Dominican Starfish Foundation Picture Presentation of our mission, vision, goals and accomplishments. Thanks to all who have helped and support.

3. FOOD

4. From January 2011 to June 2015 we have
donated money to help feed the children in
two schools in the Dominican Republic.
300 hungry children are fed one meal a day in
in these two schools
in the Dominican Republic.

5. Delivering Food Packs February and
November 2011

6. Delivering food packs during flooding of 2012

7. Delivering Food Packs November 2013 and February 2014

8. February 2012, we bought and prepared
pasta for 300 children. This event was
repeated December 2014
Our grandchildren
then gave away
toys that they had
brought from
home to all the
Dominican
children.

9. December 2013 we had a one week donation drive to feed people Christmas dinner.

10. Our foundation in the Dominican ended up feeding Christmas dinner to a whole community of people in a
settlement called La Chocolatera. There were 169 people there for the dinner plus 40 others who had come
to help. We don’t have pictures of the event because it was too dark to get pictures. These pictures were
taken when we went to see the area in February 2014.
We delivered food packs and hygiene kits to the residents of this community. 169 squatters live in the
framework of an old chocolate factory. In the first picture you can see the shacks they have built. Five families
also live in the top part. The big yellow building is where dinner was served.
Two different groups
delivered food packs to the
very poor in this area.

11. A group of Volunteers from Color My World, joined with Dominican Starfish Foundation to feed 100 hungry
children in the school in Maggiolo, Febraury 2014. Maggiolo school was the one we built. When given a chance
to talk about their day (we did many fun activities with the children) each of them as they held up their hand to
speak, thanked us for the food. We fed them again in June with the dentist families who came to do free dental
work. We have repeated this event serveral times.

12. For the second year (2014) we have helped raised money to feed people
Christmas dinner. This was spurred on this year by a lady named Pauline
from Ontario who got the number for the foundation and called to ask how
she could help. Every Christmas Amarilis tries to do a pasta dinner for the
children and help others as well. Pauline donated the money for the Pasta
dinner and helped Amarilis serve to 500 children. The other money that was
raised bought food packs for those in most need and also helped with
Christmas dinner for our workers. Generous donations helped us raise
$1500 in less than a week.

13. Because of kind
sponsors, we are able
to help some very
needy families with
food on a monthly
basis.

15. Originally we passed out clothing in the communities and to the workers at the resort.

16. In 2012 we built a distribution center
where clothing could be left and
passed out year round.

20. Top left—shipping container
Top right—inside the container
after half of the shoes and
clothes were distributed
Bottom left- Volunteers inside the
distribution center

24. Maria
and
Albania
We met Maria and Albania in February of 2012 when we
were distributing shoes in Maggiolo. Albania asked us if
we could help her mother get a new leg. Through
research we were able to find a connection through the
LDS Church and Orthopedic Innovations that donated a
prosthesis for Maria. We made all the arrangements, paid
for food and travel and she received her new leg June 28th
2012.
Later we selected them to receive a new home because
where they were living made it impossible for Maria to
walk and because they were in dire need.
They recently moved into their new home. The majority
of the funds for this building were donated by Donella
Sewell of Cochrane, Alberta. Donella and her family
through our foundation have been helping to feed the
family and have helped Albania with upgrading her
schooling.

31. We chose to build a home for this young family because they are doing so much to help
themselves and others. Their home was in a dangerous situation. The foundation was
crumbling and the home was falling down the hill. Neighbors had come to the rescue
late one evening as a side of their home fell away.
Funds for this home were donated the
Kilgor Family through Color My World.
The group came and helped with the
building of this home. Because of the
location of the home, 350 buckets of dirt
had to be hauled by hand up the hill by
hand to fill the floor of the home.

32. BIERCA LOPEZ PICHARDO and family
Bierca and her family of five children lost their home to fire on February 21st, 2014. They lost everything
that they owned except the clothing on their backs. Initially our foundation provided clothing for the family.
We received donations to rebuild a home for them from the Oaks and ZoBell families. Construction is
currently in progress.

33. When Jose and his family had a new
addition, our foundation offered to
build a room onto their home.
Few, if any have given more service in
the community than Jose. He is
constantly volunteering his time for
foundation projects.
The funds for this
home were donated
by an anonymous donor.

34. Sandra Nelson, her family and friends chose
this family from a group of pictures send to
them by our director Amarilis Urena in the
Dominican Republic.
The new home includes a little grocery store
operated by the grandma
The home was torn down by a group from
Ayuda foundation on June 19th 2014. Two
months later the family moved into their
beautiful new place.
Oliver, Julie and their 3 children
and grandma Rosa live in this
home.

35. There are many people living in this very small home.
Several of the family has degenerative kidney disease. 3 are
on dialysis.
Only one man has a job to try to support the entire family.
His job is to fix fans. He doesn’t even make enough to feed
everyone.
One son of the family was so excited that his parents were
getting a home that he borrowed money from the back to
add additional funds to make the home even nicer.
Jacinto, Lina, Ana Marie
and family
Funds for this home were raised byKara Werner, Judy
Alverez, Mette Edwards and Rebecca Alverez from
Calgary

36. Elvis and Julia Elvis is a carpenter. He builds the doors and windows
for the homes we make in the Dominican Republic.
They were living in a desperate situation with their
little son (age 4) and Julia’s 2 brothers.
Their sponsor, Toni ZoBell from Lethbridge Alberta
sold her retirement property in Nicaragua and
donated the money to build a home for this family.
Their lives are changed forever!

37. Leonida Leonida is an 18 year old mother of 3 in the Dominican
Republic. She lives in desperate poverty. Zoe (12) and
Gemma (9) Palmer from Edmonton, Alberta have watch as
their parents and grandparents have worked with the
Dominican Starfish Foundation to build people homes.
They set their goal in August of 2014 to build a home and
in fact a whole community before they graduate
highschool. Leonida was the person they picked to help
first.
On January 14, 2014 they took Leonida by the hand and
show her the new home that they and others had raised
money to build.

38. Cathy Simpkins went to the Dominican Republic with a
group from Edmonton in February of 2014. The raised the
money to build a home. While there, she took this picture
of a random child while walking through Javillar. She posted
this on facebook. Another lady, Helen from the US saw this
and asked who the little child is. Louise was visiting one day
at one of the homes we built and saw the little girl. She
immediately went to find out more about her. Louise and
Amrilis visited the home and found very, very sad
conditions.
Yokayla, Abyiana and family

39. Vitico and familyThe funds for this home were raised by an anonymous family for a Christmas gift. Vitico and
his wife have 5 children. He is a construction worker and helped with many of our homes.

40. Kelvin and Lilly Almonte
Kelvin has a job driving a motor-bike taxi.
They have three children.
Many times they have had no money to feed
their family. When we first when to their
home, there was no food to be found.
They were paying rent on a small, crowded
home with often no money to pay the rent.
When Bob and Lisa Hunter from
Edmonton, Alberta visited the Dominican
Republic, they met the Almonte family. A
connection was made, their “starfish” was
chosen and they worked very hard for
many months to raise the money for this

41. Berto, Pedro and Pedrito Berto (89) his son Pedro and grandson
Pedrito were living in these deplorable
conditions when Amarilis (our Dominican
director found them.
Lynn and Pearl Giles from Utah (Pal
Humanitarian) put together a group, went
to the Dominican and helped to build this
home.
Unfortunately Berto passed away before he
could move in.

42. Luis Miguel, Katherine and family
Luis and Katherine and their two children shared a small
bedroom in their parent’s home. They are a young
couple trying to get ahead. They have been extremely
helpful in helping Dominican Starfish Foundation in the
Dominican Republic
Joan and Bruce Harker headed up the fundraising for
this home and many, many people have donated to
make this happen.
Our home building criteria is:
• To help those with no
other options,
• To help those trying to
help themselves
• To help those who serve
others in the community.
This young couple have been
an amazing help and have
also contributed (borrowed)
funds for the building of
their home.

43. Antonio and Colasa Alverez and family
The home where Antonia and Colasa were living
with their three boys was falling down, leaking and
being eaten by termites.
The funds for this home were donated initially by
Color My World with Angela Hughes.
When we changed our construction to all
cinderblock to make the homes last longer,
addition funds were donated by Lynn and Pearl
Giles (Pal Humanitarian) and Bonnie ZoBell.

44. Upon seeing the need in the Dominican in
November, we posted a small online fundraiser
for this project. The money was raised in a couple
of days, thanks to a few generous people. The
floor was poured in early December. Our
foundation also provided walls in her home. Life
has truly changed for Rosi.

45. In March 2015 when Frank
took us to look at a home to
possibly purchase for a family,
we found a family of six who were
losing their home to a creditor for
$3000, 3 days from that time.
Instead of purchasing the home,
we were able through kind
donors able to quickly raise the
money and help the family save
their home.

46. When Gloria Strachan, Jeannie Hare and Margaret Peacock came to the
Dominican in November, they fell in love with the people. They
particularly felt drawn by Anny’s story. She is a young 15 year old girl
with a serious health condition. She has been living in an institution but
now she must leave because of her age. These 3 generous grandmas
have gone back to Edmonton area and started raising funds for Anny to
have a new room built on the top of her father’s home.
As of Jan 1st 2015

47. We paid the rent for a year on their building. We have
also provided food, clothing and sanitary supplies.

49. June 2014 we raised funds to buy a
new fridge for the Seniors’ Home
We took a group of about 15 youth and a
few adult volunteers and washed the feet
of all the residents. Our foundation is
taking meals to the men there are well.

51. Dominican Starfish Foundation believes in the importance of
education. We continue to provide school supplies and learning
materials to several schools in the Dominican Republic.

52. In November 2012 we learned that the school in Maggiolo had become unsafe
for the children to attend. Our foundation made a commitment to rebuild the
school. The work was done quickly and the grand opening was less than two
months after start.
Not only would we make the
school safe but children who could
only look on would be able to
attend.

55. Grand opening of the school January 2rd, 2013

56. In 2015 we partnered with ILP (International Language
Programs) to bring English teachers to teach the
children in the Dominican Republic. This program will
be on-going. As a foundation we set up apartments for
24 teachers to live. The volunteer teachers come for 4
months at a time, followed by another group.
They started teaching children at age 3 and continue
the program for 8 years. New students will start each
year.
The program started in May of 2015.

58. We currently have a small scholarship program for university students in
the Dominican Republic. Our main focus is to sponsor parents who are
trying to create a way of earning income for their families.
To qualify, students must be in a recognized school with a definite program.
We require reports each semester from the students and receipts and
accounting from tuitions.
As funds continue to grow in our foundation, scholarship programs and
requirements will increase.
At present we have 4 people receiving scholarships to attend university.

59. We have raised $16000 to construct the Luis Antonio Jaquez Cruz memorial library. This library will service
two communities of 6000 people. Below are the blueprints. Construction begins in June, 2014. The library
will be owned and operated by the communities of El Estrecho and Luperon. This will be built with
volunteer labor under the direction of our project manager.
Proposed Blueprints In honor of this man
Ground-breaking June 19, 2014 with
Angela Hughes of Color My World,
the widow and Louise ZoBell of
Dominican Starfish Foundation

60. Unemployment abounds in the Dominican Republic. A huge
percentage of the people have no work, no skills for
employment and no hope.
A huge percentage of the people in the Dominican live in
poverty.
Our foundation goals are two-fold:
 Provide vocation training opportunities
 Train and employ workers to help in our
home building projects

61. Workers who built the school
In addition to thousands of hours of
donated service, we are happy to be
helping to support 10 families with
employment.

62. Eliezer Gardner before and after
14 month old, Eliezer was burned
in March of
2011 over 90% of his body.
Without medication and surgery
his life would have ended. We
raised $4200.
Eddy Morrobel and
his wife were both in
this accident. She was
not hurt badly but Eddy
had life-threatening
injuries. We raised $1600
to help with his surgery
Medical Emergencies and Assistance.
Several donations through our foundation has saved or greatly improved the quality of
life to the recipients in the Dominican Republic.

63. We raised $1800 to pay for cancer
surgery for Xiomara Torres—a young mother of
four. The surgery was successful and doctors are
hopeful
for a complete recovery.
Money for this surgery was raised by a
widow in Canada. Upon seeing the
situation, she returned to Calgary and
sold items from her home to pay for
the surgery.
Jaun Pablo Padilla was in an accident ten years ago and
hasn’t walked since. A doctor offered to do a surgery
free for him this year if he could come up with $300 for
food and transportation to the capital city of Santo
Domingo. He is extremely poor and there was no
possible way for him to come up with this kind of money.
We were able to donate the money to help give him his
life back.

64. We raised money to pay for formula and
medical expenses for quadruplets
Born in the Dominican Republic.
We regularly take supplies to the public
hospital to assist in helping those who
are impoverished.

65. In December 2014, we heard the story of 17 year old Patricia, her
motorbike accident and her nine surgeries (followed by
amputation). We chose to help her as a Christmas Fundraiser.
We raised the money and she got her new leg in March.
In July we treated her to a one night stay at the resort to
celebrate her 18th birthday.

66. After meeting this young 13 year old boy, Darlin Jose, in June 2015, we were, along with
Dominican Starfish USA, able to raised the money needed to help him have surgery. He
was born with a condition that the circulation didn’t go to the end of his foot. He has
had a successful surgery.

67. We hosted 8 university students who helped with various
projects including medical, dental screenings, food pack
deliveries and hospital visits. They really enjoyed their
stay. With the hard work of Kari Lock and Sandra Nelson,
health charts were made for nearly 200 students at Kate’s
and Jose Fernandez’s schools.
The students are already planning a trip to return during
reading week next year to help again.
University of Lethbridge, Pre-Med Team February 2015

69. In June, 2014 and July 2015 our foundation hosted Ayuda Humanitarian. The group
consisted of 70 people including dentists, hygienists, and their spouses and families.
They did over 600 appointments in the week they were there. They also participated
is 5 additional service activities.

70. After taking shoes to this baseball team,
the children asked if we could help them get a
back-stop. Because of the great initiative they
have shown, (even using their meager lunch
money to help) we agreed to help them with
this project.
With uniforms and equipment supplied by Ayuda
Humanitarian and Dominican Starfish Foundation
Baseball is the
national sport in
the Dominican.
We supply
several teams
with shoes,
uniforms and
equipment

71. Gary Weller from Sherwood Park started a collection last year of donations of
baseball equipment for the Dominican Republic. We also had a collection here
and took 13 duffle bags of baseball equipment and uniforms with us this trip.
The Wellers spend a day on January 24 delivering to 10 different teams in the
Dominican. They were there also as part of building the Almonte home.

72. Maria, Rebecca and Jerson
Maria, her son, Jerson
and her daughter,
Rebecca live in great
poverty in the
Dominican Republic.
They have been
sharing one small bed
for the past 11 years.Marilyn Bennion and family from Calgary chose to
raised funds for them. Also helping is Kara Werner
and Paula Lythgoe. There home is being eaten by
termites.