The SCAW team met with Dr. Ito Torres and his outstanding team of Overseas Volunteers in Antipolo City, just outside Manila on Sunday afternoon. They proudly showed us how they were packing the 27 items (59 pieces) into each bedkit and the high quality of each item. All of the bedkits were packed in exactly the same manner by a group of young men who were proud to be part of the SCAW team. They then showed us the two two-story houses where they were storing the 6,000 bedkits. The compact bedkits filled every room and will be transported to the distribution sites over the next two weeks, starting tomorrow morning in Brookside.
Dr. Ito Torres and his wife Alice kindly opened their own home to host the organizational meeting for the distributions. Military operations have seldom been organized with better precision and attention to detail. During the meeting he reviewed the criteria that he follows for selecting organizations to work with in the Philippines and how he wanted them to select the needy children who would receive a bedkit. It was as if the great man, Murray Dryden, himself were talking when he was speaking. It was a singular pleasure for us to hear his philosophies about SCAW and the sincerity of his and his team's work.
Afterward Dr. Torres and Alice treated the team to an authentic Filippino meal of traditional foods and delicacies for which we were most thankful. Dr Ito showed us how to peel sun-ripened mangos for dessert and Alice generously provided us with goody bags, including maps of central Luzon Island where we will be doing the 19 distributions.
We and the SCAW donors are certainly blessed to have such a wonderful team of Overseas Volunteers in the Philippines who have done everything possible to keep Murray's dream thriving.
The SCAW Philippines 2011 Team
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