ALL THOSE SPECIAL DAYS (AND PEOPLE) IN NOVEMBER

BLACK FRIDAY

It's so convenient that JoAnn's starts their big Black Friday sale on Wednesday!  As mentioned in the previous post, this is the occasion with the best flannel prices of the year.  

Patty emailed some of her quilting friends, offering to endure the sale crowds for them, if they wanted to contribute some money to buy flannel.  Within a few hours, she had pledges of $180.  She hit the Eugene store when they opened at 6 Wednesday morning, and reduced their flannel inventory by over 100 yards.

I took my granddaughter to the Springfield store Wednesday around 5:00 pm, when I figured the crowds might be heading home for dinner, and we started pulling bolts that met DFG's fabric guidelines.  She was a great help in selecting, and loved handing the bolts to the clerk measuring for us.  We bought 59 yards.

Wendy wasn't able to get to a store, but let me know she'd be happy to contribute money too, so Friday, once I figured the crowds had thinned, I went back and found the last 3 bolts with designs that would work for liners.  We don't use solids much, but these mottled almost-solids should hide stains better.  Especially the one at the top!

The highlight of that trip was running into and catching up with my former mailman, who retired a couple of years ago.

And I've heard from some others of you who purchased flannel too--and have washed and dried it already! Sue was already started on making liners from hers when I spoke with her this weekend.

Let me know if you're interested in doing some of the washing, drying and pressing at home.  No huge rush--all this fabric will last us some time!  But if you let me know in advance, I can try to squeeze some in my car.

HOW DID THIS ALL GET STARTED?

I assume many of you have watched the videos on Days for Girls' website.  One of them is a TED talk by Celeste Mergens, Days for Girls founder, telling how she was inspired to form this life-changing organization.  On Sunday, somebody shared another one of Celeste speaking in Seattle about a year and a half ago.  Of course her statistics are out of date now.  Our network of teams and chapters has continued to grow rapidly.  A few weeks ago it was announced that we now had 750 teams and chapters (and new ones are added every week), which have distributed well over 400,000 kits!

GIVING TUESDAY AND THREAD OF HOPE

Veteran's Day (1938 as Armistice Day), Thanksgiving (1863), Black Friday (1960s), Small Business Saturday (2010), Cyber Monday (2005), Giving Tuesday (2012).  All these special days in November!  And when I worked in schools, parent-teacher conferences were always in the November mix too.  

The newest one, Giving Tuesday, is a nice way to take a break in focus from all the holiday shopping hoopla.  I usually think of it as monetary donations to nonprofits, but of course giving can be, in the case of Days for Girls, a pack of undies, spools of thread, etc., or your valuable time!  
Days for Girls typically takes 10% of monetary donations to our chapters and teams, for their overhead expenses, but occasionally there's an online fundraiser where we get to keep 100%.  They've just announced one for the holidays, Thread of Hope, just in time for Giving Tuesday donations.  This fundraiser is focused on our work helping refugees.
Here's the place to donate to Thread of Hope for our chapter, if you're interested in making a monetary donation.  You'll receive a receipt for tax purposes immediately and 100% of your donation stays with our chapter.  I've checked with our headquarters, and am told that Thread of Hope isn't just for Giving Tuesday, but will continue at least through the holiday season.  Perfect for folks who exchange charitable gifts for the holidays.  I do have the gift slips available if you'd like one to put in a card, telling the recipient that a gift to Days for Girls has been made in his or her name--just ask me.

November has really flown by for me.  Our next workday is the first Saturday in December, less than a week away.  We'll have some of our regular tasks to work on, plus we will assemble some of the kits going to Kenya in January with Friends of Kenya Schools and Wildlife (another great nonprofit to consider on Giving Tuesday).
Something a bit different this Saturday is that we're on the route of the 64th annual Springfield Christmas parade.  It starts at 1 pm on Mohawk Blvd. and will come down Main Street, right in front of Our Sewing Room.  I'd suggest that you get your parking spot at the bank (or another lot) early.

OFFER OF HELP

My goal for each distribution is to have every girl receive a bag made out of a different beautiful fabric.  Because the bags contain items of such a personal nature, I don't want mixing them up to be easy.  We make many bags of each fabric at one time, but hope to only need one of each for a particular community's distribution.  This past week I counted out 200 different bags.  Have you ever noticed how fascinated cats are when you're working on something on the bed?  My would-be assistant's name is Yobo.  Because some of the recipients might be sensitive to cats, I had to usher her out and close the door.

Hoping for a good turnout for the December 3rd workday, our last gathering of 2016.  I'll be set up at Our Sewing Room, ready to hand out tasks by 10:30.  We're packed up and departed by 5 p.m.  Please bring your basic sewing supplies (sharp scissors, rotary cutter, seam ripper, an empty bobbin or two, etc.), and your serger or machine if you'd like to use one.


See you Saturday!