This is one thing our brokerage is doing to help others this year. The Pauni family had a house build for them by our community and ABC's extreem makeover team a couple of years ago and are always finding ways to give back. Please go to www.relieffortonga.com to donate to this great cause.

‘Makeover' winners giving back

A family poses in this photo submitted by Logan resident Roxanne Pauni, taken on her 2006 trip to Tonga to deliver donations. Pauni and her family will visit the nation again in January to deliver more donations.

By Devin Felix

Published: Wednesday, December 3, 2008 2:00 AM CST It's no small feat shipping several tons of donated clothing to an island nation halfway around the world, and it doesn't come cheap.

Just ask Roxanne Pauni.

When the ABC show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" treated her sister-in-law and her family to a new house two years ago, Roxanne and her family members traveled to Tonga to deliver donations for the poor people there.

She was struck by the beauty of the country, and moved by the people's need. Most are poor, few jobs are available, prices are high and large families share small and run-down houses.
"They don't have anything over there," she said. "I went over there and it was devastating to see."

Now Roxanne and her family are taking goods to the island nation again. When "Extreme Makeover" was in town, three Cache County high schools had a competition to see which could gather the most clothing, hygiene supplies and other goods to benefit people in the Pauni's home nation of Tonga.

The students came through big, and the Pauni family added to the pile with donations and purchases from yard and estate sales. Now the donations are finally being shipped - filling 11 wooden crates. The lightest of the crates weighed in at 1,500 pounds.

Roxanne and her mother spent hundreds of hours organizing and packing the goods. At one point, a storm blew the tarp off one of the crates and rain soaked the clothes inside. Roxanne and her mother washed the clothes in more than 30 loads of laundry.

Now, the crates have finally shipped out. They left Logan Nov. 21 on their way to California, where they'll stay until next week. They will then be put on a boat and will arrive in Tonga a month later. Roxanne and her family members will be there to take and distribute the clothes where needed, she said.

The cost of the shipment was higher than expected, however. Getting the crates to the island will cost about $7,000, and it will take about another $2,000 to get the goods through customs and distributed to the Tongan people, she said.

To help cover those costs, the family is holding a luau from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the conference room of the Comfort Inn, at 447 N. Main St., Logan. Tickets are available at the door, or at Lee's Marketplace, Albertsons and several other businesses.