Dear reader,

                I’d like to ask you to please donate to my cause which is to collect schools supplies for the less privileged. My name is Dalu Ejiofor, and I am a 10th grader at Martin Luther King Jr. High school in Nashville, TN. I started this school supplies project in the 6th grade, months before visiting my relatives in Nigeria. I was born here in the U.S, and have lived here all my life. One day it struck me that I was truly blessed and privileged. I had been to the birth country of my parents numerous times in the past and I realized that overseas in Africa, they do not have all the resources that I have been using over here in the U.S without realizing its value. The idea for the pencil and pen project came to me in the summer of 2005, when my father and I traveled to Florida to attend an American Society for Microbiology Convention. At the convention, there were many exhibitions, and the people manning the displays were giving out pens. I had a little bag draped over my neck, and one by one, I started collecting pens from each display I had been to for the fun of it. By the time I had finished going through all the exhibits booths, I had collected about 70 pens. After the convention, we came back to Nashville and I stored my pens in the closet, waiting for my chance to start using my special pens. Then, the Idea to donate them to students in Nigeria came to me shortly after.  Luckily for me, that same summer we traveled to Nigeria. During our last day in my mother’s village, my uncle and I visited one of the schools and I donated my pens to the children at the Elementary school. I was amazed, for their schools were nothing like our schools here in the U.S.! As I stood in front of the class with the teacher and introduced myself, I felt over a dozen gazes fall upon me. Never wavering, I opened my bag of pens and walked through the class, passing a pen out to each of the students. The rest of the time at the school didn’t really matter that much. The students were happy to see me. They needed the pens so bad and it felt good to help them out. As I left the school on the van back to my mom’s village, I felt extremely proud of myself. Even though I had a few dozen pens, and only donated to a few students, I knew that all big things started small. My only regret was that I did not have enough to pass out to all the students. I made them a promise of coming back someday. Since then, I have tried my best to send pens back to Nigeria. I visited one more school in 2007. As time passed, I have been thinking about doing something even bigger than what I did years ago. I would love to donate the right resources for a better education, like pens and books, and even soccer balls for recreation but I want to do one thing at a time.

All I am asking is that you help me with my cause, whether it is one or twenty pens, it means a lot to me and the students. You can also make a donation to help with the shipping. Please, partner with me so that we can reach out to those who are less privileged.  My target is to collect 3,000 pens for three schools in Nigeria. I have partnered with Bastion Inc. to help provide these resources to the students in Nigeria.  Please, you can reach me and the Bastion team at Bastion Inc, 4711 Trousdale Drive, Suite 129 Nashville, Tennessee. 37220. Phone: 615 830 5591. Bastioninc@comcast.net    www.bastioninc.net
 Thank you for your understanding. 

                                                                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                Dalu Ejiofor