Change for Charity

This year my husband and I decided to take whatever amount was in our "change jar" and dedicate that to the hygiene kit project.  It ended up being a lot more than we had guessed, and I thought, "Why don't I make a jar or can labeled "Change for Charity" to put on my counter where we can put our spare change during the year and then use for the hygiene kit project?"  I haven't designed my label yet, but when I do I'll share it so that if it's something you'd like to do - either for this project or for other charities you support - you can use the label.  It might not happen for a few months until we're settled in after we move though. 

Also, if doing something like this happens to be a particular talent of yours and this sparks your interest, I would be thrilled if you emailed me a design to consider!

I think the name could also apply to the change that happens in our hearts as we serve others.  Cool double meaning!

However I get the design, I'm excited about my future "Change for Charity" container!

This is our current jar.  I'm thinking I'd like the new one to be bigger, and also be something you couldn't see through.

Humanitarian Efforts

Here is a GREAT LINK telling about what my church does as far as humanitarian efforts.  If you scroll down to where it says "how you can help", the hygiene kits are under that, along with the other types of humanitarian kits that can be assembled.

Special Delivery

My husband delivered the hygiene kits to the LDS Bishops' Storehouse today!  From there the kits will be transported to Salt Lake City and they will be shipped to their final destination from there.  He said they were so excited about the kits, and they said, "Tell your wife that we love her!"  And I hope all those who helped with this project know that it really means they love all of you too!

I'm not in any of the car loading pics, but I did help load boxes into the car.  :)

Assembled!

My friend A. came over on Friday February 10th to help me set up and organize the items so that they'd be all ready to assemble.  It was fun to do that part with a friend and I'm so grateful that she came over!

On Saturday February 11th, many of my friends joined me and my family to assemble the hygiene kits - we had a wonderful time!  Thank you to all who joined in making this project a success!  I LOVE YOU!! 

My friend E. organized the food for the event, so after we assembled the kits we enjoyed delicious food and conversation.  C. provided the birthday banner and made a birthday card for me that everyone signed - it was a lovely evening!  I will miss these friends so much when I move.  During the evening they talked about coming to where I am next year to help me with the project again - I DO hope that will work for you all! 

We now have 153 Hygiene Kits that will go somewhere in the world where people desperately need them.  Thank you!

New Donation Total

An additional $90.00 worth of donations have come in, bringing the grand total to $640.24!  Thank you again to all who contributed!!  Anything beyond our costs for this year will be put towards next year's project.

Bags

We can't have a kit without something to put it in.  We had some left over from last year, and as we were tidying up our basement we came across enough gallon freezer bags for the project!  (do you ever buy things and forget where you put them??)

Note about the Towels

There was a HUGE difference in quality between the towels ordered from Towel Emporium in 2011 and 2012.

In 2011, the white towels we ordered were backordered, and we were offered vanilla towels of the same style as a substitute. They were very nice.

In 2012, we ordered the "Premium White" 12 pack that were 2.3 lbs/dz. The quality difference was so huge that I actually called to see if there had been some sort of mistake in shipping. No - I was shipped the correct item, but then she explained to me the difference between the towels that I got last year and this year.  Today when I inquired, I was told that the vanilla towels from 2011 were probably around 2.5 lbs/dz.

The vanilla ones I got in 2011 were some towels that had been around for a long time and they were trying to get rid of them so they offered them to me instead of the white ones that were backordered - they'd been made a few years prior, and the quality was just better.

 It was very helpful to know this, and I think we need to get better quality towels next time - 2.5 lbs/dz or higher.

Toothpaste

I picked up our order of toothpaste today at Dollar Tree.  It was nice to have the option to pick it up at the store so I didn't have to pay for shipping.  We ordered from dollartree.com.  We also ordered from them last year and got the 6 oz tubes, but this year they had a bonus 20% more tube that was 7.2 oz - score!

Towels

The big ticket item came today - 300 hand towels on my doorstep!  My friend A. has offered to wash and dry them ALL!  Thank you - what an angel!  The towels will not be fully absorbent until after they are washed and dried, and many of the people these are going to help won't have the ability to do that.  This is an important part of preparing the towels.  We purchased the towels from towelemporium.com and got the 12 packs of 14" x 16" premium white, 2.3 lbs/dz.

In the future, I want to order towels that are 2.5 lbs/dz or higher quality.  CLICK HERE to see my post for the reason why.

Toothbrushes

I got my package of 1,000 toothbrushes today!  (that's a LOT of dental hygiene!)  It is more than we'll need this year, but I'll save the leftovers for next year.  We purchased them from venturesix.com and we ordered the "Colorburst Toothbrush".  These are my favorite because they come individually wrapped in a plastic wrapper instead of a bulky box so they fit easily into the kit.  I also LOVE that there are 6 different colors!  We make sure the toothbrushes that go into the kits are all different colors so that the family who receives it will be able to know who's toothbrush is who's.  :)

Combs

The combs came today!  We ordered them from overstock.com - the Medline Large Handle Black Comb.  I have a lot of pocket combs left from last year, so we'll use one handle comb and one pocket comb per kit and when we run out of pocket combs we'll put in 2 handle ones.  I love the handle combs because they could actually brush through a woman's hair - unlike a small pocket comb.

SOAP

The soap came today!  Wow - that was FAST!  (remember, we only ordered it yesterday.)  We ordered from soap.com and were able to get 4.5 oz bars of Ivory.  Ivory works well because they are individually wrapped - not in individual boxes.  This allows them to fit more easily into the hygiene kits.

Supplies Are Ordered

It's my birthday today!  As a gift, my husband took a few hours, sat down with me and shopped around online - figuring out how to maximize our funds for the needed supplies. (Thank you D!)  We have now ordered all the towels, soap, combs, toothbrushes, and toothpaste!  We will be able to make around 150 kits - far surpassing my goal of 35!  (We ended up spending more than we collected in order to round things out on the supplies - donations are still welcome at any time.)

I can't wait to get everything and schedule assembly!!  I'm so happy!  :)




Funds for 2012!

The grand total is in...  The amount donated for the 2012 Humanitarian Project is $550.24!

THANK YOU to everyone to contributed this year!