. Those who are visiting Sri Lanka during this summer can personally go to Siripura to handover the bicycles. I will let you know the date. If you are unable to commit for a complete bicycle you may donate any amount you can afford. Attached is the form I am going to maintain for the list of donors.
Best Regards
Lanka Santha
Ranithri's mom got an e-mail from a relative about donating bicycles to needy kids in Sri Lanka. A Buddhist Monk in a very rural area of Sri Lanka has asked the Sri Lankans here to help kids from that village go to school by donating bicycles. There is no public transportation in that area and their only way of going to school is by walking or by riding their bikes. They have to walk so many miles in hot humid weather to go to the only school available for them. Each bike costs $85. When she told us about this all of us and our families agreed to take on this project. With the left over money from the book mark fundraiser and contributions from all 5 of us [ with our parents help (: !!!], we collected enough money for one bike. Ranithri's parents donated money for another bike, in memory of her grand father. So we were able to collect enough money to donate 2 bikes for 2 needy children in Sri Lanka.
This is the e-mail about the project. For those of us who can't read Sinhala, that is the letter sent by the Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka asking for bicycles.
Dear Friends,
I hope some of you remember that five years ago as a community we were able to donate 35 bicycles to children at Siripura, Polonnaruwa. According to Ven. Maeliye Dimbulalankara Thero some of those children are in the University today. Please see below for the letter he sent me four days ago. Can we do this again? I have checked the bicycle prices in Sri Lanka and found that one bicycle will cost US $ 85 (with luggage, lights and delivery to Siripura). Please consider helping these children. I strongly believe that education is the best thing we can give to children, especially in Sri Lanka. Those who are visiting Sri Lanka during this summer can personally go to Siripura to handover the bicycles. I will let you know the date. If you are unable to commit for a complete bicycle you may donate any amount you can afford. Attached is the form I am going to maintain for the list of donors.
Best Regards
Lanka Santha
5-3-2014 - We had another work day. But this time only Athena and I (Ranithri) could come as the others had previously planned work. We sorted, folded and packed more than 10 cubic feet of clothes. So we already have 3 boxes, over 15 cubic feet of clothes all packed to be sent to St. Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka for 2014. We hope to collect more before the end of the year. It was a lot more work with out Neesha, Shaila and Madhuni who always do a lot when we have work days. It wasn't as much fun as when we all get together and we missed you a lot!!! ): My parents were happy because the closets were no longer full of bags and bags of clothes!!!
This is what we did!!!
This is what we did!!!
4-29-2014 It is wonderful to get encouraging messages from people who care about what we do. These are a some of the e-mail we got from well-wishers.
From Ranithri's Kindergarten teacher:
I am so proud of Ranithri and her work with this group. When I become disheartened with the youth of America today, thinking of the group you girls founded and your hard work towards accomplishing your goals, heartens me. Thank you all. And thank you for being role models for my own children.
Sincerely,
Catherine Laughlin Kelley
From the volunteer coordinator at the Samaritan Inn:
Thank you for understanding and abiding with our tour schedule. We appreciate what you are doing and I, personally, am impressed that you are starting at such young ages to think of others. You are special!
Jill Rix
Volunteer Coordinator
The Samaritan Inn
1725 North McDonald Street
McKinney, TX 75071
P (972) 632-1290 ext. 228
F (972) 632-1297
www.thesamaritaninn.org
2-23-2014- Today was a great day for us, SUNSHINE GIRLS. We participated in our first charitable event for the year today. We went to Costco in the morning with our families and used our book mark fund raiser money together with our own money that we donated, to buy items from the "needs list" at The Samaritan Inn, in McKinney TX. Our parents and some friends also decided to help us out by donating food items, paper products, cleaning items and medicine in memory of their loved ones who have left this world. So with their help we were able to by a lot of items in their needs list and donate to The Samaritan Inn, which is a homeless shelter that rehabilitates homeless families. It has 130 residents, both adults and children and they depend on donations by the public for their daily needs. We felt so great doing this and we sure do hope to do this again within the year.
We are very thankful to:
Mr.Rukshan Jayawardens & Mrs. Kumu Jayawardena for the donation made in memory of his mother.
Mr. Chandana Fernando & Mrs. Devika Fernando for the donation made in memory of his father and the departed loved ones in their families.
Mr. Imdaad Moosajee & Mrs. Tas Moosajee for the donation made in memory of her brother and the departed loved ones in their families.
Mr. & Mrs. Chatura Patuwathavithane for the donation made in memory of all their loved ones who have departed.
2-22-2014- Our third goal for last year was to collect 100 pairs of eye glasses for the Lions Club eye glass program. In the process of collecting eye glasses, we found out that it was not an easy task. We certainly didn't reach our goal. But we were able to collect 28 pairs of eye glasses. Today Ranithri's dad mailed them to the Eye Glass Collection center in Midland, TX. So, although we didn't reach our expectations for the year 2013, we are glad that we were able to contribute to all three charities we picked, in someway. Hope we can do better this year.
2-17-14- We got a certificate of appreciation, a letter of acknowledgement and 5 bracelets for the five of us from soles4souls. Thank you soles4souls and everybody who donated shoes.
2-12-14- We got a letter of acknowledgement from soles4souls today for our donations. Thank you soles4souls for giving us this opportunity to help people in need. Dear friends, please help us collect more shoes for this charity this year by donating your old shoes.
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1-31-2014 - We are happy to announce that our "LITTLE HELPER" Madhuni has gladly accepted our invitation to become a SUNSHINE GIRL. WECOME little Madhuni! Hope you will continue to help us with our work.
1-20-2014-WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT REACHING ANOTHER GOAL TODAY!!!!!! Shaila and her dad Mr. Imdaad Moosajee delivered the 126 pairs of shoes that we collected to the soles 4 souls warehouse in Carrollton TX. We know that we didn't reach our ambitious goal of 250 pairs of shoes, but we are proud that we were able to collect at least half of it:) Thank you Mr. Moosajee and Shaila for driving all the way to Carrollton to drop off the shoes. Thank you to everybody who helped us reach this goal by donating shoes.
1/14/2014- Guess what we received in the mail today??? A Thank-You card and a little note for all four of us from the Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka. We are so glad they received our shipment of clothes and we hope to continue to do this annually!!!!
11-29-2013- We had another meeting to finish up some of the work we had to do before the end of the year and to see where we stand as far as the goals are concerned. We were happy to have this meeting right after Thanks Giving, because it gave us an opportunity to help people who didn't have as many reasons as we do to be thankful. We did all the work we were supposed to do, but had loads of fun while doing the work and in between. Here are some pictures of what we did.
* We sorted, paired and counted shoes. We are pleased to say that our final count was 112 pairs of shoes!!! We plan to take these shoes to the local Soles for Souls office as soon as we get our Christmas break.
* We sorted, folded and packed more boxes of clothes to send to Sri Lanka when we collect enough money to ship them. So glad that we reached our goal and a lot more!!!
* We also sorted the recyclables and packed them to be taken to reimagine recycling center when our parents have some time to take us. We separated the caps for Mrs. Sharmen Fernando to donate to the dialysis center.
* We sorted, paired and counted shoes. We are pleased to say that our final count was 112 pairs of shoes!!! We plan to take these shoes to the local Soles for Souls office as soon as we get our Christmas break.
* We sorted, folded and packed more boxes of clothes to send to Sri Lanka when we collect enough money to ship them. So glad that we reached our goal and a lot more!!!
* We also sorted the recyclables and packed them to be taken to reimagine recycling center when our parents have some time to take us. We separated the caps for Mrs. Sharmen Fernando to donate to the dialysis center.
8-27-2013-WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT REACHING OUR FIRST GOAL!!!!!! We shipped more than 20 cubic feet of gently used clothes to ST. Vincent De Paul Society of Galle, Sri Lanka today. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO DONATED CLOTHES AND SONALI AND HER "RECYCLE 4 SMILES" CHARITY FOR THE GENEROUS DONATION FOR THE SHIPPING COST. Also a BIG thank you to Mr. Don Gunawardena for giving us a discount on shipping cost and driving for 1.5hrs each way to pick up the boxes for free.