Former residents sends 1,200 pounds of clothes to Haiti

Money is tight for former Bonners Ferry resident Kara Lara.

Lara and her husband, Frank, who live in East Wenatchee, Was., are both unemployed. Yet they wanted to come up with enough money to send a few boxes of clothing their 5-month-old daughter had outgrown to the earthquake victims in Haiti.

By networking with friends and posting requests for items on MySpace and Craigslist, Lara collected 1,200 pound of children’s clothing and toys.

“I couldn’t be any happier,” Lara said. “If I can make the difference in one child’s life, yet alone multiple . . .”

“I am very proud of her,” said Lara’s mother, Marsha Everhardt of Bonners Ferry. “I think it was a very selfless thing.”

Lara had planned to sell her daughter, Ledgen’s, clothes on Craigslist. After watching the devastation in Haiti on television, the 25-year-old felt it would be better to send the clothes there.

In addition to posting requests for more clothes on Web sites and in a newspaper, Lara learned about two Christian organizations that operate orphanages in Haiti. One was God’s Littlest Angels, which was accepting donations of children’s clothing and toys to send to Haiti.

God’s Little Angles has an office in Colorado Springs. She was told if she could get the clothes to Colorado, they would be shipped to Haiti. She explored options until Fed Ex offered to delivery the 13 boxes at no cost.

“I started crying and couldn’t thank them enough,” Lara said.