Visqueen's Rachel Flotard Travels To Laos On Aid Mission

Visqueen's Rachel Flotard lost her father and longtime roommate last year. Losing a parent is universal to all of us eventually, how we cope with it will be a unique, difficult and intensely personal experience. For Flotard, this time was about changing her surroundings and stepping off a ledge without the safety of a parent or her usual confines.

When her close friend Justin told her about Laos, his aunt and the people who lived in his family's village Ban Na Mouang, she asked to tag along. With the goal to open her eyes to the hardships of the third world and understand their lives, Flotard flew into Bangkok on election day last year. Suitcases stuffed with medical and school supplies and one spare pair of underwear, she brought as many sabai dees (hellos) as she could to smiling, excited children.

Taking time off again from her busy schedule, Flotard heads back to Ban Na Mouang next month. In addition to more school and medical supplies, she's raising money to pave the school's floor. With her new album, Message To Garcia, blaring out of car windows all over the country, this trip takes priority over rock & roll. In Seattle, she and Justin are hosting FOOTLAOS, a dance party to pave the floor! In fact ten hours after she rocks the sold out 107.7 FM's Deck The Hall Ball with Metric, Vampire Weekend and Muse, she boards her flight overseas.

Flotard will keep an updated journal of her travels which will be just as absurd and hilarious as last year's. Until she leaves, Friends International is tripling any personal donation.