Stix Together would like to thank Henry Schein Cares, the corporate social responsibility program of Henry Schein, Inc., for its in-kind donation of 72 dental kits. Each kit included a toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss, as well as dental fluoride. The kits were distributed at Baphumelele Orphanage in Cape Town's Khayelitsa township. Henry Schein, a Fortune 500® company and a member of the Nasdaq 100®, is a worldwide distributor of healthcare products and services and is headquartered in Melville, NY. 

Additionally, Stix Together received donations of lacrosse sticks from Lacrosse Unlimited which were also distributed to the children at Baphumelele Orphanage in Cape Town's Khayelitsa township. None of the children had ever held a lacrosse stick prior to receiving the donations. Lacrosse Unlimited is the #1 lacrosse equipment distributor in the United States and is headquartered in Hauppauge, NY.

On December 31, 2014, Stix Together visited the township of Khayelitsha. We brought school supplies, dental kits, clothing and lax sticks. The kids came running when they saw the sticks. One boy asked if it was tennis! We conducted a lacrosse clinic and some of the kids were really good right from the start. I even showed one boy how to do a behind the back shot. If South Africa ever gets a national lacrosse team and you see them doing behind the back shots...that's all me! :-)

I was telling a group of teen girls that I was from Long Island. No one had heard of it. When I mentioned it was in New York, only one girl said she knew where that was. I thought that was interesting. It gave me a new perspective on things. It was humbling and only fair since I had never heard of Khayelitsha (even though it has 10x as many people as my town).!

Thanks to our cousins, Jack and Matt, who helped us put on an awesome lacrosse clinic. It was a great way to spend the last day of 2014 and we are grateful!

xoxo
Regan

Jordan Raeburn has joined Stix Together as The Director of Communications. Jordan is an upstanding citizen (we checked), a 2 sport athlete, an excellent parallel parker (we didn't check) and a great communicator. When he is not hustling people for Stix Together donations, he can be found watching The Blacklist and plotting his next move.

Many people believe The Cape of Good Hope is the southernmost point on the African continent. A national park has been built around it and cars, bikes and pedestrians line up to enter. There's a sign...you may have seen it; people line up to get their picture taken. It's a lot of fun, a beautiful spot and a bucket list type of excursion. Quietly existing 90 miles to the southeast of The Cape of Good Hope is a lesser known point called Cape Agulhus. It is in fact the southernmost point in Africa. Most people will never see it; there's no fanfare, no lines. The 2 great oceans meet while photo flashes go off 90 miles away. It got me thinking that sometimes people are happy to believe what they have heard to be true. There's no going the extra mile (or 90). If you take South Africa at face value, you know that apartheid has been extinguished. That's a wonderful thing and in fact true to a great extent and we should all rejoice in that. We decided to dig a little deeper. Against the advice of others, we decided to visit a township to see what South Africa really looks like 20 years post-apartheid. In the Cape Flats section of Cape Town about 20 miles from the center, lies Khayelitsha, population 400,000.

Three quarters of the residents in Khayelitsha live in tin shacks without plumbing and the HIV rate is reported to be 40%. The racial makeup is 100% black. On December 31, 2014 Stix Together had the opportunity to visit a Khayelitsha orphanage called Baphumelele. In 1989, Rosalia Mashale began taking in neglected and abandoned children and today she has over 200 children in her care. We were able to spend the day with Rosie and the children and we brought school supplies, clothing, dental kits and lacrosse sticks. We had a great time getting to know these kids and they took to lacrosse right away. Thankfully, Rosie represents people in this world who are willing to go the extra mile and do the work that needs to be done. Seeing is believing. 

Thanks to Rosie, the children of Baphumelele, our corporate donors and our friends. A special thanks  to our cousins Jack and Matt, who at 10 and 9 years old solicited donations and visited Baphumelele with us. They have joined the Stix Together family and we couldn't be happier! 

-Evan and Regan