Dominican Starfish Foundation making a difference in the Dominican Republic--January to March 2015.

1. DOMINICAN STARFISH
FOUNDATION
REPORT
1st Quarter, 2015

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

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

4. Facebook Message, March 22nd
Hi everyone, hope all is well. We are getting snowed on again
here on the East coast. I'm writing to share some exciting
news. Claire and I have been talking with family and friends
about our experience in January. We were invited to do a
presentation at my youngest son's elementary school. Claire
was wonderful at helping the kids try to relate their own
experiences here to what they were learning about from us.
We have talked lots about Kates school. As a family, we have
been in contact with Kate and have started sponsoring Chene,
one of the older students that Kate has been caring for. We
are sending monthly support as well as small gifts and needed
supplies occasionally. We feel very privileged to be able to
have a positive impact on this way. I wanted to let you know
that the Foundation has connected us to a culture,
community of people and purpose that we are proud to know
and contribute to. Love to all, Jill and family

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

12. ILP (International Language Programs) joins in a partnership
with Dominican Starfish Foundation to bring an English program
to 3 schools in the Dominican Republic.
Directors, Casey Glade and Jared Hansen came and spent two
days with us. We visited the schools and made all the
arrangements with the schools. Approximately 350 children will
be enrolled in an 8 year English program.
Our commitment to the program will be to furnish 5 apartments
for 24 teachers. These apartments will be used for many years.
ILP will have all the ongoing expenses.

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

14. We hosted 8 university students who helped with various
projects including medical, dental screenings, food pack
deliveries and hospital visits. They really enjoyed their
stay. With the hard work of Kari Lock and Sandra Nelson,
health charts were made for nearly 200 students at Kate’s
and Jose Fernandez’s schools.
The students are already planning a trip to return during
reading week next year to help again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

21. After many delays and set backs, the library in El Estrecho is underway.
We were privileged to see the progress on it only 2 days before we left to
come home. Now the first floor is on and the bricks are up to the roof on
the second floor.

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

23. Frank lives near the school where Kate Bateman is the director. He met her and
offered his help to her day or night with anything she needs. He is very kind.
The very last night of the trip, Frank called
Louise at 10:00 at night to say that he had
found a possible home for us to purchase for
Kate. At 10:45 pm, 5 of us went to see the
home. It could have worked. Then we found
out that the family was losing the home for
$3000 US to a creditor. They had 3 days before
they would be put out on the street.
None of us felt good about buying it. We
decided that we would try to raise the money
very quickly so the family wouldn’t lose their
home. The next morning at breakfast the
group asked Louise what had happened with a
home for Kate. She shared the story with the
group and the money was quickly donated.
What a tremendous blessing.
A few days later, Amarilis and other foundation
members in the Dominican were at the lawyers
office signing papers for the home.

24. More friends made on the
resort = another home.
We met Sam and Jayleen Wycherly last year
in the Dominican. This year they asked if
they could sponsor a family for a home.
They have chosen the Almonte family

25. • Funds have been raised for a bedroom for Anny, the girl with HIV. This will be the next project
to be done after the library. These funds were raised by 3 Edmonton Seniors.
• Funds are being raised for Yanira’s home. Plans are to start that one after the bedroom is
built.
• Funds continued to be raised for a home for Kate. We are looking for land or for a home that
can be purchased and fixed up.
• Work continues on Luis Miguel and Katherine’s home as funds become available.
• Fundraising continues on a home for Berto. Pearl and Lynn Giles from Utah will be coming in
July to help build the home. They are raising the funds for this project.
• Funds for a home for Esperanza continue to be raised by Chris and Stephanie Clark from
Oregon. Projected time is also July.
• Louise will be hosting dentists again in July.
• We continue to raise funds for furnishing the apartments for the English teachers. Kari and
Lorren Lock are our contacts on the ground there helping to put everything together for that.
• All of the homes listed on our recent newsletter for sponsorship have been chosen.
• We logged 1744 service hours for our combined activities in the Dominican, January 11-