A few months before my departure from the states, I got in contact with a girl from my temple, Katie Gelman, who has her own local project of distributing stuffed animals to children in hospitals. Katie and I were put into touch after she found my brothers non-profit organization's website. She fell in love with the work my brother was doing abroad and contacted him, asking if there was anyway he would be able to bring what she does in the states to countries abroad. Katie's timing was perfect; I volunteered to bring down a huge suitcase of stuffed animals. I was so happy to have the opportunity to help Katie and her project out. What she does is amazing; the distributions of stuffed animals to little kids can go so far, and in Panama City, it did. We were able to locate a great children's hospital. We talked with the director and asked if I would be able to come in and distribute the stuffed animals to the admitted children. I can't tell you how rewarding it was to be able to hand these kids the stuffed animals. I didn't need to speak Spanish to know that they were thankful and extremely happy to have this new companion. 


I urge you to watch this one minute video to see the smiles for yourself. I just want to give a big thanks to Katie for making this all happen. It wasn't just rewarding for the kids, but for me as well, and I'm extremely thankful.