By Kaysha Bucher, Interior Designer

Packed and prepped, I’m ready to begin my 10 day adventure in Haiti!

At the start of this new year, my arrangements were finalized to take-off for my long-awaited Xref trip. Through HMC’s Xref travel fellowship, I will be traveling with Schools for Children of the World to visit Haiti and aid in new school design and construction. I depart this Friday, and I’ve been full of anticipation all week; this trip has been on my heart for a long time.

After a call yesterday to the team in Haiti for final instruction and words of wisdom, I am equipped for an intensive work schedule. While there, I will be part of a team assessing the conditions of 200 existing schools as well as documenting drawings for several schools soon ready for construction. Additionally, I will visit new schools already underway to oversee construction and gauge advancement.

Thanks to the generosity of my co-workers in the LA studio, I won’t be traveling empty-handed to this country in need. Contributions have been generous as HMC hands and hearts brought in monetary donations, school supplies, books, shoes, warm weather clothing, backpacks, small toys, and soccer balls. Traveling with these supplies, my hope is to bring a special blessing to the children who will attend the schools I will be working on.

A big thanks to HMC for all their generosity, I’m looking forward to blogging about my journey in the coming days!