In the
summer of 2006 two members of the Bellevue Alumnae Chapter, Sorors Pauline
Hill and Regina Morton, traveled to Kenya with the
African American
Kenyan Women Interconnect (AAKEWO) . Upon returning Soror Hill shared her
reactions of the trip with the members of the chapter and recommended an
International Awareness Project to collect flip flops to place on the feet
of children in Kenya.
In October 2006, the
chapter kicked off the project with email, posters and word-of-mouth
communications throughout the Far West Region. With an initial goal of
collecting 500 pairs of flip flops, which the chapter exceeded in the first
month, the chapter went on to raise the bar for a collection of 1500. At the
close of the project in March, over 4000 flip flops have been collected!
This goal could not
have been accomplished without the assistance of many in the community and
Sorors from
Bellevue Alumnae, Tacoma Alumnae, Alaska Alumnae, Soror Robin Green,
who collected funds on
behalf of the Boeing Black Employees Association,
and members of First AME Church in Seattle!
The Bellevue Alumnae Chapter wishes to thank all who opened their hearts and
wallets to allow us to accomplish this mission.
Much of our desire to
take on this project were based on the presentation given to us by Soror
Pauline Hill at our chapter meeting. An Educator, with over 40 years in the
schools systems in South Carolina and Seattle, nothing is more important to
Soror Hill than students and their opportunity to learn. Please click on the
following links to read an excerpt from one of her works entitled
“...And yet they learn”.
