Tuesday Happenings

Greetings friends! So what's new? Well, I was away for a few days vacation which was great. I don't get to go away very often and this was a surprise trip. It was fun to get away and visit a new place. It really is important to have a change of scenery. It makes you feel refreshed.

Today, I was trying to catch up on things and get moving with calendar sales. In good news, we're collecting a total of $500 from 2 area police associations. They are associations that typically donate to us and we give them a bunch of calendars to distribute to the members. I need to follow up with other associations that typically donate to us.

It was really nice that a lady sent us 4 boxes of coloring books, books and crayons today. She sent a box a couple of weeks ago after finding us on VolunteerMatch.org and wrote that she would be sending more. Her donation came at the perfect time because I needed to purchase additional coloring books for our donation on Thursday to Morgan Memorial Goodwill for their annual children's holiday party. Now, I don't have to buy additional coloring books thanks to her donation. She was very generous and sent a lovely selection of items. It is really amazing how people send us stuffed animals and other items from all over the country.

I received a letter today from a non profit in Oregon that works with prisoners to help them with parenting skills. They have a program where the inmates have to care for a stuffed animal as if it were a child for a number of weeks, then, as a culmination of their parenting classes, they gift the stuffed animal to their child. The stuffed animal not only represents the skills the parent has worked on, but is also meant as a comfort item for the child since they are not able to be with them at home. The organization asked for our help in sending stuffed animals for the program. It is different from any donation that we've done before, but I think it is worthwhile, so I called the contact and told her that we'd be able to send a couple of boxes. It must be a very difficult situation for a child to have his/her parent incarcerated and if this program is able to help the parents improve their parenting skills for when they are released and have a better home life for everyone, then we're happy to help.  I'll keep you posted on any updates that I get.

 I have a Smiling Stiletto Shoe Club party tomorrow at the Newbury Street jewelry store Sikara which I'm looking forward to. They're donating 10% of proceeds from sales during the event, so we'll be able to raise a few dollars as well.

Well friends, that's it for tonight. I'm off to watch Jay Leno, eat my grapefruit and read for a bit. Until tomorrow friends..