Close Call

The entire project was almost derailed at JFK today, but thanks to a great check-in employee from Avianca airlines, we were able to make our flight!

We knew from Scotty's past experience with Avianca that they were very particular about baggage, so Emily called before we left to confirm that everything we had prepared was correct. We had spent the entire day packing and double-checking that our four hundred pounds of donated materials was divided perfectly into fifty pound boxes. This is so that the four of us could take two boxes as free checked luggage and carry our clothes in a carry on. But when we went to check them, we were told that, despite our ticket explicitly said we could each have two, we could only take one. We were lucky to have been called up to the counter by Rita Costa, who made calls, talked to other employees and helped us get everything on board. If it wasn't for her, a thousand hours worth of work and the ability to give children the therapy they need would be lost!