charity: water fundraiser update

 

First of all, I want to say

 Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! to everyone who has donated to the campaign or helped us publicize it so far - we're doing great!!! We set our goal at $1500 and we're already over 60% of the way there!!! Thank you again!!!

If you haven't donated yet, but you want to, go here: <mycharitywater.org/changeisgood>

We still have another 6 weeks to go and another $600 to raise so I wanted to let you know about our plan.

I've written a couple of the local newspapers in Seattle so see if they'll do a story on charity: water. I haven't heard back, but I'm hopeful. This year's September campaign is going to make a big dent in the water crisis and I want to get the word out to as many people as possible. Please let me know if you'd be willing to contact your local paper for me to see if they will run a story for us. I have a press release and a press kit I can send you if you're interested. The Seattle papers have already run several stories in the last month or so on a little girl named Rachel who's legacy has raised over $1.26 million. While my measly $1500 is a far cry from a million, I'm hoping that my cause centric city will keep running stories on the water crisis anyways. Check out a national news spot on Rachel's story here - <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/in-death-rachel-beckwith-_n_916501.html>

I'm also selling hand crafted hair bows, headbands, and custom baby clothes on etsy to help raise money. You can check out my etsy page here: <http://www.ribbonsforgrace.etsy.com/>

I'm particularly excited about the baby clothes because I'm using old t-shirts to make them and man are they cute (and environmentally friendly (-: !!!)

If you have a daughter, son, grandaughter, grandson, niece, nephew, goddaughter or godson who wears pants and want to buy them a christmas present that will bring clean water to someone else, then please let me know!! I'm custom making each item to your specs to make sure they're a perfect fit.

In bloggy news, I've had my cause featured on a couple of great blogs -

• First, a local mom and writer here in Seattle posted about my cause in September - <http://readingandchickens.blogspot.com/2011/09/frannie-tells-you-about-other-stuff-i.html> Thanks again Shalini!
• My bows were recently featured in a giveaway on a crafty blog I read - <http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/09/giveaway-with-cause.html>. Its Soooo great that other bloggers that I don't even know are willing to get involved and help out! Thanks Kimbo!!
• And in November, another blogger is featuring my upcycled t-shirt pants in another giveaway. <http://www.raudenbushfamily.blogspot.com/> Thanks for helping us spread the word Kelly!

I know that some of you are working on getting your companies to match your donations. Thank you for doubling, tripling, and quadrupling our efforts!! And Please, please, please, make sure that if they are sending a check to charity: water that they are putting my campaign's URL (mycharitywater.org/changeisgood) on the memo line of the check. Otherwise it won't show up in my campaign!!!

Finally, in November I'm doing a virtual auction. If you can't give to my campaign financially but want to help in some way this might be the perfect fit for you! Do you have a skill? Are you an artist? A crafter? A musician? Do you have vintage items in your closet or attic that are taking up space? Are you planning on making some one of a kind christmas items, jewelry, or decoration? Let me know and I'll put your item in our virtual auction!! (More details will be on my blog in the next couple of weeks).
It would be really fabulous if we could totally blow my $1500 goal out of the water :-) (no pun intended....) Thank you again for all your gifts, your notes of encouragement, and for keep up with our hairbrained ideas!!

Cheers, 

Monica