charities

How Quickly We Forget. (And Bushfire Donation List)

| Betsy

Seeing that I was sick on Valentine’s Day, I never got to post the following photo. I still don’t understand how these hearts in the big plastic bag made it pass the cut and were allowed to mingle with tiny pastel hearts that say “kiss me” or “in love” or even the somewhat pathetic attempt to remain hip, “u r the 1.” It may seem completely unrelated to the rest of the post, but deep down, I think it makes sense somehow?

It’s been a few days since the bushfires caused havoc in Australia. It’s out of our radar now for those of us outside of Australia. Old news.

We have other conflicts and troubles and fights and skuffles to take care of, so there’s a few days spent on illuminating a disaster and then it’s time to move on. It’s always after the news cameras turn away their gaze that people need your help most. I’ve been sick for the past few days and largely away from the computer, and was worried because I hadn’t posted the links that my new friend Bev had sent me. What was I worried about? That they would disappear? That something bigger would happen? Something closer to home?

Has our culture truly turned into one of “out of sight out of mind?” Do problems only resonate with us if and when we are personally touched by them? Sometimes I think this is true, sometimes I completely disagree. I guess then maybe the answer is quite simply, sometimes. If there is a personal connection to an issue/event/cause that tugs at your own heartstrings already, when someone comes along telling you more or asking for donations, we’re more likely to step up and listen or check our pockets for extra change.

I struggle with why I feel the way I do about certain issues and how those close to me don’t feel the same sense of anger or confusion or change. I know it’s often due to some minor event in someone’s life that brought attention to various things, meeting a Somali refugee on the bus, having a classmate with spina bifida, reading an article on teenage suicide in a magazine at the doctor’s office. And I wonder if later we can recall the moment our feelings changed and why, or if we just find ourselves with the urge to fight, help or save.

I like the fact that something I read about today may intertwine with the way I act in the future, even if I don’t really know what it said or where it was. It’s all about that resonation, the way ideas and things and people sink in you and stay no matter what the news or our friend or our country is telling us. It means that not everything is out of sight out of mind.

So you want to help raise money for bushfire victims? Here are some good places to start:

Handmade Help
*A new Melbourne-based craft blog that will keep you up-to-date on crafty things for sale whose proceeds are going to help fire victims.

The Toy Society
*The well-known secret service of softies who collect toys for kids in need!

Curly Pops
*50% of all the sales in this shop up until Feb 22 will go to the…

Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal

Rainbow Comfort Packs
*Collecting toys for children affected by the bushfires

Rayna’s collecting donations and selling crafts for the Australian Red Cross over here

For more information about the fires, check out this collection of bushfire news from Melbourne’s The Age.

Also interesting is an article on what caused so many people to die in the fires. You can read it here.

Sew Giving, Sew Easy.

| Betsy

I heard about this lovely sewing bee project from Diane Gilleland, and think it is really worth sharing.

From now until February 29th, Barakah Life will be collecting blankets (either handmade of store-bought if you’re pressed for time) for Project Night Night, an organization that gives homeless children their own tote bag with their own blanket, storybook and stuffed animal. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this project, and to be honest, it brings tears to my eyes because all of us, especially the littlest ones, deserve good and safe nights of sleep.

From the Project Night Night website:

There are approximately 298,000 homeless families in the United States. Currently, there are more homeless children in the U.S. than at any other time since the Great Depression. Nonetheless, family homelessness often goes unseen as most homeless families do not live on the street. Instead, most homeless families are transient, living in shelters, in cars, in hotels in the city’s poorest neighborhoods, or staying with friends or family members. These environmental stresses negatively influence a child’s early experiences and often lead to an increase in mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, and behavioral issues.

To ease the anxiety associated with shelter living, Project Night Night distributes Night Night Packages to homeless children ages 0-10. Each Night Night Package includes an age-appropriate book, a baby blanket which can be cuddled, and a stuffed animal which can become a cherished friend. Finding comfort is vitally important for children in order to feel secure, loved, and valued – even in the midst of the upheaval and uncertainty attendant to homelessness.

one more project for the list…

| Betsy

Although I get emails from people with encouraging words about what I’m writing about, it’s rare that I hear what people are doing for charity. If you’re in the process of making something or even just thinking about it, I’d love to know.

At the moment, I’m working on those blankets and hats that will be donated to Olivia’s Angels in Georgia. There are also some chemo caps in the works. Today I’ve added another project to the list, using my scrap yarns from various other endeavours, and making blankets for Snuggles.

People ask me how and why I choose the charities I send things to. It usually starts by something pulling at the heartstrings whether I mean for it to or not. The preemie things are because I was a preemie and my mother a scared mother who needed a little comfort when I was 2lb and so small. The chemocaps for my grandfather because he is fighting prostate cancer that has metastatized and my grandmother who survived breast cancer. (In fact, it’s a rather long list, this one.) The Snuggles blanket in memory of my dog, Annie, who has been a part of my family since the spring of 1991. She was put down last night.

I make and donate things because of the kindness and compassion that has been shown to me and to those I love, and because I want to add a little bit of light to the lives of others. With every stitch I sew or knit or crochet or whathaveyou I am fighting against coldness and for more warmth.

While such a tiny act may not make a difference to loads of people/animals at once, it does make a difference for one. Or two. Or three. Or however many donations you choose to make. That’s the power behind such a small, simple act.

In giving things made with kindness and hope and love to others, I not only embolden and replenish their spirits but my own as well.

a geeky little p.s a. on volunteering

| Betsy

Today I move to London.

Due to that, here’s a link to National Centre for Volunteering.

I’ll admit, I love volunteering. As a kid, my parents drug me to all sorts of fundraisers, building sites, meetings, etc. I hated it. Then when I found causes that I found worth supporting, like the ASPCA and various crafty organizations (many of which are linked to this page!), I fell in love with it.

Some basic issues regarding volunteering are discussed here, from Canada’s Source for Information on Volunteering.

Do good things.