About

The Beginning of 100 Smiles

I've been asked by so many friends and family "Is this your charity? How did you get involved with this project? How did you start it?"

Here's is how I came to start my 100 Smiles Project and what my vision for it is to come :)

In 2010 I had to book a trip to Trinidad for my friends wedding.  It was a 5 day trip and I felt that it was such a short time to be somewhere and very unfulfilling to be in a place for 5 days (obviously being there for my friends wedding wasn't unfulfilling, but I felt there was something more that I could do).  7 or 8 years ago, a friend of mine had gone to Vietnam/Cambodia and brought bags of toys with him to bring to the orphanage.  Remembering the pictures he posted of his visit brought so much joy to my heart, so I thought  why not do something similar in Trinidad.  I googled an orphanage that I could donate to and started requesting for toy donations.  I managed to pack all my belongings in my knapsack carryon in order to save the checked bags for the toys.  Unfortunately the orphanage was located a while away from the wedding hotel I was staying at so my friends family had dropped the bag of toys at the orphanage for me.  117 Toys were donated for this trip :)

A couple of months later I had received a letter from the orphanage telling me how thankful they were to receive the gifts from all my friends and family who had donated.  This filled my heart with joy and I thought...I have to do this again on my next trip.

My next leisure trip was a surf trip to Costa Rica.  Again, I had googled an orphanage to donate toys to but a woman I was speaking to suggested that I donate to different areas in the community as the orphanage that I wanted to donate to receive a lot of donations from people visiting the area already.  Once I booked my trip, I started requesting for donations and I even held a toy drive event just before the holidays and was able to raise 125 toys.  Again, I packed everything in my knapsack carryon and saved my checked bags for the toys.  Throughout my trip, I gave out toys to the children at the hospital and drove the the fishing villages passing them out through the car.  It was amazing to see how many smiles I had put on these children's faces.  

After another successful Toy Donation in Costa Rica I decided that I had to make this a yearly thing.  Do something that I love (surf) and do something where I can make a difference (make children smile).  So that's when I hit up one of my surfer friend Dave for a recommendation on a good place to go and he suggested El Salvador.  I thought, El Salvador would be perfect, since it's a place that has many impoverished areas and would be a great place to go and help.  I looked up the orphanage in the area i would be staying and Remar Orphanage had come up.  I contacted the orphanage to let them know I was coming and organize a visit.  They were absolutely thrilled.  Again, I asked friends and family for help and I was able to raise over 220 toys to take with me in hockey bags.  I had gotten in touch with Remar Orphanage to let them know I was coming and were so grateful that these children would be receiving gifts just around Christmas time. 

After of days settling into El Tunco, El Salvador, I made a visit to Remar Orphanage to visit Maria (the woman who runs the orphanage) and meet the children (this was something I didn't have a chance to do on my last trip...spend time with them).  They all welcomed me with hugs and kisses and attempted to spark conversation even though I understood very little spanish).  After spending a couple of days with the kids, I surprised them with the 2 bags of hockey bags full of toys!  They were all so happy as I distributed a toy out to each and every one of them.  Not only did I receive toy donations from home, but I had also received a financial donation.  $1,000 from one of my Muay Thai coaches and $600 from friends and family (it was left over money that I raised for extra baggage fees).  I decided to give this money to the orphanage to help them purchase supplies to build the orphanage library.  This library will be used for the children to study in and sell books to the children and people outside of the orphanage so that they can make the money to use to keep the orphanage running.  I learned from Maria that the orphanage does not receive any government funding, any funds donated are donated by Churches from missionary groups who come to visit them and stay to help around the orphanage.  I saw a lot of unfinished projects around the property, which is why I decided to donate the money towards that.  

When I had got home from my 10 day trip to El Salvador, I knew there was something more that I could do to help, something more I could do to inspire other travellers/surfers who were backpacking/catching wave in CA.  That's when an idea came to mind.  What if I develop 100 Smiles Project into a once a year surf/volunteer project?  My contract at Hyundai Canada was ending February 28th so I decided to book a one month trip back to El Salvador to volunteer at the orphanage 70% of the time and spend 30% of my time surfing.  I would figure out a schedule where travellers can surf while volunteering their time at the orphanage.  

As of now my target is surfers, but if there are non-surfers wanting to do the program, it's not a problem at all.  100 Smiles Project will happen once a year ( 3-4 weeks at at time in CA.  I will eventually scope out all surf/volunteer spots in different areas of the country but for now I will focus on CA.