Paul’s Kids

Welcome to our FIRST college interns!

We are thrilled to have two amazing interns join our team. Connor and Liz are out of this world amazing, at least that's what they told us.

Meet Connor:

Connor is a senior marketing major at Temple University. He came to Temple University four years ago, will graduate on time, and was accepted into the business honors program. This program consists of incoming freshman who displayed academic promise in high school and are given the opportunity to participate in activities and clubs where they are expected to display our talents. He is expecting to graduate through the business honors program in May 2010. Academically he has succeeded, and is proud of his accomplishments.

Professionally and personally he has also continued to grow in his collegiate career. Professionally he has held a variety of positions: he worked as a sales/marketing intern at a software firm in the sales enablement space, as an intern at a IT research company, as a wrangler on a horse ranch in Colorado, as a ticket salesman at a box office, and as a maintenance worker at a state park. He has volunteered for many years with Catholic Charities helping with their toy drive for needy families. Connor is pleased to work at Paul's Kids and is very excited about this opportunity to use his marketing experience to help a very worthy cause.

Meet Liz:

Liz Vasek is a senior at Villanova University where she studies marketing and international business. As a freshman, Liz studied in London and interned at SPARKS, one of the largest children’s medical research charities in England. While at SPARKS, she contributed to the event planning, corporate sponsorship, and PR teams. Not only was she able to attend and assist at many of the organization’s fundraising events, but also to make hospital visits and see how the funds were used to better the lives of sick and disabled children. Last fall, Liz travelled to Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as nine other countries around the world. She visited an orphanage in Malaysia and was especially moved by the children’s spirits and the staff’s efforts to improve their lives. Her experience in Southeast Asia and her studies of women’s labor rights have truly opened her eyes to the conditions and realities in many developing nations; she hopes to pursue a career working for an NGO after graduating in May. Liz is very excited to join the PK team and to contribute her fundraising and marketing experience to Paul’s Kids.

We are so happy to have Connor and Liz on board!

Donation Dollars Help Save Four Precious Lives

Thanks to the generous donations to the Save-a-Life program four children received life saving heart surgeries during October 2009. The donations were monumental in granting, Hao, Binh, Huy, and Kim Ngan the ability to live a more full life.  

Hao is a 6-year-old boy who was born with congenital heart disease. He required an urgent surgery to live a normal life but the funds were not available to pay for the surgery. Hao had the surgery for the rare heart disease, Teratology of Fallot, at Tam Duc hospital. Your generous donations made it possible for Hao to have a second chance.  

   Binh is a 9-year-old boy, who--since birth--has suffered from Ventricular Septal Defect. It is a heart defect treatable with antibiotics or if severe, surgery. Due to many of the defect's side effects, Binh was never able to attend school. But, now, because of Save-A-Life donors, Binh can grow, learn, and live.
 

Huy is a 7-year-old boy who, like Binh, was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect at a young age. He lives with his grandmother and aunt, who did not have to money to pay for the expensive corrective surgery. Through donations, Huy received the necessary surgery October 13^th at Trieu An Hospital and was discharged 10 days later!  

Kim Ngan is a 7-year-old little girl who has suffered from a congenital heart defect called Atrial Septal Defect. She underwent surgery at Trieu An Hospital and was discharged October 29^th.  She is now doing well thanks to the wonderful donation dollars provided to the Save-a-Life program.  

All four of the children are doing well and are recovering quickly. The staff at PK would like to extend a great thank you to all of the donors. Your generosity has helped touch the lives of four more children and families. Your dollars give these children the chance to live a more full life. Please visit our website to read updates on more children that have been granted more life changing surgeries thanks to donor dollars. If you would like to donate please visit our donation site…every dollar counts!

Presenting Student Scholarships Once Again

At the end of September Paul was in Tho Thanh Village, Vietnam once again and presented over 130 students with scholarships for the 2009-2010 school year.  These precious children range from primary school to high school age.  Each sponsors generous gift gives the students an opportunity to learn, grow and have hope for a brighter future.  They are eager to do the best they can in their studies and make their families and sponsors proud.  Thank you to all the sponsors for making this another successful school year for the children!

 My name is Parsa Astaraei. I’m a Boy Scout in Troop 521 and will soon be an Eagle Scout. For my project to become an Eagle Scout, I planned a project that would help kids in an AIDS/HIV orphanage in Vietnam get badly needed school supplies.

First, I made flyers to hand out and asked my church and nearby stores for donations of basic school supplies. Then, I asked my troop to help me collect the donations at church every Sunday. When we had collected everything, Paul Pinkerton came to speak to my troop and some other friends and parents about Paul’s Kids. It was a great event. You can see in the pictures!

I really enjoyed doing my Eagle project because it was towards a good cause and it’s helping children have a better future. Hearing Paul speak really showed me how important it was for me to do this project and opened my eyes up to how much these children need our help. I really think what Paul and his organization does is necessary and important.

 

 

 

Paul's Kids Internship Opportunity

Paul’s Kids has an immediate opening for a part-time college intern in the Philadelphia area who wants hands-on experience working with a non-profit organization and its diverse board of directors. This opportunity is a great resume builder for someone interested in marketing, public relations, social networking, and campus outreach.

 

Please send inquiries to rebecca@paulskids.org

 

Thank you!

Thanks to Dale and Marcia Eadie for hosting the Riversharks Fundraiser on July 25th!

Ticket sales raised $250 for Paul's Kids and a great time was had by all!

Paul & Sandy

Riversharks Fundraiser: Saturday, July 25th at Campbell's Field, Cambden, NJ

We just received this note from a great Paul’s Kids supporter, Dale Eadie. Check it out and pass it along!

Hi, All!

Here’s Your Chance to Have a Fun Filled Evening and Help Paul’s Kids, too!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Marcia & I are organizing a fundraiser for Paul’s Kids at a Rivershark’s baseball game in the Campbell’s Field in Camden, NJ on Saturday, 25 July 2009, at 5:35 PM. You know that awesome baseball stadium that you can see from the Ben Franklin Bridge? And to make this event even more interesting to our group, the Camden Riversharks will be hosting the Lancaster Barnstormers!

And as if that’s not enough, a spectacular fireworks show will follow the game.

Anyway, all tickets can be purchased online (see the attached flyer detailing how to purchase your tickets so that Paul’s Kids will get credit: Download PaulsKidsRiversharksFundraiser) for $12.25/each ($11.00 + $1.25 service fee) at anytime before the game. However, I will also be bringing a limited number of pre-purchased tickets to the Vietnam Fellowship Picnic for just $11.00/each ($1.00 less than the regular price at the gate). Either way, for every ticket we sell to this game in our section, $5.00 will be donated to PaulsKids.org. 

If you have ever been to a Riversharks game then you don’t need me to tell you how much fun you are going to have and if you have never been then please take my word for it (and I don’t even consider myself a true baseball fan!) The Campbell’s field is a small enough stadium that every seat in the house is great. In addition to the usual baseball game type refreshment stands they have stores, a ‘fun zone’ filled with bouncing inflatables and a rock climbing wall ($5 for an evening pass) and a merry-go-round ($1/ride).

So if you are going to be around on the evening of July 25th, 2009, I hope you can join us. And by all means invite your family and friends, too to support this good cause.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me on my cell phone at: 856-625-5515.

We hope to see you there! :)

Sincerely,
Dale & Marcia

Pinkertons in Vietnam: Day 15

I just returned from Vinh City and Tho Thanh Village. Things went really well. I met with the People’s Committee and the School Board of Tho Thanh Village and they presented me with several project proposals, which are being reviewed for feasibility.
 
In Vinh City, I met with the director of CPFC, our partner in Nghe An Province. I’m happy to report that Paul’s Kids, in collaboration with CPFC, will sponsor ten heart surgeries in Nghe An Province, 20 heart surgeries in Ho Chi Minh City, and 10 eye surgeries over the course of the next year.
 
I re-visited the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Center in Vinh, where we sponsored the physical therapy exercise room and equipment last year. I would like to report that our money was very well spent. More than 80 patients a day use the equipment in this room. It has been a great success!
 
Thank You,
Paul

Pinkertons in Vietnam: Day 12

Today, I had some very important meetings. First I met with two nuns from Da Nang, who would like our help to renovate one of their rooms into a physical therapy room. They are drawing up an official proposal, and from there the Board will decide on how to best use our donors’ contributions. If we decide to take the project, I think it would be good because it would be a hands-on project that we could do with either of the two summer service experiences. Part of what they want is a mural, which would be great.

The second meeting was with the head nun at the orphanage for blind children. She presented me with a formal proposal, which I’ll be faxing to the Board for review later on today.

My last meeting of the day was with Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients (SAPP). They are the organization that we will partner with for surgeries. They also have programs for hearing, eye-problems, wheelchairs, and school and university scholarships. All of their programs are very good and run efficiently. There is a lot of oversight.

As of now this is what I think Paul’s Kids can do with SAPP for the coming year:

• Pay 40% of the cost of 20 heart surgeries, not to exceed $1,000 per patient.

• Pay for 10 eye surgeries at about $75 per each.

I’m really happy about these meetings and what it means for children in Vietnam. I would like to hit the ground running when I get home. We need to raise money. If anyone knows of anywhere I can go to put on a program for fundraising, please line me up!

Thank You,
Paul

Pinkertons in Vietnam: Day 9

Thanh (our Vietnamese staff person) and I got a lot done today. A local newspaper is doing a story about me and Paul’s Kids. So, we spent most of the day being followed by the newspaper reporter. We visited Go Vap orphange and took lots of great photos and we went to an orphange for blind children. I’m getting everything together that we need to do a project at the orphanage for blind children. I’ll keep everyone posted on the project proposal and the newspaper story that comes out in the local press.

Other than trying to stay dry during very heavy downpours of rain.