In January 2020, my wife, Tonya, and I headed to Havana to celebrate our 30-year wedding anniversary. We wanted to make sure we added more purpose to our visit, especially given the many needs in Cuba, so we reached out to our friends Rebecca and Scott Rothney at Pack for a Purpose. Rebecca directed us to the projects supported by P2P, Pack for a Purpose’s first participant in Cuba. When we looked at P2P’s page on the website, we saw they were requesting medical supplies. Additionally, there was information about Orange County Not Just Tourists, a nonprofit that has partnered with Pack for a Purpose to provide individually curated suitcases of medical supplies.
OC Not Just Tourists sent us a large suitcase full of much-needed medical supplies requested specifically for the local pharmacy there, supported by P2P. All we had to do was pay the shipping costs (which were minimal) from California to our home. In this case, we even had the opportunity to deliver the suitcase ourselves.
Havana is a beautiful city full of vibrant, friendly people. Our time there was made more valuable and enjoyable by the simple act of “Packing for a Purpose.”