The One About the East Coast Trip

A lot can happen in two weeks. When Trish and I last spoke, she and Allen were just beginning their trip down the East Coast. That leg of the backpack trip is now complete and the truck was unloaded in Maryland on Monday the 14th. It was a fast journey without a lot of extra stops along the way.

Before any trip, Allen crunches the numbers to make sure the number of backpacks they will pick up will be in balance with the expense of traveling to the location. They stopped and collected boxes of backpacks in New Hampshire and in the Boston area. Then there weren’t any major stops until Maryland. In order to make things more efficient, they would love to see some expansion into Connecticut, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, since they're passing through those areas anyway. When they unloaded the truck in Maryland, they got a new, larger truck for the next leg of the trip.

They were able to attend church at Fredericktowne Baptist. Trish presented the kidnapping story in Sunday school. Allen spoke for a time during the worship service. After church, a potluck was held and there was a question and answer time for Trish and Allen.

Before leaving Maryland, Allen crunched more numbers to figure out if they have the right amount of stuff to fill each of the shipping containers. He calculated that they had too much stuff for the container in Maryland and not enough for the Florida container, so adjustments were made. When they set off for Florida, they took some boxes of backpacks along, to help even things out.

Allen and Trish stopped at the home of friends and supporters in Hampton Roads Virginia. A longtime friend of Trish’s got the private school where she teaches and the church she attends to participate in the backpack drive. 300 backpacks were collected, and were packed up into tightly-filled boxes, just the way they like to receive them!

Trish wants to stress that, while they can’t go far off their travel route to pick up one or two backpacks, they are happy to collect anything along their route. In North Carolina, they met one sponsor at a gas station to collect her items for the children she sponsors. They also met another sponsor at a truck stop right at the Florida/Georgia line, to collect one backpack.

Here we are in Jacksonville, with sponsor
Courtney Christian - one of the few stops where
we remembered to take a picture!

In Atlanta they collected backpacks for sponsored children, backpacks for non-specified children, and several boxes of mail from Manna 4 Lempira sponsors. Trish apologizes for the tight schedule, which kept them from being able to hang out and talk much, at each collection location. She even forgot to get pictures along much of this route!

They stopped in Jacksonville to pick up backpacks from three different people, and spoke to a small home-group meeting consisting of people who'd filled backpacks. They drove their very full truck to Edgewater, where a group of volunteers help unload and sort the collected boxes. There was time to spend a Sunday with the folks at Edgewater Alliance Church, before Trish and Allen headed off again.

They have one more leg of the trip remaining. On October 17th, they will fly to Gulfport, Mississippi and will do one last drive to pick up backpacks from Mississippi to Florida. They have several more spots to hit in Florida. They expect to be back in Florida on Tuesday evening.

 - posted by Christi