FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 2, 2008

Minding Your Matters® Organizing sends staff, supplies to Haitian orphans

Triangle professionals visit Haitian orphanage July 5-14 on a mission to organize

CARY, N.C. – Katie Page, a professional organizer with Cary-based Minding Your Matters®, visited an orphanage in Haiti as part of a mission trip in 2006. Now, she is spearheading a return trip backed by her company to the orphanage, known as the Hope for Haiti Children’s Center. Page and fellow Minding Your Matters® organizer Kc Coolbaugh will design and implement much needed organizational and storage systems to help the Center maximize its limited resources.

>>Click to read about our experience in Haiti
>>Click to view before and after pictures

“This trip presents a unique set of challenges,” said Page. “In most cases, we have an opportunity to visit the client’s location in advance to take measurements and plan ahead. This is different. Our supplies are limited and have been donated in advance, and our only means of planning ahead is by looking at the photographs of the current storage systems.”

Donations arrive at the orphanage in a variety of conditions, and the staff has little time to sort through the boxes and bags or develop a functional organizational system. With severely limited space, supplies are stored wherever possible, many times in another location. This makes it difficult to find and access those supplies when they are needed.

As an added challenge, Danita’s Children, the parent organization for Hope for
Haiti, operates a nearby school for neighborhood kids. But because crime is rampant in the area, books and school supplies for the 500-plus students must be carried to and from the classroom every day and locked in a secure location at night. The Minding Your Matters® Organizing team hopes to make this trek a little bit easier.

“One of our projects is to provide the teachers and students with ways to safely and efficiently take care of the books and supplies,” explained Page.

The school provides some of Haiti’s poorest children with books, uniforms, a quality education and at least one good meal a day.

The trip has garnered the interest of other businesses. Additional organizations supporting the effort include:

• Pendaflex, which donated hanging and manila folders.
• Lowe’s Home Improvement, which supplied 18 large storage containers.
• Raleigh, N.C.-based Gramma’s Treasures, which provided hand-made hair bows for the girls at the Center.
• Raleigh, N.C.-based and woman-owned ASAP Office Supply, which donated various office supplies, including a label maker, Sharpies, and Post-It® Notes, to the Center.
• N.C.-based professional organizing firms Stevie Organizing Services, Stayer Organizing, Little Virgo, and Organizing Solutions, Inc., which assisted in funding the trip.
• Friends and family of the Minding Your Matters® staff, who provided monetary support for the trip.

“It’s a unique way that we can use our industry expertise to truly make a difference,” said Janice Russell, CPO-CD®, President of Minding Your Matters®. “We are thrilled to be able to work with the children of
Haiti.”

“We want to create an organizational system that will stand the test of time and that the kids can help maintain,” explained Page. “This will enable the Center to make the best use of its resources and give the children an opportunity to learn organizational skills that will help them succeed later in life.”

One of the Center’s main goals is to educate children and empower them to make a difference in their nation’s future.

The Hope for Haiti Children’s Center specifically requested Page’s assistance for the task of organizing the orphanage and school. On Page’s previous visit, she helped establish a small scale organizational plan that the Center has maintained.

For more information on Minding Your Matters’ work with Danita’s Children and the Hope for Haiti Children’s Center, visit www.mindingyourmatters.com or www.danitaschildren.org.