Goodbye November

It is the last day of November 2011- oh, it went so fast! Well, good news to report- we receive the invitation to the Foundation grant awards dinner along with an email that we will be receiving a $2,000 grant from the Foundation! I was so happy to get the email last night. That was the grant where I missed the deadline. Unfortunately, I can't make the dinner next week because I already committed to participating in another event. This grant matches their support last year. It is so important to have organizations which keep maintaining their support every year. We need a solid foundation of support that we can count on and keep building on.

Yesterday, we donated to the Boston Family Shelter again- we've donated stuffed animals, books and coloring books/crayons to them before. Donating to the shelters is one of my favorite things- it is so sad to think of the parents and children that are forced to live in shelters. It is virtually impossible to park legally at the shelter- it is on busy Mass Ave and the only parking is permit parking only, I had to park there to unload. I was carrying two boxes down the street and there was a group of people walking the other direction- one of the guys in the group stopped and offered to help carry the boxes. I said I was OK, but he wouldn't let me keep carrying them. He carried them down the street and into the building for me. It was so nice. He left, but I still had more boxes to unload. By the time I got back to my car, he was still on the street walking slowly with his friends. He saw me and helped carry the boxes again- even though it was totally the other direction that he was headed. It is so nice to have strangers help like that. The lady in the shelter offered him a container of orange juice as a thank you. Unfortunately, even though I was parked outside on the street for only ten minutes, but I ended up with a $40 parking ticket. Obviously, I shouldn't have parked in permit zone, but there was literally nowhere else to park, particularly when you're unloading boxes. There were plenty of empty spaces, so it wasn't like I was taking up a spot that a resident was waiting for. I think this was the first ticket that I've received while doing Project Smile work.

Here's a photo from our donation yesterday to the shelter.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. It is only 12:15, but I'm really tired. I went to bed a little earlier last night and it made a difference this morning. Tomorrow, among other things, I need to get to Family Dollar and buy more coloring books. I didn't get to stop there yesterday. Until tomorrow friends...