I will be brief, but I am completely overwhelmed by the generosity of the FileMaker community. Let me explain. 3 months ago a team from FMWebschool traveled to Costa Rica to work with developers at a local university. This has not been an easy trip for any of us. Our office overlooks a small town where people live in small shacks and the children are dirty and sleep on dirt floors. Our office is in where most of the Expats live - in Escazu, but yet poverty surrounds us.
One of our employees, Helga, a graduate student in computer science showed me some dolls she was making for the children at the local hospital. Every day after work this young lady spent hours making dolls to give to the children at Christmas. This amazed me. This young woman, instead of doing the things that most people her age do during the week and weekends, she sacrificed her time to create something with her own hands that a child would truly treasure. I decided that we needed to give back as well, that we needed to make a contribution, we wouldn't wait for the opportunity, we would make it happen. FMWebschool announced a holiday sale, and for every person that participated in the sale, we would give 10% of the money to the children's hospital. On top of that we would give another $1000.00. The response from the FileMaker community has been amazing. At the same time, we met one of the families near our office. The father a taxi driver works 12 hours a day and they have 3 daughters, 10, 12 and 14. They live in a two bedroom shack with a dirt floor to sleep on. The three children in one small room and the mother and father in another. The mother is now 5 months pregnant with twins, and they desperately need beds and a room. Here is the part that is amazing. From the sales, and from the contributions made at http://tinyurl.com/745zge we will be able to buy over $1500 dollars in clothes, books and toys for the children's hospital! I spoke earlier about Helga and her making these dolls with her own hands instead of buying them. This spoke me as profound, because we hardly ever create anything with our own hands. So, we have decided to take the remainder of the money that we received from the holiday sale to build a room for Carlos and his children. The money will go to buy the tools and the materials that they need, as well as cribs for the new babies and beds for the children. I will take plenty of pictures for everyone. I want everyone that contributed to actually see how your generosity changed the lives of many. To say that this has not touched me, that this has not brought me to tears would be a lie. I am so excited to be able to help these people and the children. Christmas to me had become just another holiday, another day to go shopping with the masses. I realize that I had become cynical and jaded, the holidays had become overly commercialized. Yet, it is truly amazing that something so simple as seeing a young woman so selflessly give of her time to create something for someone else to help me realize what Christmas is truly about. So, thank you once again to everyone that participated, or to those of you that simply made a contribution. You are part of a story that has changed peoples lives. Once again the FileMaker community has pulled together to make something wonderful happen! We will be traveling to the children's hospital on Tuesday to bring them their gifts, and we will make the announcement to the family that they will have beds, clothes and a new room for their children on Wednesday. I will be adding a page to our website to thank each person individually and to tell the story in video and pictures. If you would like to donate any amount of money before Tuesday, please feel free through paypal at [email protected] please let us know in the notes section that you are making a contribution. The Holiday Special is another way to contribute as well - http://www.fmwebschool.com/holiday.php If you are a third party vendor and would like to contribute in some way, let me know. I will make sure everyone is recognized for their contribution. Thank you everyone and Happy Holidays! In Kindness Stephen Knight http://www.fmwebschool.com FileMaker Hosting Made Easy http://www.fmgateway.com
