Treasurer's Update

First and foremost, a great big thank you to all of the individuals and groups who are supporting our project in Quito. We're pleased that so many people have taken an interest in our work and want to help.

Our budget for the project is sizeable and we originally thought we wouldn't be able to do everything we hoped to, particularly building a simple home for a needy family in the community. But our fundraising has gone well, and we are close to being able to carry out all of our original plans. We were fortunate to get some help with the costs of our medical supplies, library and market budgets and printing with grants from the Office of the Dean of the Medical School, the Community Service Committee of the Michigan Student Assembly and the LSA Student Government. We've also had some great fundraising events, including "Guest Grilling" at Mongolian BBQ, a night at Studio 4, a salsa lesson and dancing with the instructors from MSalsa and the sale of Alex's fantastic "I Ecuador You" t-shirts. Additionally, the response to our letter campaign has been overwhelming-those donations will go a long way in helping us carry out our project this summer. Our latest fundraising news is that we have found a donor who is giving the remaining funds we need to build the house. Starting out, we didn't think we'd be able to raise enough money to do that, so this is really exciting for us.

Thanks again to all of our donors. We are close to meeting our fundraising goals and appreciate your help and support.

-Jenny