AroundAustin.Com

Caroline Boudreaux - Founder of Miracle Foundation

Today we are interviewing Caroline Boudreaux.  Caroline is the founder of Miracle Foundation a charity that servers orphans in India. 

Caroline, how did the Miracle Foundation start?

In 1999, my close friend Chris Monheim and I took a pleasure trip around the world together. One of the places we wanted to visit was a remote village in India where Chris had been sponsoring an orphan named Manus through the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF). Chris and I wanted to find out if Manus really existed and had been receiving Chris’ financial support for the past five years.

We landed in India in the midst of a 108 degrees heat wave. After a ceremonial village welcome, we were introduced to little Manus, who had, indeed, received every letter and picture Chris had sent him. She was thrilled to find out her money was helping this child with food, clothing, shelter, and an education. However, poverty was everywhere. Manus’ family of five lived in a two-room, mud hut about the size of an average American bathroom. Everyone seemed grateful that organizations like CCF were providing assistance, but Manus’ family was one of the lucky ones.

Later that evening, a little girl named Sheebani slid up to me and put her head on my knee. I took the orphan into my arms; the little girl was so tired that she pushed her body into mine. I sang Sheebani a lullaby and rocked her to sleep. When I took Sheebani upstairs to find her crib, I was horrified to see a room with 30 wooden beds, much like picnic tables. There were no pillows, mattresses, or blankets. The overwhelming stench of urine and feces could make a grown man collapse. The scene was like that from a concentration camp…chilling and incomprehensible. When I laid Sheebani down on her bed, I heard the child’s bones rattle against the wood. I was simply heart-broken, and that’s when I knew that I had to do something about this tragedy. In our world of Starbuck’s, the stock market, and Neiman Marcus, there was no reason why a little child in India had to live in such squalor. When I returned from my trip, I put all of my life savings together and created the Miracle Foundation. Our vision is to empower children to reach their full potential, one orphan, like Sheebani, at a time.

Interview with Susan Rankin, Executive Director of Town Lake Trail Foundation

In December, AroundAustin is focusing on the many charities that make Austin great.  To get more information about charities and how you can help them we are interviewing the people most involved with their charities.  First up, Susan Rankin, Executive Director of the Town Lake Trail Foundation.

Listen to Interview with Susan Rankin,

Listen to an interview with Susan Rankin, Executive Director of the Town Lake Trail Foundation

2008 Consider the Town Lake Trail Foundation Calendar for your X'mas Giving

The Town Lake Trail Foundation Calendar  is finally here .  A couple of the pictures that you have seen in the AroundAustin galleries made it into the calendar.  I was asked to enter photos for this calendar mid-year by a friend.   The rules were that it had to be a picture of the trail (not the lake, bridges, etc.) and not have any recognizable people in the photos.  Sounded easy enough so I said sure.  A couple of weeks later she informed me that there were two National Geographic photographers shooting as well as pro photographers from other magazines and newspapers.  Well it was too late to back out so I dragged down to the trail and started snapping pictures--all in all I think we managed to walk that trail six times.  Well what do you know, despite the stiff competition

I managed to get two pictures into the calendar.  The one on the left was taken because the foundation built the wall and planted various native plants; the one on the right (which is my favorite) was because we were walking home and a shooting buddy said why don't you take a shot of the gazebo....it was late I was tired...I groaned but set up the tripod and did it.  At any rate, the calendars are on heavy stock paper and beautifully printed.  100% of the money goes to the Town Lake Trail Foundation.  You can buy the calendar at http://www.townlaketrail.org/storelistitem.cfm?itemnumber=1