Regina Abiles has become really good at looking for bargains on everything from sheets and shoes to pencils and peanut butter. After all, she's sent four children off to the University of Delaware over the past 10 years. But now, Abiles is bargain hunting not only for her last college student but also for a group of children living at a mission in Haiti.

As the wife of a Coast Guard officer, Abiles has spent the past 28 years following her husband from one assignment to another-- at locations ranging from American Samoa to Alaska. "I was a stay-at-home mother of four children, so I got involved in volunteer work," she says. "I've always liked helping people, and when you move as much as we did, it's a great way to get involved in a new community where you don't know anybody."

Her involvement with the Haitian mission came about with the move to Kodiak, Alaska, in 1994. "It's dark, cold and rainy there for much of the year," Abiles says, "and I really wanted to find something uplifting to do. I started to work in the chapel on the base and became friends with the chaplain. When he started Theo's Work Inc., I got involved, too."

The humanitarian mission includes an orphanage and classrooms and also provides the children with food and medical care. "These are street kids," Abiles says, "who were abandoned and neglected. They were all hungry, needy and destitute before being taken in by the mission. We started with a handful of kids, but the number has since grown to more than a hundred." ?

Abiles's main role is to provide publicity for the mission to generate donations and attract sponsors; she and her husband, Bienvenido, also serve on the organization's board of directors. "I primarily use my writing to spread the word," she says.

Abiles is also an ardent, if informal, spokesperson for the University of Delaware. She didn't set out to send four students--one every three years since the fall of 1991--to UD; it just happened. "Each time we were about to change locations, we had someone ready to graduate from high school," she says. "It was impossible to choose a school based on being 'close to home' when we really didn't know where home would be."

When the oldest daughter, Kristina, was college hunting, she applied to schools in all four quadrants of the United States. But, a visit to UD made her choice easy. "She wanted to major in chemical engineering, and we had seen that Delaware was ranked very high in chemical engineering and was also listed as a 'Best Buy in Education,'" says Abiles. "When we came for a visit, the director of admissions talked her into coming."

The Abileses were very impressed with the education Kristina was getting at Delaware but had no intention of putting any pressure on their second daughter, Janina, to make the same choice. "We did think it would be nice for them to be together from a travel perspective," Regina says, "because by then we were on our way to Alaska." But, what sold the family on Delaware was, again, a choice of major. "Janina was interested in the travel and tourism business, and we learned that the Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program at Delaware was terrific."

Three years later, the girls' younger brother, Bienvenido, chose Delaware, too. After a summer and fall semester at the Coast Guard Academy, he opted to transfer to the University with its wide range of majors. Initially, he came in with an undeclared major, but even with his lack of a preference for a particular academic program, Delaware had what he was looking for.

"UD was big enough that we could be pretty sure whatever he eventually chose would be available here but small enough that he would get the attention we had come to value in his sisters' education." Eventually, he chose the HRIM program, based on the positive educational and working experiences his sister had had with her classmates.

Last year, when Marina, the fourth and last of the Abiles' clan, was ready for college, the selection process began again. "We weren't telling her that she needed to go to Delaware because all of her siblings had, but she was saying, 'It made everyone else happy, so why not me, too?'" Marina, who expects to graduate in 2004, is majoring in business.

"We've always felt that Delaware had everything going for it, even though we didn't have the advantage of being able to pay in-state tuition," says Regina. "It's an easy place to drive or fly to, the weather offers four seasons without being extreme, the campus is beautiful and all of the resources my kids have ever needed have been available. From semester-abroad experiences to faculty advisement to help with transferring from another school, the people at UD have been very responsive to their needs. Our three oldest kids have all gotten good jobs based on their education at Delaware and the contacts they made there."

Abiles says that she is often questioned by people who see her family's frequent moves as evidence of rootlessness. She disputes that. "A potted plant has roots," she says, "but you can move it around and put it down somewhere else. Our roots are like that. I have my immediate family, and I stay in touch with others by e-mail and phone."

In fact, the University of Delaware has become part of the family's roots. When Kristina got married to another UD alum, Tom Rutkowski, in 1999, the couple chose the Thomas More Oratory, part of the Catholic campus ministry, for their wedding. "We didn't have a central place to call home," Regina says. "And, since our relatives were scattered all over the country and would have to travel no matter where we had the wedding, we decided we might as well have it where Kristina and Tom had met."

With just one child left to finish college, Regina Abiles will undoubtedly be looking for more work to fill her time. And, if the University runs out of candidates for graduation speaker by 2004, she says she's available.