A Grateful Perspective (from Romania)

The journey has officially begun. We are 21 strong and Frankfurt-bound, and already our girls look like a posse of professional travelers. Despite the fact that this is only the second plane many of them have ever been on (Greensboro to Philly being the first), they have been quick to adjust to the life of a jet-setter.

Of the girls I can see from my seat...

- Adrian is watching re-runs of Desperate Housewives on her seatback television screen
- Monisola has her hair wrapped in a scarf, her head propped on a pillow and seems to be enjoying a good book
- Samm and Briana are snoozing - both out like a light only minutes after boarding
- Audra is talking the ear off of the woman next to her
- Lorna, whom I cannot see but I can hear, is laughing out loud on occasion
- Lakeya is beaming with excitement as the "Lufa-ya-ya" (better known as Lufthansa) beverage cart inches close to her seat

From a leader perspective, I think I speak for all of us in expressing a deep sigh of relief. All of the girls made it to the airport (on time), we maneuvered them through check-in, past security and onto the Philly-bound plane.
Once in the Philadelphia airport, we watched in awe as they scarfed down enough MacDonalds and China Express (in tandem for many) to last them the entire two weeks we are gone.

Just knowing that their bellies are full, their minds are entertained and their spirits are happy, I can momentarily breathe easy. Day one is off to a beautiful start, and for that I am very grateful.

On the Way

The Dustin's GreenHouse team is on the way to Romania! There was so much excitement at the Greensboro airport awaiting departure, the anticipation of flying over the "big pond," a first for many, and the adventure yet to be experienced.

We all, team members, family and friends joined hands in a circle of prayer prior to the girls' leaving. Thank you, Raquel, for your uplifting words!

I got the message of a safe first leg arrival in Philly, although the flight was a bit bumpy. Will update on Tuesday after the team arrives in Budapest with photos of departure.

'Til next time...

One More Day

Hey! This is Ashley Staton and I will be reporting stateside along with the Dustin's GreenHouse Globetrotters who will be reporting from Romania. Together we hope we can give you a unique perspective through our travels over the next two weeks.

To kick things off, the team is departing Greensboro tomorrow and there is already exciting news to share! We have collected just shy of 300 bags for our
Give a Gallon campaign that the girls will give out to families in Romania.



Yesterday, we spent the afternoon together at a farewell pool party hosted by Fanny Taylor. We heard from a former Globetrotter, Frankie Goins, who traveled to Ecuador in 2006. The experience for her was life-changing; she knew what she was going to do with the rest of life and how she was going to do it. How inspirational her message was for the girls to hear.






'Til we meet again...

Like a kid on Christmas Eve...

We are days away from embarking on our Romanian and Hungarian adventures, and if I thought it was tough concentrating on anything other than Dustin's GreenHouse a week ago, boy, was I naive. At this point I am about to jump out of my skin with excitement, adoration, hopefulness, gratitude, ambition... the list could go on and on!

A few highlights from today:
- Jack Murphy introduced three of our girls to the 107.5 listeners this morning. He plans on teleconferencing with them several times while we are in Romania! Stay tuned for updates on when they will be on, live with the Murphy in the Morning Show!

- Two sophomores from Weaver Academy (one of whom is my adorably talented God-Sister) stopped by to teach the DGH Team Leaders a dance routine earlier tonight. They did not go easy on us in terms of choreography, but our attempts at mastering the routine promise to be comedic and unforgettable at the very least. Here is a demo of the challenge we have ahead of us:



- Lorna Devkota, one of our DGH girls, sent me a text late today asking how many additional "Give a Gallon" bags we could pack and take with us to Romania. When I responded with the word "lots" I had no clue how grand her vision was! Lorna has coordinated with the Executive Secretary of Harris Teeter Corporate for Dustin's GreenHouse to have a table outside of their New Garden store all day on Thursday. What an incredible opportunity for our girls to spread the message of Dustin's GreenHouse and to involve others in their effort to collect items for Romanian families. If you live in the area, please stop by and see them!

Tune in...

A few of the GreenHouse girls will be on 107.5's Murphy in the Morning show today. I'm not sure of the exact time but it will definitely be in the 9:00 hour. Thanks to Jack Murphy (and team) for inviting us to be a part of your show!

http://www.1075kzl.com/

PR, Marketing, Strategic Communication

I love sharing information and facilitating connections between great people. Here is the resume of a recent UNC grad. Caroline is clearly strong on paper, but she is even more impressive in person. (There are countless people in Greensboro who would echo this recommendation.)

If you are looking for a resource who has PR, marketing and/or strategic communication skills, check this girl out: http://issuu.com/dustinsgreenhouse/docs/carolinebrantleyresume

Give a Gallon Bags!!!!

If you are thinking about helping Dustin's GreenHouse with our Give a Gallon project, please read below:

While in Romania, our team will spend a week living and working in Transylvania's Apuseni Nature Park. Over the past month, we have been collecting bags filled with soaps, shampoos, wet wipes, etc. These Give a Gallon bags will be incredibly helpful to local families, but after talking with my new friend Lavi on Friday, I have a few additional requests... (P.S. Lavi works with the Poiana New Vista team - the group hosting us for part-1 of our trip. www.poiananewvista.com)

- Think about doing a Birthday Party in a bag: Candles, hats, balloons, etc.
- Educational items for kids in 1st - 4th grade: Crayons, books, paper, etc.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Good news, bad news...

I have been trying to figure out how to get a leather couch (temporarily stranded in our breakfast nook) up to our playroom for weeks now.

There were a couple of significant obstacles standing in my way: 1) the fact that my husband has grown to love the "kitchen couch" - he claims that it is a great place for him to sit while I cook dinner and 2) the two super-strong mover dudes who helped us bring everything else into our new home were unsuccessful at getting the very same couch up the very same stairway.

So a couple nights ago, I hatched a plan... I was going to buy one of those giant rolls of saran wrap from Costco, wrap the couch, take the feet and screws out of the bottom and remove the weird foldy-door that separates our back stairs from our back hallway. Then I was going to put a blanket on the ground, flip the couch on its end and push it to the back stairs. At this point one of two things would happen. It would slide through the door with ease, I would flip it back on its side and push it up the stairs on my own or Mike would catch on to what I was doing. Seeing how far along I was in the process, my hope was that he would help me maneuvre the couch the rest of the way up the back steps.

The "good news" part of this post is that my plan worked perfectly! We now have a very comfy, leather couch upstairs, which means lots of room for a table in our cute little breakfast nook. Yippee!

The "bad news" part of this post is that my hubby is coming down with a cold and I suck at playing nurse. I just had the same cold and battled through it. Sympathy, in these cases, is not my strong suit. If any fellow wives out there have words of wisdom and/or inspiration I am all ears! After all, he did help rescue the stranded playroom couch!

Big Pimpin'

For some reason people seem to think Mike and I have a Bentley for sale. (Yes, I am talking about the ridiculously expensive car kind-of Bentley, not a dog or a horse with the same name.)

In fact, there are only two kinds of people who ever really call our new home phone number... 1) my friend Carrie and 2) a handful of very determined, want-to-be Bentley owners.

So, if anyone out there has a Bentley for sale, I'm telling you... I am your girl! I would be more than happy to arrange the sale of your beautiful car, for a small referral fee of course.

Dustin's Lovely Ladies

Last night I had the privilege of attending the 2009 DGH Community Social and Team Dinner. The evening was intended to be a celebration of the 17 extraordinary women who make up this year's Globetrotter Team. It ended up being that and SO much more!

I would like to thank Patti Harrington, Celia Hunter, Mollie Perez, Mary Herlocker, Rebecca Sharpe, Janet Lacy and Marti Randall for everything they did to make the night extra special. The food, the decorations, the hospitality... everything was beyond my wildest expectations. Thank you for giving all of us a night we will (truly) never forget.

Hoping to have a few pics from the dinner shortly. In the meantime, here is a short video that tells the story of our 2009 journey thus far.

Mike and I have reached a new point of cool. We are spending our Saturday night ripping down wallpaper! Actually, I am spending my Saturday night cleaning the kitchen, occasionally checking facebook and now blogging because the smell of the vinegar is making me gag!

Mike seems content with his scraping duties so long as I continue to talk to him. Typing and talking is hard so I better run...

Hope grows here.

For six years Dustin’s GreenHouse has been taking local high school students out of the country through our Globetrotter program. In less than one month, our 2009 team will depart on this year’s international adventure – a journey to Budapest, Hungary and the Transylvania region of Romania.

Leading up to this point we have worked hard to EMPOWER the 17 young women who make up the 2009 team. We have taken them to Cisco Systems in Raleigh where they were introduced to opportunities for women in the engineering and technology fields. We traveled to Washington DC where the DGH girls were spotlighted at Author and Philanthropist Edie Fraser’s Women and Giving event, and where they attended NC Senator Kay Hagan’s Carolina Coffee. We have exposed them to local volunteer activities through the Junior League of Greensboro and HorsePOWER Therapeutic Riding. And most recently, we took the team to the North Carolina mountains where we spent two days touring the Appalachian State University campus, hiking, cooking and talking about some of the pressures teenage students face today.

As the international piece of this year’s Globetrotter program approaches, and we begin the process of selecting a new team of high school students for next year's program, I wanted to ask for your help…

I recognize that the current job and financial markets have made things tight for everyone… Believe me, we feel the pressure as well. But as they say in show business, “the show must go on.” There are too many kids out there that need our help to slow our pace or to scale-back our programs.

Should you choose to get involved, there are a number of ways you can support this year’s Globetrotter Program, as well as DGH programs in years to come…

You can make a financial contribution. (Please keep in mind that every bit helps. Whether you are saving loose change or pledging full scholarships, every penny donated will help us carry-out our mission of cultivating opportunities for North Carolina students.)


We also have a way for donors to get involved in a more “hands-on” capacity though our Give A Gallon campaign. We invite you to fill a Gallon-Size Ziploc bag(s) with everyday, household items (things like soap, deodorant, toothpaste, tooth brushes, hand sanitizer, over the counter medicines, band-aids, razors, feminine products and more). Members of the 2009 team will be collecting these bags up until July 15th to take with them to Romania. While in country, they will share your bags with local families – offering those families an array of desperately needed household items, and even more valuable, the hopeful feeling that comes from knowing that a complete stranger, thousands of miles away, truly cares about their well being.



To learn more about either "gifting" option, you can click on one of the images above or visit www.dustinsgreenhouse.org. And thank you for caring... Dustin's GreenHouse would never be what it is today without the support we have received from so many of you.

Just climbed up into the inside of our roof...

It looks like there is a leak towards the back of our house but the water is running down and out of the base of a skylight into the playroom.

I cannot figure out how to get a towel up in there...

Roof doctor still needed. God, please make the rain stop.

OMG! Our roof is leaking!

Not sure if I should wake my husband up and tell him, or not...
Worried he might try to climb up on the roof and repair (temporarily) on his own. Crap... What do I do?
Roof doctor - I need you!

Dustin's GreenHouse DC Pictures (a little overdue!)