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Hi everyone,

Last year many of you here helped with a Christmas campaign (this thread).

As usual, our Mail has set up the "Adopt a Santa Claus letter"
http://www.correios.com.br/papainoelcorreios2011/
also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/papainoeldoscorreios

This year again I organized a 2nd hand CD auction and people were amazingly generous - the CDs sold at an average price of US$30! We collected a lot of money from that. We have already selected 60 letters for starters and began buying their presents today. The school from which we got the letters have some kids with mental disabilities, so it is very comforting to know we will make them happy this Christmas. We hope to buy most of the presents tomorrow and if possible get more letters from the Mail along this week - their deadline is Dec 9th, so we don't have much time.

Anyway, last year many of you contributed for the campaign, but in the end we ran out of letters and the money was spent in a créche in a slum near our office. When we visited it last year, we were enchanted by the good, loving work they do with those kids. I was wondering if you guys would like to help them again this year. I am going to contact the girls there and see what we can arrange.

I won't be collecting any money right now, I just want to know if people will join me again. I totally understand if you don't, and I'm sure you will help other charities, which is what matters in the end.

count me in again...

Patrick H.

Maria, I would love to help out again.  In fact, I have been waiting for you to post about this. 

Thanks for all who have already jumped in. Money can be sent to my PP or MB accounts - both _adelaidebs_at_hotmail_dot_com_.  PM me when you make the transfer, so I can check these accounts and acknowledge the donations.

I'm looking forward to doing this again. Seeing the smiles on the kids' faces is worth all the trouble!

Wow, you're fast! 

You guys are awesome. 

Count me in!
 

Ouch, PP is charging fees for these transfers. Thanks Lisa for the alert. They don't show that on the main page, only when we see the balance report it is shown. Around 8%.

Is there any way to avoid this in the future? Is it a matter of the account type you have vs what I have?

Perhaps, I am not very knowledgeable about their fees, but anyway 8% seems a very high bite! Greedy people.

Madelaide  - PP doesn't allow Personal transactions to Brazil from my spot on the globe, but Purchase worked.  "Adopt a Santa Letter" smiles - Ann

Guys, update.  I received a total of US$128.74 and EUR92.25, after the fees. There will be fees once I withdraw this money, but I'll put that on my side.  So roughly I have a budget of US$250 or R$454.

Today I bought the presents to 11 girls and 27 boys (photos attached) and we have 7 other girls who will get Barbie canteens that we received as a bonus gift from Mattel for buying Barbies to the Mail's Santa. The toys I bought costed R$403, so there is a balance I will use for some educational toys they asked me to use in the créche itself (toys with numbers and alphabet, puppets, educative songs CDs, etc). Should anyone else join this effort, that's where I will put the money into.

We will hire Santa using the Mail's Santa balance, which will also be used to help a shelter for children with cancer that come for treatment in Rio. They already have toys for the kids's party, but need extra nutrition stuff such as Sustagen for their daily meals.

The créche party will be on Friday and I intend to attend it. I'll keep you posted, and once again thanks Lisa, Patrick, Michael and Ann for helping this.

What a beautiful picture of a precious, happy little boy! 

Thanks so much for sharing the story and photos with us and allowing us to be a small part of your wonderful charity work.  You are awesome Maria! 

Two more pics. There are so many, so delightful! One is of one of the little kids in tears with Santa, so cute!

You will see "your" kids tomorrow.