My name is Jessica MacDonald, and for the months of September, October, November and part of December, I was traveling around the world through a program called Semester At Sea. During my 100 days abroad, I visited 11 different countries and circumnavigated the globe.

My trip was amazing. However, I am not writing to you to tell you about my trip. I am writing to you in order to publicly thank a couple of local businesses who donated items to give to children in need within the countries I visited. During my travels, I visited shelters, schools, slums, and homes where children were cared for with love and not material items. They were provided the basic necessities and lived without the things I loved growing up as a child.

Before leaving for my trip I was given certain items that the children could use and loved receiving from Semester At Sea alumni. However, I wanted to bring something special for the children that I didn’t think anyone else would think of. I wanted to bring something that as a child I couldn’t live without. It wasn’t too long ago that I didn’t travel far from my soccer ball. I wanted to let some of these children that didn’t even have shoes on their feet have something that was just theirs and that they would grow out of like a t-shirt or throw away like the stickers.

So I went on a spending spree with my mother (thanks mom and dad) for the typical items, such as crayons, pens, pencils, stickers, paper, etc… Then I went to my boss Raelene Bodman at Bessworth Child Care and asked her if I could take some toys and other items, she graciously obliged and allowed me things like Legos and construction paper. After that, I went to Scarborough Community Services and spoke with Bruce Gullifer and Mark Coulston. Within a week, between some of my own and the donations from the town of Scarborough, I had over a dozen soccer balls to travel the world with.

As we all know, soccer balls get deflated and, every once in a while, need some air. I spoke with a wonderful gentlemen named Jay Gilman at Dick’s Sporting Goods who told me to come in a see him and he would see what they could do for me. I left that store with enough ball pumps for every ball and replacement needles.

My trip was a great experience made amazing by a little kindness I received before I even left the United States. I wanted to write and thank these local businesses, but I wasn’t quite sure how. A simple letter wasn’t enough had you seen the faces of these children I visited when they received a soccer ball or other item that was donated. So publicly I wanted to say thanks to Scarborough Community Services, Bessworth Childcare, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Jessica MacDonald

Scarborough High School graduate