Cruise 4 Haiti volunteer outreach cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas delivers final shipment of aid.

After many hundreds of hours of work – mission accomplished!

This morning the remaining 5 pallets of donated items for the “For Haiti With Love” orphanage have been delivered to the Royal Caribbean site in Labadee, Haiti.

The pallets contain Cholera meds and numerous donations that will help bring the holidays to the orphans served by the For Haiti With Love projects in  Cap-Haitien Haiti.

Volunteers from For Haiti WIth Love offload 5 pallets of supplies at their headquarters

Summary of Cruise4Haiti outreach: a voluncruise story.

Over 30 humanitarian travelers joined the Cruise4Haiti on Royal Caribbean International’s Liberty of the Seas sailing roundtrip from Miami on Nov. 14th, 2010.

Cruise4Haiti’s many accomplishments included:

• With the help of Royal Caribbean, delivered 6 pallets of aid to Haiti to benefit For Haiti With Love’s medical clinic, orphanage and food bank projects in Cap-Haitien. Brought donations of food, medicines, school supplies, individual gift bags and 200+ personalized cards, toys, sports equipment, and clothing for 50 orphans and more than 500 needy children and their families. Our group was the first cruise passenger group to assist For Haiti With Love’s projects.
• Delivered 33 individual Christmas gift bags, over 100 personalized cards, and over 120 pounds of clothing, toys, stuffed animals, school supplies, medicines, sports equipment and toiletries to the St. Maarten Orphanage & The I Can Foundation. Our group was the first cruise ship or airline group ever to visit the orphanage. One group member is beginning the adoption process for one of the young children. In addition, our visit forged connections for this orphanage that will result in future visits and aid.
• Delivered over 75 pounds of Christmas gifts, infant & toddler clothing, stuffed animals, toys, books, medicines and baby items to La Casa Cuna de San Juan Orphanage. Our group was the first cruise ship group to visit this orphanage.
• Held benefit concert for the entire ship and raised money for our charities.
• Raised over $5500 in cash donations for our two charities, Airline Ambassadors and For Haiti With Love.
• Raised over $25,000 in in-kind donations for Airline Ambassadors and For Haiti With Love.
• Generated well over 3 million impressions through articles, blog posts and social media – thus significantly increasing awareness of opportunities to give back on a cruise (voluncruising), the outstanding humanitarian work of For Haiti With Love and Airline Ambassadors, Royal Caribbean’s cruise options and its significant ongoing support for Haiti, and the continuing needs of the Haitian people.
• Created and executed a high-profile special event mission for Airline Ambassadors, resulting in the launch of a new line of outreach voluncruise service programs at sea.

The Cruise4Haiti was organized after January’s earthquake to raise awareness of Haiti’s needs and help children and families in Haiti and the Caribbean.

Nancy Schretter, Rich Tucker and Carrie Finley-Bajak say thank-you!

Youth Ambassador Sara, age 14, from Boulder, CO gives her report about Cruise4Haiti.

Sorting through massive amounts of donations on the cruise ship. We made gifts for kids in three orphanages during the 7-night cruise.

Today around the world people all over are trying to help with poverty and devastation.

Cruise4Haiti has teamed up with cruise line Royal Caribbean International to help raise funds for Airline Ambassadors and For Haiti With Love while bringing donations and aid to orphans in St. Maarten, Puerto Rico and Haiti for the holidays.

What most people see on the islands and experience on the ship is not what our group has been doing on this trip. When I think of a cruise I think of friends, different cultures and food. Along with these things, I also enjoy working and helping.

When people think of humanitarian trips they probably think of kids, desperate needs, and letting kids light up your face. But what they don’t think of is how much you are changing people’s lives. When I have gone to Haiti, I usually stay there for a few days so the kids are able to become more familiar with me.

Although on a cruise we are restricted by time constraints in the ports, a bright side to working on a tighter time schedule is being able to bring large amounts of goods to places with the idea that we can always  go back. Some downsides are you can’t really connect with the kids because you need to warm up to each other and you are making a difference but not in a huge way.

Overall as a first time cruiser and an experienced humanitarian worker, Cruise4Haiti has been very beneficial.

Special report from Youth Ambassador Sophia from Orange County, CA – age 12

Cruise4Haiti team sending off aid in Haiti

Cruise4Haiti Voluncruise report Day 7:

The Liberty of the Seas docked in Labadee, Haiti today. The Cruise4Haiti gang met and got off the ship to see our pallet of help for the For Haiti with Love orphanage. Although we could not get off the compound due to complications, we still were able to deliver aid. After we made sure the palates were in safe hands, everyone went off to explore the island. We walked to the edge of the island and I was awestruck. The views were amazing. We made our way down to the Dragon’s Tail roller coaster. We watched a short safety video and we were on our way. At the top, we rolled down the hill in the beautiful forest of Haiti. The views were spectacular. We turned quickly and had a huge adrenaline rush as we were going downhill. We got back on the ship and went to the Windjammer café were Chef Makers Academy was waiting for us. We booked a private group session were we were cooking foods from all around the world. We made the most delicious food I’ve eaten in a long time. The chef was super nice and donated a bunch of T-shirts for kids and gave us the class for half price. We were all stuffed and ready for bed after this busy day.

Day 8:

The final day on the ship! We slept in and relaxed for a while and then met together to recap and watch the slideshow of the whole trip. Dinner was very special because we celebrated Eva’s, the founder of For Haiti with Love, birthday. I will never forget this amazing cruise where I made tons of new friends and life changing experiences.

Hello Haiti – Cruise4Haiti group arrives in Haiti

Hello from the Cruise4Haiti team. We send off our medical supplies and donations to For Haiti With Love.

Today our Cruise4Haiti voluncruise will make our final port call in Labadee, Haiti. Royal Caribbean International’s Liberty of the Seas will arrive in Labadee around 11:00 a.m. today, November 19, 2010.

Our group consists of 31 people traveling to research outreach projects that can be developed for Airline Ambassadors. We are also delivering the holidays to Haiti through donations that have been collected and sorted onboard for distribution to orphans residing at the For Haiti With Love orphanage.  We are also delivering medical supplies to the only free burn clinic on Haiti, which is funded and staffed by For Haiti With Love.

These are our Xmas gifts for the kids. We had to wrap them for delivery via pallet due to unrest, which shut down our ability to leave the compound.

In addition, we have raised funds to help support the ongoing humanitarian projects already established in Haiti by Airline Ambassadors and For Haiti With Love.

Little Cruise Buzz bartering for some bracelets with a salesman from Haiti.

For more information about these two wonderful organizations, visit the Cruise4Haiti website at http://www.cruise4haiti.com/partners/non-profits/.

Due to civil unrest in Haiti, we have modified our plans for today.  Originally our group was granted permission to go off-site to do a site visit of the For Haiti With Love projects in the city of Cap-Haitien, not far from the port of Labadee.

Eva from For Haiti With Love sees one of her residents in the artists colony.

Instead, five members of the on-ground team in Haiti will meet us in the secured area of our Royal Caribbean International beach compound.  We will have our Cruise4Haiti delegation meet with three members of the For Haiti With Love orphanage and two members of the Airline Ambassadors Haiti outreach team.

What most people might not know is that we are cruising with the Founder of Airline Ambassadors, Nancy Rivard and the Co-founder of For Haiti With Love, Eva DeHart. We have accomplished a lot in terms of gathering information about sustainable tourism through the cruise industry.  It is our goal to establish programs to help communities that are affected by tourism within the cruise industry.

Our group is really excited to “hand-off the baton” (our donations) to the on-ground team in Haiti.

More posts from Cruise4Haiti:

• St. Maarten visit to I Can Foundation orphanage
• Cruise4Haiti journal

Our volunteer cruise continues….

by Little Cruise Buzz

The day at sea starts with workshops. Good info and time for homework.

My second sea day was spent learning, planning, and promoting.

At our first session, Eva Dehart, the founder of For Haiti with Love, spoke to us about her program. Nancy Schretter, from Family Travel Network, talked about voluntourisim and what a difference we were making.

Over 300 pounds of donated items for our visits.

We also sorted all of the donations brought for the trip and packaged it. The group started planning the logistics for our benefit concert. After dinner, I went to the hot tub that overlooks the ocean. It was full of peace and beauty.

Another member of our group with me dressed for the dance party.

To promote the benefit concert, Lady DaDa danced in the streets, and his Grand Promenade window, with the whole kooky Cruise4Haiti gang during Dancing in the Streets. We partied the night away, and I think tons of people are going to come to the benefit concert. To finish the night, we relaxed at a piano lounge, excited for our visit to our first orphanage.

Day 5:

One of the amazing children at the I Can Foundation in St. Maarten

St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles is a beautiful city. When we arrived at the I Can Foundation’s orphanage, we were greeted with excited children. They were all so adorable and happy to have visitors. After a tour and time to play with the children off all ages, we started to hand out the gift bags.

So many happy children getting a little taste of the holidays via Cruise4Haiti donations.

To see the smile and joy on their faces was heartwarming, I do not think I will experience that kind of feeling for a long time. They opened up their bags to find toothbrushes, hair brushes, stuffed animals, jewelry, and toys.  The kids were so excited to receive things that we take for granted every day, and I hope we all realize that not everyone is as privalaged as us, that we should all give back sometimes.