It was hot and humid but volunteers and people donating backpacks came out for a good cause: to support Mrs. Fedele's request to send backpacks with school supplies to children in China. It all started when she and Lieutenant Governor Fedele traveled to China last October and witnessed first hand the earthquake devastation.

 

Mrs. Fedele decided she had to do something to help. After speaking with Chinese school administrators, they decided that since they had received numerous donations already, that our donations would be best directed toward an orphanage that had not benefitted from any of the recovery efforts yet. Mrs. Fedele agreed.

 

With APAC-CT on board as project partners, Mrs. Fedele hosted a press conference in May to coincide with May being named by Governor M. Jodi Rell as Asian Cultural Awareness Month.

Working with the Grace Children's Foundation in New York City, Executive Director Nancy Robertson matched us with an orphange her organization works with. With the Asian Pacific American Coalition of Connecticut (APAC-CT) on board and wholeheartedly supporting our efforts, we collected more than 265 backpacks full of school supplies and books to be sent to the children.

 

With the generous efforts and donations from Stamford-based Conair Corporation, their shipping broker and trucking company, the truck showed up on Hartford's Riverfront Plaza promptly at 5:00 p.m. to pick up the packed boxes.

Joanne and Jeff Hong, mother and son owners of Hontek Corporation were tremendous help: as a shipping company based in South Windsor, Connecticut, they donated their shipping expertise, boxes and packing supplies. Working together with shipping experts at Conair, the Hongs, APAC-CT and other volunteers were able to package everything to shipping standards that meet Customs and Chinese government expectations.