Hitting well past our six-month mark, our schedule has kept us so busy with events and gearing up for our launch. We have made amazing connections with new organizations, as well as been humbled and blessed by the generosity of others. We are constantly reminded of why we are doing what we are doing, and motivated to make the way for the largest parent network, ever.
We had a slow few weeks of networking while we geared up for our Baby and Kids Clothing Giveaway. We had literally thousands of dollars worth of baby and kids clothes; baby items such as breastfeeding supplies, swaddles and more; so many shoes! We were given donations of diapers, and blessed so many families with bags and bags of different sizes. We had so many clothes leftover – we weren’t anticipating that, and so had arranged to work with Closet of Hope – a local organization helping foster families to have clothes and supplies they need – and were able to help fill their pantry with the remaining items.
We were able to partner with SERVPRO of Greater North Charleston and Dorchester County, who was kind enough to donate their conference room for us to set up. Biggby Coffee, who is a huge supporter of ours, donated coffee for our event, and it went so well, we have been invited to do a second clothing giveaway! We are working on this for a second giveaway, and are considering doing this semi-annually. We were given insight as to how much this is needed in our community, and people are happy givers! So we are pleased to facilitate this.
We nearly died in the July Summer heat in our Garden Day at Haven Oaks Apartments in Summerville, as we were able to come together with many other organizations to beautify their space and create a garden area for the resident children in that community. Heritage Landcare provided us with beautiful flowering plants and shrubs that will attract pollinators and bloom every year. With some annual maintenance, this gorgeous space will be a treasure for the residents there to relax beside and enjoy.
It was maybe 250 degrees outside, and we slowly roasted while digging and tilling the ground to receive the plants. We were blessed to have help from Warriors Haven, a local veterans support organization, Modern Woodmen Financial, who does financial advice. Hope Church was able to help us – they helped with our Clothing Giveaway also! It wasn’t actually easy, but was so rewarding when we were finished.
Afterward we had large river stones for each of the children to paint and personalize. We were able to place those stones in the garden for the children to enjoy and be reminded of the fun day we had. Ophelia, the manager, arranged to have benches placed there, and we hope they enjoy many books or morning coffee talks in front of their new area. It was amazing to see all the children and families come out to give a hand or watch our work. There are so many other projects like this that we want to do – bringing families together who maybe hadn’t done so before. This is how we build villages.
Now we are in the waning summer season and we are FINALLY gearing up for the launch of our web-app that will connect parents together everywhere! We have our giveaway to raise awareness of who we are and that we are coming. We can bring the village all we want – but now we are trying to populate that village. See our Facebook post for your shot to win – Like/follow, share and tag a friend – and we will draw at the end of the month. Who couldn’t use an extra $100? We are happy to help whoever wins, as we are so excited to populate our village!
We also have been able to create a few commercials for ourselves and we aren’t done with that! We have three videos we are promoting at the moment, and couldn’t be more pleased with the tools to grow our following via social media. This is to say nothing of the ability to use those commercials to help promote our Cornhole Tournament!
We are also planning ahead for future events. We are gearing up for our anniversary fundraiser dinner, investment meetings for more funding, a second clothing giveaway, Fog Lift – Reckoning with the Primal Wound documentary and weekend event series, and so many other things before the calendar year is over. What a wild ride this is. I cannot wait to see who we will meet next!
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