Category Archives: Give Time

Make & Give Away: Headbands

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LLBS-Tutorial

You can put a smile on the face of a terminally ill child! Remember Sarah’s guest post about her Little Ladybug Shoppe? She is sharing how she makes the headbands and clip-on accessories that she hands out at local Children’s Hospitals. So now you can make them too and distribute to children at your local hospital! (Please be sure to contact your local organization’s volunteer coordinator before donating.)

These headbands and accessories are easy enough that school-age children can make them, with a little help from an adult. What a great way to teach kids about giving to others! Email me if you are able to participate – we would love to hear about your experience!

From Sarah:

Little Ladybug Shoppe has the unique opportunity to provide handmade hair accessories to young girls diagnosed with terminal illnesses.  It is my hope that this small act of kindness will be a true blessing to them.

I wanted to add my reasoning behind these nylon headbands.  Since the girls who will be receiving these bands have terminal illnesses, I wanted to be considerate of the fact that they might have no hair due to chemo, bruise easily due to medication or treatments, or very sensitive skin due to their specific condition.  I thought the soft nylon bands would be the most comfortable option, and allowing the removable accessories would add some fun and variety.
Thank you so much for your interest in joining Little Ladybug Shoppe‘s mission to bless terminally ill children.  I hope we can be a ray of sunshine to them all.
Below is the tutorial for just the headband.
Supplies needed:
Colored nylons
1″ wide ribbon (color to match the nylons)
Fat quarters
Needle
Thread
Plain metal alligator clips
Hot glue gun
The band
1. Cut one leg of the pair of nylons and then cut down at the toe so you basically have a “sleeve”.
2. Measure 18″ and trim off any excess fabric.
3. Bring the two ends together and tuck one end inside the other.  Make sure it measures 8.5″ to make a standard child’s size headband.
4. Thread a running stitch to join the two ends together.
5. Pull the thread tightly so the fabric bunches up where you placed your stitch.
6. Wind the thread around the bunch several times and then finish with a couple of finishing knots in the back.
7. Cut a three inch piece of ribbon and use a hot glue gun to secure it around the fabric bunch.  Make sure it is tight, but just loose enough to slip an alligator clip underneath.
Please visit the Little Ladybug Shoppe for the rest of the tutorials. Learn how to make the clip-on accessories: bows, flowers and rosettes!

Giving during Lent

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During lent, we prepare our hearts for Easter. It was common during my childhood to give something up for the duration of lent. But for me, it was half-hearted and often lasted only a few days. I never made the connection as to what giving up chocolate had to do with Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This year, I’m switching it up. Apparently when I have to make a sacrifice and give something up, it makes me focus on what I’m missing out on all the more. (What a great personality trait…) But if I sacrifice time & money and give to others, it will allow me to focus on what truly matters. It’s God’s money, not mine. To love my neighbor. My gratitude for Jesus. Each denomination has different traditions, so do what allows you to focus on the true meaning of Easter.

Giving to Someone Lent

For more information about some of these giving ideas…

Host a Sole Hope Shoe Cutting Party

Birthday Wishes birthday box

Make a bracelet or pouch for the She’s Worth It Campaign

Collect medical supplies for Sole Hope

What other ways can we give during lent? Share your ideas in the comments!

Psst…I have more posts about my faith. Take a look!

sidebar_faith

Make because She’s Worth It Campaign

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Shes Worth It Campaign
Remember my friend Andrea, who’s girls were raising money for a safe home and care for orphans? (As an aside, I wrote that post back in June and the girls have already reached their goal! You can learn more about Andrea at her sites:  The Train to Crazy and Go To Patterns.)

She is now raising awareness and money to end human trafficking in partnership with the She’s Worth it Campaign. >>> Read her full post here.

Per LAUGH brand clothing, a huge supporter to end human trafficking,  an estimated two children are trafficked every minute worldwide. This is frightening and horrific. I may not be able to rescue those enslaved, but I can help encourage those that have been set free and let them know how much they are loved. But how?

In addition to raising money for two projects (see below), she and a team of folks are making bracelets and zippered pouches for women and girls who have been rescued from the sex trade. And best of all, they want you to join in!

So we’re asking YOU to join us. Will you make a bracelet or a zippered pouch for a girl in Thailand, India, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Amsterdam or even the United States? We’ll be distributing them through many organizations that work directly with women and girls fresh out of the sex trade in desperate need of love and healing.

The Train to Crazy, Make because She’s Worth It!

Give Time

How can you help? Make!

Host a She’s Worth It Party to make bracelets or pouches with your friends, church family, girl scouts, etc. Or work on one while you watch The Bachelor. Don’t know where to begin? Tutorials will be posted on The Train to Crazy next week in case you need project ideas. The whole point is to make something for someone else, so they know they are loved. What a beautiful gift!

Email thetraintocrazy (at) gmail (dot) com for more information. She will send you details, including the address to mail you completed projects. Andrea will collect the bracelets and pouches and will mail them to She’s Worth It. Some will be hand-delivered in Cambodia in May, and the rest will be distributed by other organizations in partnership by She’s Worth It.

Are you a blogger? Write a tutorial for your bracelet or pouch and link up with The Train to Crazy.

Join Andrea, Bev, Jess, Jess, and Vanessa!

Bev from Flamingo Toes
Jess from If Only They Would Nap
Jess from Me Sew Crazy
Vanessa from Designs by Sessa

Give Money

From The Train to Crazy…

Along with the bracelets and zipper pouches, we’re also asking that you donate $10. Just $10. Your $10 will be helping fund two projects we fully believe in. (If you can’t donate, we’d still love for you to make something!)

  1. Father’s House: a safe house for children in Cambodia who are at risk for being trafficked. This home is run by In His Steps International. You can read more about it here.
  2. The Sewing Project: we’ll be raising money for a group of mothers in an Indian village who have been freed from the sex industry and are learning sewing as a trade! The funds will also help hire a social worker to help them with them with rehabilitation. This project is run by Indian Rescue Mission.

Click the Donate button below to support this great cause.

Online fundraising for Team MAKE raising money for She's Worth It!

(Your online donations are secure and safe. They are also tax-deductible.)

Give Love
Pray for the women and girls who are trapped as slaves in the sex trade.

Pray for the women and girls who are rescued from human trafficking, as they heal and rebuild their lives.

Pray for those who are actively working to rescue slaves, such as International Justice Mission.

Pray that those who are enslaving others are convicted by their actions and repent.

One Million Lights, impacting lives globally & locally

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One Million Lights

The need for clean, safe lighting in impoverished areas is urgent. The rural poor are the largest users of kerosene, often walking great distances to purchase it. Although solar lighting seems like an obvious solution, people lacking electricity have been unable to transition from kerosene due to high up-front costs. Those living on less than a dollar a day simply cannot afford a light for $20-$50. Our lights help families shift wasteful kerosene cost to productive investments in education, nutrition, and healthcare.

Why Light? One Million Lights

One Million Lights philippines

Part of being willing to give to others is the realizing and appreciating all that we take for granted. It takes thinking less about ourselves and more about others. And that’s the reason I’m so inspired by One Million Lights. They are not only distributing solar lights to those in need, but is doing so without disturbing the established norms. They are giving kids a chance to read at night, something we take for granted, but has a snowball effect on education and its benefits.

One Million Lights argentina

One Million Lights is also committed to impacting local (US) youth with school programs that highlight our abundance and need to love and help others globally. Take a look at some K-12 schools and how they are collecting donations for solar lights in different underdeveloped nations (here).

Want to give money?

$15 will provide one solar-powered lantern for a family. Donate here!

Want to give time & love?

Become a Light Ambassador. Light Ambassadors get to hand deliver the lights!

Through our donor-meets-recipients model, One Million Lights brings you an opportunity to be on the ground in a developing region. Our Ambassadors personally hand individuals the gift of rechargeable, environmentally friendly, solar lights to improve their living conditions and reduce the use of harmful lighting alternatives.

Light Ambassadors, One Million Lights

Want to learn more? Everything you need to know about the Light Ambassador application process can be found here. How great would it be to go as a family and hand out lights. Now I just need to wait a few years until the boys get a little older…

One Million Lights kenya  
Psst, I have more posts about Non-profits…have a look!

Nonprofits

Give back this Tuesday! #Giving Tuesday

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Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are filled with consumption. We overindulge with mass amounts of food and deals. So let’s give back on Giving Tuesday.

Volunteering is always great, but I know it may not be practical for some. So here are some other quick, kid-friendly and fun ways to give back this Tuesday.

Give Blood. Okay, the kids may not enjoy this one, but you may be able to give blood while they are in school. To learn more about where you can give blood, visit www.redcrossblood.org

Download the Charity Miles app and take a walk, go for a run, take a bike ride with your kids.

Charity Miles is an iPhone/Android app that empowers you to earn corporate sponsorships for charity by walking, running or biking.

Just choose a charity and press start. As you walk, run or bike, the app tracks your distance and you earn money for your charity. Bikers earn 10¢ per mile; walkers and runners earn 25¢ per mile, all up to our initial $1,000,000 sponsorship pool.

Go through your cabinets or stop by the grocery store and deliver food to a food bank. Or search for a local food bank via Feeding America.

Go to your local store and pick up medical supplies for Sole Hope.

I’ve mentioned the wonderfulness of Sole Hope before. They are always in need of donated medical supplies for their Foot Washing and Jigger Removal. Imagine the selflessness of washing someone’s jigger infested feet. Reminds me of Jesus!

Kids can help pick out the first aid items (listed below), help package them and bring them to the post office (field trip!).

  • Bar Soap
  • Sharpies
  • Large Safety Pins
  • Surgical Gloves
  • Cotton Balls
  • Medical Razor Blades
  • Medical Tape
  • Antibiotic Cream
  • Gauze
  • Band Aids

Mail them to: Sole Hope, PO Box, 1492, Asheville, NC 28802

Learn more about Giving Tuesday and other ways to give back on their website GivingTuesday.org.

Hurricane Sandy Relief: How you can help

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The devastation of Hurricane Sandy is clear to all, even to those who live in other areas of our nation. Help is desperately needed, and not all of us can be present to lend a hand. Here are a few ways we can help from afar.

There are the large organizations making huge differences (Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse, Salvation Army…see below), and they all need our donations.  But Hope Mob is using social media to connect generous strangers directly to people in need. And remember, any amount you can give is generous.

Hope Mob (Where Generous Strangers Unite)

We are partnering directly with the NYC Rescue Mission and over 20 families on the ground in Manhattan to meet urgent needs. 100% of what you donate here will go to support verified victims only and we will even cover the processing fees.

Donate to Hope Mob’s Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

Follow them on Twitter (@Hope) for more updates and ways you can help. The founder, Shaun King (@ShaunKing) is tweeting addresses of where food and supplies are needed. Help on the ground level.

Click here to donate online to RED CROSS DISASTER RELIEF

Prefer to text your donation? Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, which helps people affected by disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, wildfires and tornadoes.

Blood donations are always needed. To learn more about where you can give blood, visit www.redcrossblood.org

The Red Cross is also urging Platelet donations because they only have a shelf life of 5 days. Read more about Platelet donations that are also needed.

What is a Platelet Donation?

During a platelet donation, a small portion of your blood (about 1/4 pint at a time), is drawn from your arm and passed through a sophisticated cell-separating machine. The machine collects the platelets and safely returns the remaining blood components, along with some saline, back to you. After the donation you can resume your normal activities, avoiding heavy lifting or strenuous exercise that day.

Read more from redcrossblood.org

Samaritan’s Purse is sending staff, equipment, and volunteers to help victims of Hurricane Sandy at three locations in New Jersey. We have established bases of operation in Atlantic, Bergen, and Ocean Counties, areas that were hard hit by the superstorm.

Our main priority will be finding homeowners that we can help in their time of need with a focus on low-lying, low-income areas. Most of the work will likely be tree removal and mud-outs.

Read more about Samaritan’s Purse Hurricane Sandy response

To see more about Samaritan’s Purse’s Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, watch the following video.

Click here to donate online to Samaritan’s Purse. (You can specify U.S. Relief.)

Can’t donate at this time? Consider Volunteering your time.

Unable to donate or volunteer? That’s okay. Prayers are always welcome and needed for those affected by the storm and for volunteers.

The Salvation Army is serving those impacted by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with food, clean-up kits, as well as emotional and spiritual care.

As of Wednesday:

  • New Jersey: The Salvation Army is serving hundreds of people at shelters throughout the state. This includes service in Atlantic and Hunterdon Counties. Starting today, The Salvation Army is also providing food, hydration and emotional and spiritual care to first responders in Freehold, NJ. A Salvation Army mobile feeding unit (canteen) has also deployed from Western Pennsylvania to support efforts in the state.
  • New York City: Officials from the Office of Emergency Management have appointed The Salvation Army as the lead agency for the City’s Food Access Plan, to coordinate efforts ensuring access to food for city residents. For the next few days The Salvation Army will be serving food at Seward High School in lower Manhattan where 1,000 people are being fed breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Read about their local efforts on their blog.

Donate online to Salvation Army Emergency Disaster
Donate By Phone:  1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769).
Text-to-Give: Text the word STORM to 80888, and confirming the donation with the word, “Yes.”*

Sole Hope Shoe Cutting Party with our church family

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I have a church crush.

I tell friends (incessantly) and strangers alike about how much I love our church, Grace Chapel. God is alive in this church – in the people, in the worship, in the serving, in the ministries. Want to experience it? Come with me anytime. I’ll save you a seat.

Since Grace is a large church, they encourage deeper relationships through Life Communities. We were able to join one for a few years when the boys were younger, but had to stop when their bedtime changed. So when I heard from our Life Community that they wanted to have a Sole Hope shoe cutting party, I was giddy! Not only do I get to see our church family, but we get to put our hands and hearts to use and create shoes for kids in Uganda!

       

It was at the end of a very long day, but they showed up. They gave of their time. Their energy. Their financial donations so the women who sew the shoes will be fairly compensated. People stayed late just to make sure we had complete pairs!

We made a goal to complete 10 pairs of shoes in the hour. (Everyone needs a goal, right?) But God is good. We completed 15 pairs! Fifteen children will be protected from jiggers. Women will have jobs and an income to feed and care for their families.

All this in about an hour.

Thank you Sole Hope for delivering these shoe pieces to Uganda. It gives me such great joy to know these shoes will protect children and provide jobs.

Thank you friends for your incredible generosity and hard work.

Want to host a Shoe Cutting Party? Email me (givetodayblog@gmail.com) and I can help get your started!