Jump Rope for Moldova

Update Oct 2007. Originally sent as an e-mail.

Hello Friends,

This is a delayed, but extremely sincere THANK YOU to everyone who helped "Jump Rope for Moldova" become the success that it was! My ladies have been using the exercises balls now for about a month, and everyone loves them! The kids have starting coming to aerobics again now that school started, and they are fascinated by the balls!! The young guys in the gym have been taking advantage of the elastics, and my kickboxing instructor has even started utilizing them during his trainings as well!

This year we have big plans for the Sport School. We are in the planning stages of turning it into a Community Center (YMCA style) with showers and locker rooms for men and women, smoke free cafe, new equipment, and a hostel-style bedroom for sports teams or travelers. This initiative could not have been inspired if it wasn't for the first push from Gina, and all of you, of getting this amazing equipment to the gym. It really has changed the atmosphere during my aerobics classes, and the balls really do brighten up the place aesthetically. The money the women and I are raising through the aerobics classes is going to mirrors that'll be put up by the end of the month, and this year, through community participation and hopefully help from the U.S. Embassy, or USAID, or grants from other organizations, we will be starting the modernization project.

The director of the Sport School and the aerobics ladies wrote you all a letter to say thank you. However, it is in Romanian. Luckily, I will translate it for you:

" The group "Fitness" and the students at the Sport School of Ocnita, Moldova were pleasantly surprised by the presents we received from the citizens of America. We are thankful for the attention, help and the support you all sent your Peace Corps volunteer, Amy, in sending the sports equipment. We wish you all, the participants in this great action, a healthy soul, prosperity and success.

With great esteem and respect,
The ladies of group "Firness"
and the Director of the Sport School "

Again, thank you so very much from Ocnita, Moldova!
You have made a small, yet very significant change in Ocnita, and with it, we hope to make larger steps forward for the people in the community. I couldn't have done this without you all, and for that, I personally, thank you for being so generous, caring, and supportive!

Check out the photos of the day we got the packages, and how we totally use the balls to WORK it OUT!!

All the best,
and as we say out here in Moldova,
Success!!!



February 2007

Friends, Family, Internet Strangers

I just recieved this e-mail today from my friend Gina from New Jersey. We were talking about perhaps trying to start a project to raise money or equipment for the gym I teach aerobics at, when Gina decided to go ahead and start it. I am so surprised and impressed by the response she's received already and I figured I should probably let my friends and family in on this too.
Feel free to help Gina help me, or start something like this on your own. The gym is in bad shape, the equipment that is there is very, very old, and we don't have basics at all, like jumpropes or mats, or heat. We are currently rasining money here in Ocnita to install mirrors in the gym where I teach aerobics, but we can use all the help and equipment we can get. The girls and women who come to my class are really motivated and eager, and class would be that much better if we had mats to lay on, or balls (ab balls) to do crunches on, (or heat.)

Please, if you can help in any way, contact Gina or me, and if you'd like to start something like this in your own state/town, let me know and we can work something out!

All and any help is appreciated.
Thanks!!

-Amy in Moldova!!

"
Hi Everyone,

Remember jump rope for heart, when you used to skip class to jump rope in a gym with all your favorite middle school comrades? Remember how much that kind of sucked, because you were always really worn out from jumping all that rope? Still, you participated because you felt genuinely happy to be raising money for a good cause (heart disease) and to be heart healthy for 3 hours of day (face it, you were in it for the time off class). What if I said that you could repeat this fabulous experience without all that annoying jump roping and with the added benefit of helping some girls in Moldova have a proper gym/aerobics class? Top notch, right?

Here's the deal: my dear friend Amy is currently in the peace corps working in Moldova. One project among the many amazing things she is doing there, like helping high school students start a newspaper for their region and giving talks on the danger of human trafficking in that country, is starting a gym and aerobics class for Moldovan girls in her region (no such facility currently exists). She has secured a space which is suitable enough (although bare-bones and without heat), but has no equipment--no mats, no weights, no machines, no JUMP ROPES, no nothin'.

I live in America and growing up, I had access to exercise equipment in public school gym class, outside extracurricular private sports, exercise classes and activities. This makes this situation seem really bad. As a result, I am trying to round up some equipment to send to these kids. I thought you friends and family might want to help by either donating a little money or donating your old equipment. Lighter things are better, as shipping to Moldova is going to cost a pretty penny. If you feel like donating 5 to 10 bucks, that would be amazing. 60 bucks will get us 10 jump ropes and 15-20 elastics. You know you're not going to be as cool as Amy and actually dedicate 2 years of your life to go live in a small post-communist developing Eastern European nation to teach kids to manually cut and paste stories into a handmade "regional newspaper", so skip a latte or a few beers tonight and help some Moldovan kids out in another small way. Come on, it's not that hard.

Here are some things I am looking at:

Jump Ropes
Elastics
If we can raise some serious cash, Mats


I'm totally ready to lay down 25-50 bucks on this, so they're going to get something no matter what. However, if you help, they'll get more and you'll be doing the right thing in the world, in addition to not drinking caffinated or alcoholic beverages, which I am sure are not good for you anyway (but you'll really be doing it to do the right thing, i know!).

I'm hoping to have a package off to them in a couple of weeks, so please help ASAP.

Send donations, monetary and otherwise, to:
Gina Pxxxxxx
xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx, NJ xxxxx

Or donate through paypay:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_send-money
Use the email address: uxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com

Also, if anyone is interested in seeing the gym/kids, let me know. Amy has told me she can easily get pictures, letters, etc. She also keeps a personal blog of her Moldova experince here if you're interested.

Thank you,
G
"