Hi! My name is Mallory Fernald. I am 10 years old. My parents are helping me create this blog to let you know about a desire in my heart. When the earthquake hit Haiti, it destroyed a lot of homes. Families have been seperated and forced to live in tents and boxes covered with plastic. Kids can't feel safe in these homes. Families can't feel safe living like that either. I found out from my pastor that the Florida Baptist have agreed to build lots of homes in Haiti. I wanted to be a part of that. So, I set a goal for myself to raise $1500 to help build a home in Haiti. I asked my mom if I could have a bake sale to start raising money. I wanted to have it at Cheek & Scott Drugs so I wrote the owner a letter and asked if that would be ok with him. He wrote back and said yes and that he would match anything I made up to $750, which was half of my goal. I picked the day to be Friday, March 25th and set the hours for 9am to 6pm. I also recorded a video and put it on the store's website and on Facebook. Then I called the local paper and put an ad in to let people know about it. I also made some posters and flyers. My dad, mom and I had so many great friends offer to make different things for the bake sale. Our kitchen was so hot the day before the bake sale. We were baking up a storm! I was so excited the night before, I could hardly go to sleep. When my mom woke me up, I was like a spring ready to go. We loaded everything and headed up to Cheek & Scott to set up. When we got there, we unloaded the tables and goodies. People started to show up almost right away. My friend, Emma, got to come help me around lunch time. Other people also came to help and hang out. I really liked promoting and selling all the baked goods. People were so nice and generous. Lots of times they donated more money than we were charging for the goodies. It was wonderful. I was so tired at the end of the day but I was excited to get home and count the money raised. When we got home, my mom and I said a prayer thanking God for all the money given, for all the people who gave, and for the people of Haiti who need a home. We started counting and I couldn't believe my eyes. There was $2214.63! Amazing! Then I thought about the matching of $750 that Mr. Jeff promised from Cheek and Scott, so that made the total, $2964.63! WOW! That is going to build a home for a family in Haiti and start on a 2nd home. This makes me so happy. I want to thank everyone who helped me reach beyond my goal. I can't wait to take this money to Jacksonville and hand it over to the Florida Baptist Disaster Relief program.
