What we bring to Costa Rica

Written by matt haugen | 3:58 PM on January 30, 2012

As our team slowly trickled in to the Liberia International Airport, by dinner time on Saturday we were all present and accounted for. In addition to the 24 TCHFH volunteers on our trip, we also have a number of “guests” traveling with our group. We have been accompanied by 15 suitcases full of donated clothing (primarily children’s clothing) that made the trek from Minneapolis to Costa Rica. This clothing was collected by a volunteer from last year’s trip to Costa Rica.

Several months after returning from last year’s trip, Gretchen couldn’t get over how little many of the Habitat Costa Rican families had—especially in terms of clothing. Gretchen was determined to do something. Gretchen contacted me and floated the idea of organizing a clothing drive to benefit the Habitat families in Costa Rica. I loved the idea and after consulting with the Habitat staff in Costa Rica, we decided to go ahead with the clothing drive.

Earlier this fall Gretchen encouraged the members of the swim team she coaches in Minnetonka to drop off donations of clothing that would be given to children in Costa Rica. Gretchen knew that her swimmers would be excited about the idea but I don’t think even she was expecting the outpouring of support she received. Over several days Gretchen collected roughly 600 pounds of clothing.

I had initially envisioned a couple of suitcases worth of clothing that we would transport to Costa Rica. But when Gretchen dropped off the clothes at the Twin Cities Habitat office, I was overwhelmed. “How in the world would we get this much clothing to Costa Rica?” was my first thought. However, I knew this was a good problem to have. If we could simply figure out a way to get the clothes to Costa Rica, I knew that the clothes would be put to good use. After researching several options, we worked out a deal with a loyal Habitat supporter Delta Airlines. Delta agreed to cut the bag fees in half, enabling us to bring all 15 suitcases with us to Costa Rica.

I am excited to report that after overcoming a number of logistical hurdles, we are poised to drop the clothing off at a church near the build site where we will be working later this week. I look forward to the day when I return to this community to see a young Costa Rican proudly wearing his #33 Justin Morneau jersey.
–Jeff Smith, GV Team co-leader

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