Sunday, December 07, 2008

MomAdvice Big Give: You Tube Footage

Thank you to everyone who made this moment possible!

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Saturday, December 06, 2008

Big Give: The Big Give is Delivered


We are happy to share with our readers that all of the items were delivered today to Faith Mission. We are also proud to say that the donations to our shelter made the front page news of the Elkhart Truth. The paper was able to make it over to shelter as the appliances were being unloaded from the truck which was a big moment for their new space. We are very thankful to Kenmore for making sure the donations arrived there safe and sound. We promise to upload some video footage soon of our donation.


This is an example of how we have been living for the past two weeks as we have gathered all of the donations for the shelter. It is hard to show in pictures what all of this looked like, but what you can definitely see is that we were able to pull of quite a donation.

If you are still interested in giving, we are still taking collections for Faith Mission through the end of December. Our grand total so far is valued at approximately $9,000! What a feat in just one short month!

The One Dollar Give

How can you give? Well, Faith Mission & the MomAdvice Big Give are highlighted today in The One Dollar Give. Head over there and learn more about what just one dollar can do for these residents and how you can help make a difference to the cause. You can visit this site each day and see a newly featured charity for the holidays.


I do have a few special people that I would like to thank for their help this month:

Ginger- It all began with you and your box of mittens. Your outpouring of support made my nervousness disappear in those first few days.

Charrise- for offering your wise words to me each week and offering me the business coaching I needed to make this a success.

Pam- for being my sweet online friend who I now have finally met personally. Thank you for supplying us with the bags we needed for our kits.

Becky- for bringing a lasagna to me so our family actually ate one homecooked meal this past week.

Kathy- for driving all over town to get us the toothbrushes and toothpastes that I did not have for the kits.

Kathy- for believing in me and rallying everyone you know to believe in me too.

My Husband- for always supporting my dreams, no matter how grand they are.

Our Family- Your continued support and pride for me is the greatest gift you could give me.

My Readers- Without your support, I know I could not have done this. Thank you for loving my site so much that you would become attached to my projects and want to see them come into fruition.

Video footage coming soon...

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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Big Give: Fast Approaching our Give Day!

I just want to thank you all for your continued support of our Big Give efforts. I am proud to say that we have reached and surpassed many of our goals for the Faith Mission Homeless Shelter (in Elkhart, Indiana). We have had so many great supporters and we look forward to promoting all of you in January for giving so much.

Our Big Give is scheduled for Saturday and I will be heading over there around 11 AM to present the donations. And what a donation I will be presenting! I can't wait to share with you some clips of our big day, but this is what we were able to gather for the shelter.

1. All of the appliances on the Faith Mission Wish List were donated by Kenmore. What a huge blessing that is for the shelter and it brings me great pride to say that I work with this amazing company. Kenmore donated the following appliances (approximately a $7,500 donation):
  • 7- 2’wide Dishwashers
  • 4- 1’10” wide under cabinet Refrigerators
  • 4- 30”-32” wide standard Refrigerators
  • 10- small to medium handing microwaves
2. Through our monetary donations we were able to order the supplies for 100 Welcome Kits for the residents. These welcome kits will be given to each new resident and have all the supplies needed for their personal care. I will have to do a separate post on what I have learned through a give of this size on ordering and great resources that I have been able to find. A special thanks to all my amazing friends who have been rallying together to help me pull this off. Your thoughtful donations, the efforts of your time, the items you have given- NO WORDS! I wish to thank you each individually. You all are amazing and I thank you for your efforts!

3. We have numerous miscellaneous donations of hats, gloves, clothes, medications, pillows, and other great goodies to add for our Big Give. Thank you to each of you for helping with those!

4. Our family also wanted to give something that would bring joy into the resident's hearts. I talked with the director and asked him to run it by the others to see if they would be open to my idea for our family gift. After a discussion among the higher ups, it was decided that a Nintendo Wii would definitely be a gift of joy and would be a wonderful addition to the shelter. My children and I made a trip over to Target and none of us could contain our excitement about giving one of these to them. This was money that our family had set aside, in the event we would not be able to reach our goals for the Big Give, and we are very excited to donate this. That would not have been possible without everyone's support and devotion.

In short, I am proud. I feel successful. I feel great hope for what one person is able to accomplish with the support and love of her family and friends.

Many great life lessons were learned through my Big Give:

For example:

"Your house is smaller than what you think it is. 100 kits is a lot of stuff."
"Your children's enthusiasm for giving will always surpass your own. Learn from them."
"Doing a charitable act raises your awareness for how great the world's needs are. Instead of feeling defeated, feel proud that your small steps are still giant steps toward the right path."
"You aren't superwoman, even if you think you are. Giving to others...yeah, you will totally feel like a super hero. I promise you!"

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Big Giveaways & Big Give Updates


We are currently running not one, not two, but three contests for our readers right now. I am trying to give away as much loot as I can for the holiday season so be sure to get your entries in!

Our first giveaway is ending TODAY. You can swing by The MotherLoot and enter our giveaway of four Nintendo DS games. If you have a DS or are planning to give one for Christmas, this would be a great giveaway to sign up for. Leave your comments over here by 11/11 (Tuesday) at 8PM (Eastern time) and we will enter your name into the drawing.

Our second giveaway is for a free quarterly membership to ListPlanIt.com along with a free holiday e-planner. This would be a great contest to enter if you are needing help with getting your family organized this year or even to get your small business paperwork in order. Be sure to head over to The MotherLoot and get your entry in. This contest will end at 8PM (EST) on Tuesday (11/18). Good luck to each of you!

The final giveaway is for a $50 Walmart Gift Card. Walmart is partnering with us to give our readers the chance to score one of these for the holidays. Scoot over to The MotherLoot right now and submit your entry today. This giveaway will end on Tuesday (11/18) at 8PM.

****************
We want to thank all of our supporters for their help with the Big Give. As a reminder, Jennifer, from Sisterly Savings, contacted me to see how she could support our BIG Give. You can read more about what she is doing and if you leave her a comment, Boston Market has agreed to make a $.10 donation (up to $100) for our cause. This is a great way to help with our give without even having to reach in your pocket to do it.

I am also very thankful to Rachel, at Modern Mommyhood, for offering to donate her advertising money this week to our Big Give. Please head over to Rachel's site and let her know that you are reading what she is writing. I have had the privilege of working on Family Bliss with Rachel and she has lots of great ideas on ways to save money. Please read about what big give efforts she is working on and I hope it inspires you in your own giving this year. Thank you, Rachel!

It is not too late to sign up and be part of the giving. What could be more rewarding than helping others? Please join us!

We are continuing to look for sponsors to help us so please email me at [email protected] and tell me what you can help with. Remember that with your donation, you will receive a month's worth of free advertising for the entire month of January!
I am putting it all out there- that is 160K hits each month that will see your company and all the great things you are doing.

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

BIG Give Makes Big Strides

Lots of behind the scenes activity is happening with our BIG Give and I just want to thank you all for your support. It is not too late to sign up and be part of this movement of community giving. I am so excited to see our list growing each day and learning more about your own projects.

This week I had a truly great thing happen. Jennifer, from Sisterly Savings, contacted me to see how she could support our BIG Give. She came to me with great enthusiasm to help support us in any way she could and began by finding sponsors for our give to Faith Mission. You can read more about what she is doing and if you leave her a comment, Boston Market has agreed to make a $.10 donation (up to $100) for our cause. This is a great way to help with our give without even having to reach in your pocket to do it.

We are continuing to look for sponsors to help us so please email me at [email protected] and tell me what you can help with. Remember that with your donation, you will receive a month's worth of free advertising for the entire month of January!
I am putting it all out there- that is 160K hits each month that will see your company and all the great things you are doing.

Here is what else is happening:

- Kenmore has agreed to help with our appliance donation! They were very excited and willing to help us with what we were doing and I am so thankful to be working for an amazing company like that. I sent over specifications for the appliances and we have a target date of getting these to Faith Mission by the end of the month.
- Lands' End will be donating two dozen towels, blankets, pillows, and hats & gloves for the charity. This was all in thanks to Jennifer at Sisterly Savings.
- We have received over $200 in cash donations.
- I will be presenting to the Elkhart Rotary Club next Thursday and seeing what assistance they can offer. This is all thanks to my friend Kathy Strukel at Perfect Party Solutions. Kathy is also working with me to get me in front of other Elkhart companies to get more donations for our cause.
- We have a donation of 50 toothbrushes and 100 toothpastes coming from North Main Dentistry. This donation was arranged by my dear friend and local fashionista, Kathy Friend.
- We scored a surprise interview with Cat Country 99.9 on Monday morning and got to share about what we are planning for Faith Mission. A big thank you to my true blue friend, Amy Watson, for helping us spread the word.
- We were featured a second time in the Elkhart Truth this week for our involvement with Faith Mission.
- We have received boxes of donations from other bloggers to help with our Welcome Kits. Thank you to each of you for being so generous.
- We have many, many more things in the works that have yet to be finalized. I have hope that we will reach our goals!

I am proud of what we have accomplished in such a short time and am confident that we are going to make Faith Mission's Christmas a little brighter.

If you want to sign up to be a part of our BIG Give or if you want to make a monetary donation, please click here for more information.

I am anxious to hear the progress on the other projects out there. Be brave- tell us what you need and where to find what you are doing!

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Friday, October 31, 2008

Big Give Makes The Front Page

I woke up to a very happy surprise this morning- phone calls & emails from our family letting us know that we had made the front page of the Elkhart Truth!

I was interviewed yesterday about our Big Give with Faith Mission and they wrote a wonderful story about what we are trying to do. A big thanks to Katie Rogers, the journalist who took the time to write about us, and the Elkhart Truth for giving us the publicity we need to make something BIG happen for Faith Mission.

I am hopeful that area businesses will read about this and want to help!

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MomAdvice: The Faith Mission Wish List

Wednesday evening we got to sit down with Mike Perez, the Development Director at Faith Mission, to discuss where we would fit in best with their mission to serve the homeless. In respect to his time and the wonderful people that are staying there we did not film within the shelter.

Mike took us on a tour of their facility and we visited every little corner and crevice of the shelter. We were able to come in around the dinner hour and see the 150 people who had come through to dine there that evening. We also were able to see all of the organization that goes behind serving and arranging the food for these meals and the incredible donations that come in to help with their free drop-in meals.

We visited their chapel and learned how they try to offer life-changing solutions through their in-house programs. Mike stressed that they try to figure out the cause for their homelessness and then decide a course of treatment so that they can live on their own. They offer classes and have a mental health program that helps their residence with addictions and mental illness. Their goal is to help give them the skills they need so that they are ready to take on a job, basic life skills (money management being one of them), & recovery support with a faith-based foundation.

After we toured the facility, we sat down and asked Mike how we could help them with what they are doing. He said the very best thing we could do for them, at this time, would be assisting them with their "welcome kits." A welcome kit is given to each resident when they come in to stay at the shelter.

Each Welcome Kit would consist of the following
:

  • Toothbrush
  • Toothpaste
  • Shaving Cream
  • Razor
  • Lotion
  • Body Wash
  • Deodorant
  • Washcloth
  • Towel
  • Shower Tote/Storage Container
I asked Mike to also think of what they might need on a grander scale, as they are in the process of renovating a new space for their women and this was his...

Dream Wish List:

Appliances needed for the 915 Benham project. All of the appliances need to be energy star rated and all in color white if possible:

  • 7- 2’wide Dishwashers
  • 4- 1’10” wide under cabinet Refrigerators
  • 4- 30”-32” wide standard Refrigerators
  • 10- small to medium handing microwaves

After we finished making our wish list, we headed over to my car where I had many of these:
EyeClops Night Vision Infrared Stealth Goggles ($68.88, Jakks Pacific)

And many of these:

Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker ($29.88, Jakks Pacific)

Made possible by my affiliation with this:

A big thank you to Walmart & their great 11 Moms venture as well as Jakks Pacific for giving me the opportunity to share these gifts with these incredible people. This is exactly the reason I am in 11 Moms and I am thankful for the opportunity to share within my community. These gifts will be given to the children when celebrating those special occasions in their life, like birthdays & Christmas.





Now that we know what we can do for them, we have made a goal to provide 50-100 kits (depending on our donations) and provide one appliance on their dream list.


Is it possible? I truly believe that anything is possible and my next steps will be:

1. Getting as much press involved as I can for our efforts.
2. Trying to raise donations to put towards the cost of our welcome kits.
3. Researching & finding the best price I can on the items for the kits.
4. Researching & finding the best price I can on one of the items on their appliance wish list.

If you have any suggestions for tackling this project, I am all ears! Has anyone bought in bulk like this? Any resources or steps you can recommend?

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

MomAdvice's Big Give: Kickoff

I am just speechless by the response that we have received already from each of you on our Big Give mission. The emails, the donations, the comments, the messages, the blog entries that have been written truly moved me to tears yesterday. I felt like I was taking a risk putting this out here, but now I know how good it feels to be sharing this with all of you and to know that you want to make a difference in your own communities (and even in my little town) has been an incredible gift.

Today is the first vlog in our series sharing about our Big Give. Before I began this, I knew that I would need to call them and see if Faith Mission would even accept our help. What would they need? What could we do to make their days a little better? Who did they serve?

I was extremely nervous and went into an immediate sales pitch of myself and what I hoped to do for our local shelter. It was a careful balance of not wanting to over commit and disappoint them, but wanting to also exude confidence that I could get the backing that we needed to make a Big Give happen.

The response from them was incredible and I knew that we had picked the perfect charity to work with. Not only were they excited about anything we could do, but they were excited to bring us in so we could immediately see what they really need and to help us better understand their mission.

Tonight we will be heading to Faith Mission to get a glimpse into their day and we have received permission to take some video footage so we can share it with all of you! I can't wait to share more with you about the charity as our family works towards making this Big Give happen!

In short, step one for us was contacting the charity and seeing how we could fit in with their missions and goals.

On a much lighter note, don't you love this dorky expression that I have on my face? Why does it have to appear like this. You will also notice someone dropping in on my party halfway through. Wouldn't you wonder what was going on if your mom was sitting at the kitchen table talking to herself? Again? Well, maybe that doesn't happen in your house... My house also looks like it was hit by a tornado. Remember that little person that is crashing in on my video? Yup, that is exactly what happened. This is my real life- dorky expressions, a house that has been hit by a tornado, & talking to myself. Enjoy!


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Monday, October 27, 2008

The MomAdvice Big Give: Faith Mission of Elkhart, Indiana

Image Credit: femuruy

Recently Ron Hudson, from Immediate Influence, created a list with the top 50 most influential women in social media, and to my surprise, I found myself listed as #8 on that list. I don’t mention this to brag, but I mention this because the list claimed that we were not only influential, but that we were also very powerful women.

With power comes great responsibility though and I don’t feel like I have been using my internet powers for all the good that I can. I have quietly been taking care of myself and my family and reaping the rewards that come along with it- free trips, free products, and great connections.

My muscle is weak, but I want to flex it a little bit right now because I owe it to myself and I owe it to my community.


You see, my hometown is filled with factories with laid off workers. My town is filled with families who can’t pay their bills. My town is filled with hungry children. Don’t believe it? My hometown was featured in the New York Times recently and they stated this, “Elkhart, near the Michigan border in an area known as Michiana, is the white-hot center of the meltdown of the American economy. Its main industries, the manufacturing of recreational vehicles and motor homes, have fallen apart over the last year because of high gasoline prices. That has taken down ancillary businesses like R.V. parts suppliers and storage warehouses. The jobless rate in Elkhart has increased more than in any metropolitan area in the country; it rose over 4.8 percentage points from August 2007 to August 2008. According to labor statistics released this summer, nearly 10,000 people were out of work, a rate of 9.3 percent.”

My family is made up of blue collar workers who work hard for a living and they all live in uncertainty if their jobs will last. My family members have been laid off, they have been worried about health care, and they are swallowed by medical bills. Likewise, surviving a year of my husband being laid off was one of the hardest times in our marriage, the hardest time in our finances, and the hardest time as a parent. We have made it through, but many families can’t.

I want to do something big for our local shelter. I want to give what I can to help the families who are not able to have a bright Christmas. I want them to have something to look forward to.

It is hard to put it out here in black and white because now I have to do it. I am gathering the names of all the PR people who have contacted me to do product reviews and giveaways to help me make something happen in my town. Even if we do not receive help from anyone, we have reserved money in our savings to do something on our own. We are hoping though to make a bigger difference than that though and have high hopes that our prayers and dreams will come true.

If you are in PR, if you are a business that can donate, I ask that you email me ([email protected]) and tell me what you can do for our local shelter. I will include and publicize any business that contributes to my give through our website and blog, along with a special shout-out on The MotherLoot for the entire month of January. It will be the first entry that anyone sees for that whole month and it will say, “Thank You to these Powerful Companies.”

In addition, if you are a blogger who can share about our efforts on your blog or if you can contribute in your hometown and dedicate an entry to us, we will thank you in a blog entry for making your own charitable efforts.

Our local shelter, Faith Mission, has an urgent need for the following items:


• Towels
• Pillows
• Deodorant
• Disposable Razors
• Shaving Cream
• Kleenex
• Cough Drops
• Aspirin

• Non-Alcoholic Cough Syrup
• Alka-Seltzer
• Pepto Bismol
• Tums
• Body Lotion
• Cologne
• Conditioner
• Hats & Gloves all sizes


Want to give financially? You can donate to our cause via the following link. We've set no minimum amount. Your heart will determine that:







I will be video documenting our journey and sharing our triumphs and struggles as we work on our big give and I really encourage you to follow us as we learn more about our shelter and the need that lies within our own community. You can follow our videos as we add them here:


Watch the Mission Unfold:

MomAdvice's Big Give: Kickoff
The Faith Mission Wish List
Big Give Makes the Front Page
Big Give Makes Big Strides

With power comes great responsibility, how can you flex your powerful muscle in your community?

Here is our banner and if you will be sharing about our big give efforts or if you are doing a big give in your town, please link up to our entry and we will give you FREE advertising on our blog for the month of January. We want to see pictures and hear your own inspiring stories in your town. We want to make a difference and we know you do!

Here is the code for the button, if you would like to place it on your blog:

<a href="http://www.momadvice.com/blog/2008/10/momadvice-big-give-faith-mission-of.htm">
<img border="0" alt="" src="http://www.momadvice.com/blog/uploaded_images/Big-Give-772087.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 190px; height: 112px;"/>
</a>


To make it easier to track participants, just add your name to the Mr. Linky below. Feel free to use the banner for your blog or for your particular entry.

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