2. Abstract
Massachusetts Maritime Academy cadets 2/C Mr. Santiago and 3/C Ms. Surkovaite, both
enrolled in Business of Shipping Class in the Spring of 2015, have decided to undertake a
GoodWorks Assessment Project. In short, the assignment was to find a charity organization
abroad, collect some kind of parcel and ship it to them, and record the whole process. This
report is the record of everything we have done, explaining the non-profit we have created,
what our commodity was, where we got it and the funds, how we handled it, the shipping
company and what were the outcomes.
Introduction
To execute our project we decided to undertake something that Ms. Surkovaite had
already done before: collect clothes from a boarding high school - Wilbraham & Monson
Academy (WMA) - and ship the boxes to an orphanage in Eastern Europe. We contacted WMA
to find out whether they will allow us to receive access to all the excess clothing that
international students leave behind. Then we invested time into searching for either a charity
organization abroad or an orphanage, as well looking for a shipping company that could
participate in our project.
The Parcel and Its Handling
There was no need to look for a charity abroad, since we have started our own
non-profit organization - “Dress the World”. Dress the World project is aimed at helping
orphans around the world by providing them clothing from the United States by “recycling”
clothes and using them for the best cause possible. This year, we have collaborated with WMA.
WMA is a private boarding high school located in Wilbraham, MA, they have about 450
students. WMA’s mission is to educate Global Citizens, and our project very well fits with their
ideals embracing the idea of globalization and bringing it into action.
On May 15th, we contacted WMA to ask whether there was an opportunity to continue
the clothes charity that Ms. Surkovaite had done in 2013 and 2014 (Atc. 1). After a number of
positive responses from a few teachers, we scheduled meeting time to collect the clothing. Two
weeks later, on May 30th, Mr. Enrique and Ms. Surkovaite borrowed a Buc car with permission
of Ms. Driscoll. When we arrived, a teacher Mrs. Hutcheson met us with four other WMA
students to help us. At WMA there are three dorms: Rich, Smith and Wallace-Blake. Rich dorm
has three floors on which boys live. There we collected about 13 bags of mens clothing. The
clothing was simply put in piles on the floor, and we had to pick them up and put them into
trash-bags. Then we proceeded to Smith dorm, where both girls and boys live, there we were
not as a lucky - only one small box with shorts, a backpack and two pairs of shoes. In
3. Wallace-Blake we did not have to do any work, because a dorm parent placed all the clothes
into 9 big trashbags and put them outside.
A total of 23 big trash-bags and they were too much for us to transport in a small Ford
Taurus, thus we had to make two trips from WMA to the shipper, which was located 20 min
away in the town of Agawam, MA. When we arrived at the shipper, we unloaded all the bags
and started putting them into boxes. We carefully sorted out which clothes to ship and which
ones to throw out. There were some wet and smelly clothes, others had permanent damage,
others had inappropriate writings or simply too worn out. After three and a half hours of
sorting the clothes, we finally packed out the commodity. As a result we had 6 large boxes
(dimensions: 1.5x1.5x3) ft), and threw away two trash bags.
The Receiver
Right when we started the project we knew we wanted to ship the clothes to an
orphanage. We started by searching for random orphanages all over Europe, we intuitively
chose Europe, because both of us are from there and we want to help our nations and
countries. We wrote to Caritas Catholic organization, however received no response. After a
few fruitless weeks Ms. Surkovaite sent a message to her good old friend from Lithuania - Rokas
Bernatonis. She explained the project to him and Rokas immediately responded with
information about an orphanage in one of the Lithuanian towns - Lentvaris. Rokas shared his
concern after talking to the orphanage director. There is a lack of many things: good food,
comfortable bedding, materials to repair the environment and after all of those issues people
are not concerned about clothing. Thus when Rokas said there might be a donation of clothes
coming in, the director was touched and said they would truly appreciate it.
Boxes
The boxes used, were donated by Gentle Giant Moving Company in Cambridge, MA. The
donation of boxes came through the Sales and Marketing Consultant, Mr. Heidkamp. Mr.
Enrique knowing Mr. Heidkamp was able to travel up to Cambridge to retrieve the boxes.
Gentle Giant donated a total of 30 boxes of both medium and large sizes.
The Shipping Agency
In the process of looking for a shipping company we called numerous shipping agencies.
The two companies to return the phone calls where Three Star Freight Services and MVP Global
Logistics located in Boston. In the phone call all shipping information was exchanged with a
promise of an e-mail with the prices, however the e-mail was never received. In the end Ms.
4. Surkovaite contacted Dnipro LLC with which she worked in previous years, not only to ship the
clothes to orphanages, but also for personal shipments to family and friends.
Dnipro LLC, operates in New Jersey, however it has several parcel collection sites in New
England area. One of the stations is on 38 Spencer St., in Agawam, MA. It is a private house.
People who live there collect the boxes, weigh them and handle the Customs Declarations and
pass the boxes to the truck driver who comes once a week to collect the parcels and bring them
to New Jersey. From there the container ship (See attachment #X for container info) carries the
cargo to Germany, and from there trucks drive the commodities to the neighbouring countries.
The receivers get the shipments right to their door.
Costs
After completing the collection and packaging, we were ready to weigh the boxes and
calculate our shipping expenses. The company, Dnipro LLC, charges different quotes when
shipping to different places of the world. To ship to Lithuania it costs $1.49/lb, plus additional
$20 shipping fee. After weighing we found out that we had 301 pounds of parcel. Only after we
packed everything, taped the boxes and put the address, we found out that maximum weight
per box is 70 lbs, and that for every box there is a $20 shipping and handling fee. If we knew
about it ahead of time, we would have packed the clothes more tightly and would have raised
more cash. At the end, we were short by $168.49. 301lbs x $1.49 + ($20x6) = $568.49, and we
only had $400.
Fundraising and Paying
From years before Ms. Surkovaite had organized three piano charity concerts in which
she performed along with her friends. She was able to raise a considerable amount of money
which she used for shipping of clothes in previous years, however she had leftover funds every
year which accumulated to $400. So she hoped to use all of it this year, and she did.
Unfortunately, when time came to pay the shipping agency, we were short by $168.49.
Seeing that we are involved in a charitable action, the people who were weighing the parcel
offered us to call the company’s headquarters and ask them for a discount. However, we were
unable to call the agency because they do not operate on Saturdays. Thus we had to wait until
Monday to contact the Dnipro LLC.
In fear, that we might not receive the discount we started thinking of other fundraising
opportunities and ended up creating a GoFundMe.com page. We announced the fundraiser on
Massachusetts Maritime Academy’s e-mail system. The announcement was directed towards
faculty, students and everyone else who has an e-mail address ending in @maritime.edu. In a
matter of 12 days, 9 people have raised $225. Trustee P. Kelly e-mailed Ms. Surkovaite and
asked to meet in private so that he could write a check, which amounted to $100. At the end
5. we have raised more than $168, and were able to put the funds aside for the next charity
project.
On Monday, after contacting Dnipro LLC, we have received a generous 10 cent discount,
thus the new pricing was $1.39/lb. After the new price, our new total was $538.39. We brought
the difference to the shipper on the same day.
Receipts and Documents
When contacting Dnipro LLC, we have asked them for specific information such as: the
bill of lading, information about the ship, container sizes, the route the ship travels, etc.
However, the only thing that Dnipro LLC could offer us was the Customs Declaration. When we
packed and weighed the boxes and found out that we were short on money, we have made a
deal to pay $400 now and then make up the difference on Monday, June 1. To secure our
payment we request a receipt, however there was none. Mr. Santiago and Ms. Surkovaite
decided make a Proof of Payment and have Mr. Mosijcuk, the person receiving the boxes on
that day to sign it (See attachment #X). With the created receipt we have also received the
Customs Declaration (See attachment #X).
Lessons Learned for the Future
The document that Ms. Surkovaite wrote in order to have a proof of the first instalment
of the full payment was a learning experience of its own. The document stated that we paid the
shipper a total of $400 for 6 boxes. The document did not state how much was the total nor
how much the 6 boxes cost individually. This proof of payment is only worth the $400 and
nothing more. In the case of an arbitration if the original receipts went missing the document
could not serve as a valid purchase receipt.
