Plan to help the blind and poor needs a Guardian Angel

PANAMA’S expats play many roles in assisting the community in  which they have chosen to call home, whether through individual input, or through bodies like Amsoc, The CanadaPLUS  Club or their local place of worship.

If you have been sitting on the sidelines wondering where you can help, here’s an opportunity.

A visitor from Toronto, Canada, and two Panama churchgoers have joined forces to create a multi-faceted program to benefit blind, disabled, and homeless people in Panama.
But a fourth partner or guardian angel is needed to bring the project to final fruition.
While visiting his brother in Panama, Torontonian Jonathan Willner was invited to Saint Lukes Episcopal Cathedral where he met Zonian Ted Henter and Vernon Wilson, a master jewelry craftsman who moved to Panama with his wife Francis after serving as an Episcopal missionary in Belize.

Jonathan is a regular volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Canada. The conversation quickly pivoted to ways they could use their personal skills to assist the church to get involved in a practical way with the disadvantaged and less fortunate in the local community. The trio cooked up a plan, forgive the pun, that would provide skills training, create jobs and, as a spin off, establish a neighborhood soup kitchen.
Vernon is to teach the blind and disabled  how to make jewelry and cut gemstones using space donated by the church, The location will also serve as a soup kitchen to feed the trainees as well as the homeless in the surrounding area. 

Jonathan is building new kitchen cabinets and an "L"shaped stainless steel counter with sink and a commercial quality stove and refrigerator and possibly a dishwasher. There will be cooking utensils for 3-5 cooks and serving dishes and utensils for feeding 30. 
Says Vernon: “This will be a great help for us to be able to help others in need here.” This tiny dedicated team can do with your help
SEEKING A SHIPPER and Tiles
All the elements of the program are in place but it needs a final dab of glue to join them together but a few thousand miles separates the kitchen under construction and its final assembly place. The team which put the plan together urgently needs help with the shipping from Toronto to Panama, and there is a need for floor tiles for a space 12 ft x 10 ft. Any suggestions will be welcomed and will be forwarded to Vernon Wilson. Reach me at dyoung@newsroompanam.com