| Good News
So much has happened lately that I can barely keep up, which you can tell from my lack of newsletters. I want to share with you some results of our May activities and some exciting things to serve you on the horizon. 20 new sponsors have selected kids to support this spring! $61 came from the Pizza Hut promotion - thanks to all of you who ordered pizza with our fund raising vouchers. $778 came in from sales at our Yangshuo Art Show at the Rowan County Arts Center. More came from other special events where we featured only the children's art. Jan Lewis raised support for two of our girls again this year. She loves to run as a fund raiser. She hopes to raise $500 for a college scholarship this fall. Maybe some of you would like to have fund raising runs. Besides Facebook's Causes, Blessing Hands is now on Twitter, a social network that is popular. Twitter me as @bdcutts. Followers are welcomed. We have received a Salesforce grant that will allow us to use their services for free. The list price of this donation is $15,000 a year. Salesforce is a cloud application (using no software locally on a computer) that will let us store information on the internet where it will never be lost. It will also give better service to you donors and sponsors when we get it figured out. Now we have to alert sponsors with an e-mail when they need to give to their special students. With Salesforce the system should be automatic. There is a learning curve so be patient. So far 25 graduating students have sent in essays to apply for $500 college scholarships. We expect at least 25 more. Thanks,  Betty Cutts |
New Book Finished
Daring to Dream
This is the title and cover of our new children's book.
The painting is by a student at Yangshuo Experimental Primary school named Liang Jingying and the painting's title isPeace will be Spread All Over the World.
I love the doves they are holding and the bright red sun. Only a farm kid would know that doves have pink eyes.
When I saw the unique paintings the Yangshuo students sent for our auction, I thought they cried out to be featured in a book. I didn't want to see them leave when they were sold one by one. I could keep them in a book I thought.
Then I met Maggie Decker, an education teacher at Morehead State University. Dr. Decker had a whole class who were writing their own books, and she encouraged me to join them. She has a loving heart and is writing her own book about China.
With Maggie's help and encouragement, a prepackaged children's book kit, and the media center at the library, a book was born. So far there are only three copies, but someday I might put it on Amazon Books and let everyone have a chance to read or download it.
I want the kids in Yangshuo to see it first. After all it features their pictures, letters, and paintings. It is only 22 pages, but Maggie says I have another book in me, and I can do it next semester too.
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Valued Volunteers  Lilly Wu (吴虹), shown at the right, and Debbie Wang (王芳), visiting scholars at our local Morehead State University, have gone back to Nanning, China. They did so much to help us while they were here. All the scholars have, but Lilly and Debbie have helped us for 9 months tirelessly. They have done translation, helped with planning, given advice, manned display tables, served tea, helped with the auction sales, edited our new children's book, and invited me to classes to talk about Blessing Hands.  Debbie Wang is here shown with our postcards made from children's paintings. Without their help, I would never know my mistakes in Chinese culture. They have always patiently taught me and opened doors for our students. I will look forward to seeing them in China this summer.  I especially want to thank Lilly Liu Raodong (刘 绕冬), one of our scholarship students majoring in managing records. She has begun to enter our information forms in a program that will help us manage all of our information better. She has saved me hours of work and done it much better than I ever could have since I don't know Chinese. Lilly is in her third year of college and will intern soon. It is such a pleasure to see our students start to give back to Blessing Hands, fulfilling what we modeled for them.
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Coming to China in July
Abby Oney is coming to China.
Abby is a college student majoring in Biology at Morehead State University. This will be her first trip overseas. She has helped
with two "Pick Me" campaigns and is excited to be going to China with me on July 15th.
We plan to meet some supporters in Hong Kong and pick up things for the schools. Crossroads Charity there will give us requested items to carry into China in our suitcases. I will ask for digital cameras and small computers that the kids might be able to use for e-mailing their sponsors and pen pals.
Right now it looks like we will be arriving in Guilin on the 18th and staying there a day or two before going to Yangshuo.
Doris Wells is also traveling with me this time. Doris i  s meeting her sponsored student and wants to know the kids she has been seeing as she worked on pen pal cards. She volunteers with us, when she has time. She is a good friend, grandmother of five, and a devoted wife.
Most of all we will be interviewing new scholarship students, who hope to find sponsors for their first year of college in the fall of 2009. We already have 25 application on file. We will also visit schools and take a lot of pictures to share with you.
Bamboo, one of our scholarship students who is majoring in media, has offered to make a movie with us in China.
We will be in Nanning from the evening of the 24th until the 26th and in Qinzhou from the 27th until the afternoon of the 30th. We hope to see many visiting scholars in Nanning. We fly out of Hong Kong on the 31st.
If you are a Blessing Hands college scholarship student and have time to have a meal with me while I am in your area, contact me at this e-mail or yourBlessing Hands administrator. I hope to have dinners with you in Nanning and Guilin and perhaps Qinzhou and Yangshuo.
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You all come to the
Clack Mountain Festival!
1st Street
Saturday,
June 6th
9 am until 4 pm.
Morehead, KY
Come out and enjoy this great music and craft show the first weekend of June.
Look for the booth that we will be sharing with Jackie Scott at the Festival.
You can see from this picture that she sells beautiful hand made jewelry. We will have Yangshuo art for sale too, especially the student art. (Jackie is on the left in the picture).
The festival features folk art, Kentucky crafts, and our own brand of Bluegrass and Country Music. Admission to the street market is free. There is something for kids of all ages. Come enjoy Kentucky culture.
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| You can be the most important person in a student's life. Give now to give them a future. Volunteer so they can be blessed. You will be blessed too.
Sincerely, 
Betty Cutts
Blessing Hands
p.s. See the side bar to select a student to sponsor.
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