Advice: Pack for a Purpose - Making a Difference, Five Pounds at a Time.
Connecting the dots and growing citizens of the world takes time, planning, and participation by every member of the family. It isn’t enough just to take your kids to interesting places and post smiling faces on Facebook. There needs to be a connection to the destination to make a lasting impression. Pack for a Purpose does just that.
Creating that link is easier than one might think. Several tour companies - Thompson Family Adventures, Intrepid, and Kumuka provide travelers with unique opportunities to visit locals often in remote or underserved areas. But is that enough? Recently I had the privilege of speaking with Rebecca Rothney, the founder of Pack for a Purpose a fledgling nonprofit that makes it easy to make a bigger difference.
The answer is in the numbers. According to Rebecca Rothney, a former North Carolina school teacher turned entrepreneur who founded Pack for a Purpose along with her husband, Scott and several friends, five pounds can be as much as 400 pencils or five deflated soccer balls. She recalled the first time they delivered supplies to a school in Botswana. She saw the kids playing soccer with a ball of rags tied together with string. It was an eye opener for her to realize just how few supplies some of the schools and clinics at their disposal. She also believes with a passion that each traveler can all find a little luggage space for a few much needed supplies. She knows the answer is in the numbers. If enough people make small contributions, there is the potential to make an enormous positive impact. For example: crayons, Band-Aids and similar items are items most Americans take for granted, but many people in more remote areas of the planet don’t have them. One corner of a suitcase can make a difference.
About Rebecca’s idea. Pack for a Purpose™ is dedicated to providing needed educational materials and medical supplies to children in places around the world. The organization was founded on the principal that every little bit helps and all it takes to get involved is to use a small amount space in your luggage for supplies when packing for a trip abroad. One of the first contacts Rothney established for the program was Michelle Puddu of Wilderness Safaris in South Africa. Rothney and her husband had personally worked with Puddu to bring many hundreds of pounds of school supplies to South Africa and Botswana over the course of several different trips.
“The idea is a brilliant one – it costs almost nothing on the part of the donor, just a great deal of kindness and a small amount of effort,” Puddu said. “Rebecca has proven on several trips how so very little can affect those who desperately need assistance to improve their lives. This is the type of goodwill that nobody really thinks about, but makes a big difference.”
Where to begin? Pack for a Purpose has identified more than 100 locations in popular tourist destinations in Africa, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The goal of the organization is to identify all appropriate locations on every continent and in every country where travelers are already vacationing and could easily drop off needed supplies. To help expand the list and make a greater difference Pack for a Purpose is asking for appropriate lodging and destination suggestions to be submitted at their website.
The concept is simple, and getting involved is easy. 
View participating locations by country and you will find lodgings around the world already supporting legitimate educational and medical community projects. Each participating member has submitted to the website specific needs based on the projects they sponsor. For example: I found one exceptional family adventure spot,
Yachana Lodge in Ecuador, an eco lodge in the Amazon basin is a participant. The short list is already set at www.packforapurpose.org Each listing on the Pack for a Purpose Website has been contacted about the program, has agreed to participate and will eagerly welcome all contributions.
“As word spreads and more travelers participate, we have the potential to deliver several tons of needed supplies each year directly to the people who need them.” Rothney said. “Everyone wants to make a difference, vacation travelers, honeymooners, families, and business travelers, and the Pack for a Purpose website will make it easy to contribute in a meaningful way.”
Make it happen. Check them out on
FACEBOOK. For more information about Pack for a Purpose, travel locations, lists of needed supplies and other ways to get involved, visit
www.packforapurpose.org or packforapurpose@gmail.com.
Content and images provided by Pack for a Purpose. Comments by Nancy Nelson-Duac, Editor FTF. Copyright 2011.
