In the past two weeks, the living room, hallway, dining room and steps leading upstairs have become storage space for about 1,000 pounds in donations.

This weekend, Grisar will deliver them to the poor who live in mountain villages outside Puerto Plata, a city in the Dominican Republic. The Spanish-speaking nation of about 8 million people sits in the West Indies, between Haiti and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Grisar still is looking for cash donations to buy blankets and undergarments when she arrives and help pay for the roughly $1,500 shipping costs.

"They're such happy people," Grisar said. "They have so little, yet they have so much happiness."

The effort began two days after returning from a Thanksgiving getaway to the Caribbean island with her husband, Bob.

The Grisars, who like to explore local culture when they travel, booked a tour of the mountain villages.

Taken by the barefooted, cheerful children, Pat shared candy and nuts with them as her husband snapped pictures.

Their smiles aren't all that the couple remembered. They couldn't forget the extreme poverty of the villages, where homes are thatched-roof shacks with dirt floors, and children work and go to school in shifts.

"My wife has always been a problem-solver," Bob said. "A lot of people want to help, but they don't know how to take the lead."

Bob set up a Web site within four days of returning home. Pat established the Rainbow Families Foundation, applied for nonprofit status and opened a checking account so she could make a donation.

Then began the "professional begging," as Bob affectionately called it.

Pat knocked on doors, posted fliers and asked for help from businesses she frequents. The morning after a visit from Pat, 10-year-old neighbor Gabriela Pineda asked her principal to allow a school collection, which received a fast, warm response.

Within 10 days, a half-ton of donations were gathered.

Pat spent Friday sorting, washing and folding clothing that filled several boxes and more than 20 large garbage bags.

She held up a tiny pair of blue crocheted pants, giggling at the thought of the child who soon would wear them.

She shows photos from the Thanksgiving trip with an almost parental pride, telling a story with each picture.

"They've captured my heart, and I want to go back," Pat said.

A Dominican Republic official will help Pat deliver the donations. When working out plans, she asked him what else the community needed.

Blankets, an ambulance and body bags, she was told. Strong storms and hurricanes bring large death tolls among the mountain villagers.

One reason the Grisars were so touched is they can relate. Both grew up in poverty.

Pat, 42, was one of 10 children raised in a small town near Columbus, where their home did not have an indoor toilet until she was 12. Her mother did not have modern heating installed until 1984, when Pat's father died. He had cut firewood from woods nearby to warm their home.

Today, Bob has a high-paying job with a Virginia-based company that re-engineers and manufactures parts for military equipment, and Pat helps him. The couple have no children and live in an well-to-do Kirtland neighborhood.

Each of them broke the poverty cycle — "How can a man interview for a job, if he doesn't own a pair of pants?" Bob asked — something the Grisars hope they can help the villagers to do.

Pat's resolve to help was so successful they gave their living room furniture to charity to create space for the donations.

In place of the furniture is clean clothing for all ages, in tall piles on the floor. Ten big boxes of crayons are stacked next to a big box of school supplies.

On Friday, the first seven steps upstairs were blocked off by bulging shopping bags of clothing.

In the dining room were games and toys, a giraffe poking his friendly head out of a garbage bag. About a dozen canes and nutrient-packed drinks were stacked nearby. Pat's dentist also donated 100 toothbrushes.

One of the most moving gifts came from a widower in southern Ohio. His wife died of cancer 10 years ago, Pat said.

"He asked me to come and go through her room, because he hadn't had the heart to do it," Pat said.

Among the woman's beautiful clothing, Pat found wigs she had worn during her illness. Pat then remembered a shy woman in one of the villages, who watched the world outside from within her shack. The woman, who looked as though she had been burned, wore a tattered wig.

Pat's plan is to surprise the villagers, who celebrate Christmas but cannot afford gifts.

She will travel alone, spending the holidays without her family. It would cost too much for her husband to go, too.

The Grisars smiled at each other and laughed when asked about being apart for Christmas.

"This is more important to us than spending a day together," Bob said.

"Just this year, we'll be together in spirit," Pat said.

To learn more or to make a donation, log on to rainbow-families.org, e-mail Pat at pgrisar@rainbowfamilies.org. You also can deliver a donation to the Grisar home, 8543 Hemlock Ridge, Kirtland, within the Regency Woods subdivision on Kirtland-Chardon Road