Hola World,

We all know the power of online support but as many volunteers and especially the military know only too well: There are some things you must do in person. There are times you just need to show up and be willing.

I've been lucky to work with organizations like the United Methodist Women, United Methodist Men, UMCOR, Church World Service and the Salvation Army. Thanks to these hard working and dedicated organizations I have sent most of my worldly possessions accumulated over the years in support of flood victims, battered women, homeless children and other people in the United States and all around the world.

I was lucky to graduate from Knox College High School in Jamaica and attend Miami-Dade College in the USA at age 15. My journey here in the States has not been smooth or easy but it is filled with vivid memories of helping out after Hurricane Andrew, and others, after fires, building homes all over Miami-Dade with Habitat for Humanity, working with forward thinking organizations like Community Crusade Against Drugs of South Florida.

Through academic service organizations like Phi Theta Kappa I have supported Camillus House and other vital local organizations. Through Fulford United Methodist Church I actually got to go to Camillus House in person and work for a day with teens from all over the country. I have seen vital organizations like DOOR, especially DOOR-Miami changing lives on a daily basis.

I have gone canoeing in the Everglades, in central and northern Florida, I have been to many different states and even learned to ski in a half an hour before taking on some trails at Mount Snow in Vermont. I have been fortunate enough to go to Pontiac, Michigan where I actually got to sit in a Formula 1 race car. A lifelong dream came true that day.

So all these memories the last 18 years: Meeting people from Tufts, MIT, Yale, Boston College, Brandeis, Cornell, West Point Military Academy, University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University, schools in Troy, New York and Chicago, Illinois have changed me on a fundamental level.

Eighteen years of fond memories cannot save a life in Haiti today but if I've learned one thing in my time here is that if you don't try, you can't achieve.

So, in solidarity with the entire planet I am out the door to do what I can.

Hopefully, it'll mean something small or lifesaving for somebody.

Peace, Paz, Shalom, Salaam.

ONE Love On The Road To Zion