What we bring to Costa Rica

Earlier this fall Gretchen encouraged the members of the swim team she coaches in Minnetonka to drop off donations of clothing that would be given to children in Costa Rica. Gretchen knew that her swimmers would be excited about the idea but I don’t think even she was expecting the outpouring of support she received. Over several days Gretchen collected roughly 600 pounds of clothing.

I had initially envisioned a couple of suitcases worth of clothing that we would transport to Costa Rica. But when Gretchen dropped off the clothes at the Twin Cities Habitat office, I was overwhelmed. “How in the world would we get this much clothing to Costa Rica?” was my first thought. However, I knew this was a good problem to have. If we could simply figure out a way to get the clothes to Costa Rica, I knew that the clothes would be put to good use. After researching several options, we worked out a deal with a loyal Habitat supporter Delta Airlines. Delta agreed to cut the bag fees in half, enabling us to bring all 15 suitcases with us to Costa Rica.