Grand North American Backpack Collection Tour of 2017

Allen and Trish are on the move and will be for the next ten days. Talking to Allen reminded me of listening to a meteorologist tracking Santa Claus’s path on Christmas Eve.

On the day we spoke, Allen was on the east coast, but was about to fly to Colorado. Trish was about to board a plane for Denver, Colorado, herself. The plan is for them to meet up and start the first leg of their journey in a rental car. The car will later be traded in for a rental truck to accommodate their precious cargo.

Denver Airport

The first stop will be to meet up with some of Trish’s (and my!) longtime online friends. You see, we first “met” in an online homeschooling forum. It’s not as weird as it sounds. I consider Trish to be a very dear friend and we’ve never set eyes on each other in person. Allen and Trish will even be staying in the home of one of these lovely, hospitable women.

After that, they will rent the aforementioned truck and begin picking up filled backpacks. On September 14, they will picking up more than 500 backpacks. Seventy of those are for sponsored kids and the rest will go to children who are not yet sponsored. They’ll toss those into the truck and head to Kansas!

Personalized backpacks, labeled for specific sponsored children

The first of the backpacks, loaded onto the truck in Colorado Springs.
Thanks Autumn and Monica, for heading this up!

In Derby, Kansas, they’ll be picking up 160 backpacks. They will be speaking at the Well Worship Center, in Derby, on Sunday the 17th. They will be also be meeting some supporters in Holton, Kansas, while they’re in that neck of the woods.

Backpacks filled by The Well Worship Center, Derby Kansas

From there, they are going to the Columbus, Ohio area. They are scheduled to pick up 200+ backpacks. Half of those are for sponsored kids, and the other half are for unsponsored children.

In the Pittsburgh area, they will be meeting sponsors who have packed some 200 backpacks. Then they’ll head east of Pittsburgh and enjoy some time with Annette Merlino. Miss Annette is the amazing dentist who makes an annual trek to Honduras with dental students to operate dental clinics.

Then, Allen and Trish will be heading back to Maryland, where they will have a big unloading party with the boxes of backpacks. They will label which church packed the backpacks. Keeping them separate allows them to give comparable bags to each child at a location. A bunch of people from Fredericktowne Baptist Church and Potomac Believers Fellowship will help pack the bounty of backpacks on Saturday the 23rd. Allen spoke there a few days prior to our conversation.

And that will complete the Grand North American Backpack Collection Tour of 2017 !
***Note from Trish - as might have been expected, the reality of this trip, so far, has not been exactly like the plan. The "Reality" version of the trip can be read in the next post, LOL*** - posted by Christi