Paying It Forward with Care Kits in the Bay Area

LogDNA is now Mezmo but the product you know and love is here to stay.

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So where do I begin?

I guess introducing ourselves would be a great start. My name is Jeff Martinez and My wife’s name Cristina. We are from New Jersey and I got an amazing opportunity to come to the west coast to work for LogDNA. You can say I’ve adjusted pretty quickly while my wife, on the other hand, she’s missing all the great food back home :). When we came out here we had no idea what moving to California would entail. When Cristina finally moved out in March she was appalled to see so many people that were homeless and in need. We don’t see “tent cities” back home but out here it’s kind of the norm. One night I remember Cristina saying if we ever leave California, I want to make sure I did something to help these people. So we were going to start by creating a care kits, a sandwich and bottle of water, but then I decided to create a GoFundMe account and it took off. Literally, people we didn’t even know supported us. Thanks to a large donation from Chris, our CEO at LogDNA, it really helped us exceed our goal.

Who would have thought, two regular people from the east coast who just wanted to do something to help a few people and it turned out bigger than we ever imagined. We even had some money leftover and donated school supplies along with LogDNA to children in need. Our goal was to let people know that they matter and that above everything God loves them in their current circumstance. With so much going on in the world we just want to remind people to be a little kinder, you never know what the person next to you is going through.

Thank you to all who donated to our care kits, all who helped, to all who prayed, for your encouraging words especially to my wife who didn’t even think this could happen but thanks to her vision we were able to create something bigger.

With the money that was raised, we created 144 care kits containing toiletries, snacks, water, socks and a brand new clean t-shirt. The kind souls at LogDNA helped pack it together.

We went out last month and were able to hand out out the kits, talk to people, get to know their stories and just hear their hearts. Some wanted us to pray for them while others just wanted to talk and needed a hug.

It was amazing and we are eternally grateful for people like you and companies like LogDNA who support their employees.

With the remaining care kits, we plan on donating them to the youth shelter and get out to another part of town to do it again.

In November we hope to have a blanket drive where we will collect gently used blankets to help keep those in need warm. Keep in touch if you'd like to participate!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! Thank you all for listening to my crazy wife’s heart and supporting her vision.

We love you all-

Jeff and Cristina Martinez