And the winner for the Dr. Suess books is...

Chrystal! She is the winner of the raffle for 3 Dr. Suess books in Spanish!
Dee gave numbers in order of who donated first on the 12th of Feb.

Heather & Holly --1, 2, & 3 then
Heather M. -- 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, then
Chrystal -- 9-28 then
Heather M. -- 29, 30, 31, 32, (I rounded up to make it 4)
Lisa -- 33, 34, 35, 36, 37
Lisa --- 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Chrystal -- 43-234

The random number chosen was 62 Chrystal

Chrystal, please let myself or Dee know where you would like the books to be shipped. Thank you all who helped fund this project!! The family will be one of the fortunate ones in the Dominican Republic to have a "job" or regular income. They will have their own business!

Fundraiser #18 is Complete!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone!!! Yamileisy & Jose Manuel will now get to set up their parents' business!!! This was our last $500 fundraiser, so it was very difficult to get through (like all of the $500 ones were). However, thanks to every one who donated over the past two months & a generous completing donation made by Chrystal today, we have made this family's dream of a brighter future come true!!!

There are still two more fundraisers going on, so look at the post right before this one. There are about 5 fundraisers upcoming whose sponsors have not donated anything. Even a few dollars hear and there helps. Most of you have close to $100 to donate before your fundraisers start. If you have decided not to do your fundraiser, please contact me. If you still wish to do your fundraiser, now is the time to make the effort to help others. I know I sound like a broken record, but I seem to be talking to myself because nothing has changed. I am going to post the list of fundraisers on March 1st. If you have not donated your share by February 28th, your fundraiser will be put at the end of the list. It isn't fair to the others who have been constantly supporting the others that they have to wait longer than the ones who are not contributing. I understand that you may not be able to donate all of it by the 28th. If you have put forth an effort, I can keep you in your fundraiser spot. However, you will still need to donate the rest of the amount by March 15th. Otherwise, you will be bumped to the end of the list. Please keep in mind that people are more likely to support your fundraiser if they see that you have supported theirs.

Raffle Deadline Fast Approaching

Don't forget that there are 3 raffles currently going on! The deadline to enter is tomorrow 2/26/10, so hurry if you want to win! Of course, I don't mind winning :o) I won't be doing the raffles this time because my name is in each one.

Yamileisy & Jose Manuel's fundraiser has a raffle for 3 Dr. Suess books in Spanish

Michelle's fundraiser has a raffle for a $20 gift card

Maria's fundraiser has a raffle for a $25 gift card

Fundraiser Slots Available & Details

Since it has been almost a year since we started these fundraisers, and we have had many new members, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the details of how the fundraisers work. Here is the announcement that was made last year:

Dear fellow sponsors,

Thanks to your overwhelming support, our fundraising projects have been a huge success! However, there is some concern that, as our campaigns continue, the people benefiting from these fundraisers will not be same people who have been contributing to others with the greatest generosity.

Our FirstGiving fundraising campaigns are based on the concept of 'Pay It Forward', following a model developed by an experimental group of four sponsors. Over the past year, these four developed a money-sharing system that would allow their sponsored children to receive Special Needs gifts more rapidly: instead of each sponsor saving up her money for four months, then each funding her own project, the sponsors contributed the money they would have saved to another child - with the knowledge that the same would be done for her when her child's turn for a donation came around. The beauty of the idea was that three out of the four children involved in the project would receive their donations sooner than they would have otherwise.

FirstGiving uses the same concept, only executed on a grander scale. With more people involved, a little goes a long way, and smaller contributions on the part of many can accomplish great things. The hope is that donors will feel good about helping other needy children, having the underlying belief that their own child's project will eventually be funded in the same manner. Unlike the arrangement between the above-mentioned four sponsors, there is no guarantee that each contributor will receive back precisely the same amount that he/she has invested in the previous projects - which is fine, as long as everyone is aware that the system could break down if it starts relying too heavily on a small core group of donators who may easily become frustrated if they feel they are doing all of the 'work'.

To ensure that things remain fair and somewhat even, in order to have one of your children granted a slot in the next round of fundraisers, you must have contributed at least 25% of your 'asking' amount to previous projects. For instance, if your sponsored child has requested $200 to buy an X-Box … oops, I mean to buy food and school supplies … then in order to start a fundraiser for him/her, you must have already donated a total of $50 to our previous projects. This rule is particularly important as the maximum amount for future projects is being increased to $350. I would like to have seen a sponsor contribute at least $88 to other projects before requesting this much for his/her own child!

*We currently have 3 slots available for a fundraiser. If you would like your sponsor child to have one of those slots, please contact me. If you want your fundraiser to be the $350 amount, you will need to donate $88 to our current fundraiser BEFORE your child gets the slot.

For those who have a fundraiser already scheduled and have not yet donated their 25%, please do so now. Our fundraisers have been struggling, and there are several upcoming projects whose sponsors have not yet donated. That is why it will now be required that the sponsor donates BEFORE their fundraiser gets a slot. This will guarantee that when the time comes for your fundraiser to start, it will start right on time.

To donate to the current fundraisers and get a fundraiser slot for your child, visit these links below:

Yamileisy & Jose Manuel

Michelle

Maria

3rd Raffle added!!! Dr Suess Books in Spanish

Now, all of our current fundraisers have a raffle attached to them!!! If you enter into all of them, you could win all of them! (see my previous post about the other 2 raffles) This raffle is to complete the fundriaser for Yamileisy & Jose Manuel. Dee is offering this 3 book set of Dr. Suess books in Spanish. Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish, & Are You My Mother? To enter the raffle, click here $1 = 1 raffle ticket.

These classic Dr. Suess books will delight any Spanish speaking child ages 3 to 12ish! They are all brand new! The raffle for these books will go until February 26th, and the drawing will be held on the 27th. (all 3 drawings will be held at the same time)

Let's have fun making these 3 family's dreams come true!!

Current Fundraisers 2/12/10

Fundraiser #18: The Dominican Family Business will soon be under way! Only $230 more needed!! The one day sale added close to $10 to the fundraiser. Little by little, we are getting it done. To make a donation, click here

Fundraiser #21: Home repairs for Michelle's family is in need of $174. The one day sale added $15.50 to this fundraiser. If you would like to make a donation to repair this family's home, click here

Fundraiser #22 is for Maria's family to open a fish vending business & includes the purchase of a motorized boat. This is one of the big fundraisers, but any amount of money helps make a dent in the capital needed for the business. $511 is still needed. To make a donation to this project, click here

The one day sale went ok. There were a few extra purchases, as you can see, they helped these fundraisers. I didn't know this, but the handheld games that were offered during the one day sale, also, dispense candy!! So, I will be adding candy to the ones that were bought before I ship them out. There are still some left, and I am hoping to get some more in stock soon. These will be great for the Christmas packages. AND, it is good to get the fundraisers helped at the same time.

How you can help

To help Yamileisy and Jose Manuel, click here

To help Carla, click here

To help Michelle, click here

Eveline Germain is in need of a sponsor. She is 8 years old and attends the preschool class in Danda. She has 1 brother & 6 sisters. She needs a very special sponsor. Details below...

I decided to break down and make my "How you can help" post. With all that is going on, I could use all of the help I can get! So here are some ways you can help. Depending on what works for you and how much time you have, here are the things that are needed:

1. There are 3 fundraisers currently. There are so many ways to help with those:

a. Donate to the fundraisers.

b. Add a link to the fundraisers on the signature line of your e-mails to family, friends, coworkers, etc. You would be surprised at how many people will say, "Hey, I saw your link, what is it about?" You have now opened a discussion for fundraisers & new sponsorships!

c. Add a fundraiser link to your social networking sites: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Google & Yahoo Groups, among others.

2. I need someone that can do up some FirstGiving pages for me for our upcoming fundraisers. This can be done in whatever spare time you have. Once you figure out the site, the whole process shouldn't take more than 15 minutes per page. I will have a little under 20 pages that need to be set up between now and March. If that is something you can help with, please contact me for start up details.

3. The little girl shown above, Eveline Germain is in need of a special sponsor. She is in the HH4H program and recently lost her sponsor. The HH4H crew is concerned about her health, so they do not want her to be without a sponsor. She remains small, even though she has gotten older. This is why the crew is concerned. If you have space in your heart for this little girl, please send an e-mail to Jamie at jamie@hishandsforhaiti.org

4. I am starting another group called MIC- Mothers Inspiring Change. This group will be based on the whole IGP process that we have done for our families through the fundraisers. The difference is that this group will partner with a group of mothers to provide them with a business. The business will provide income for 15+ mothers and their families (there are 15 mothers right now ready to get started, but we will probably have more mothers total in the business by the time it starts). How can you help? I need someone who has set up web-sites before to put together a web site for this group. It will be similar to the one we have for the MAC group. Someone with experience in IGP's and east africa is preferred but not necessary. If you can provide this service, please contact me for start up info.

5. You can donate items to raffle/ sell in the web store that can provide money for our fundraisers. Sara S is a good example of this- She provided 25 barbie-like dolls that have already provided over $100 to the fundraisers! There are still dolls she donated that are waiting to be bought, so after all of them sell, she will have given $200 to the fundraisers!! Donations should be mailed to: Make a Change, c/o Heather McLaughlin, P O Box 847, Anna, TX 75409

I am going to go ahead and post this, so that you can see what is needed. I may have some more things to add about helping later, so I will put those in a new post if that happens.

Please keep me posted about Eveline Germain, as well, so that I know when she has a sponsor. Thanks!!!

By the way, of those who have children in the HH4H program, do any of you have children in Danda? If so, send me an e-mail. There is another special project in the works for the Danda children.

Current Fundraisers 1/15/10

#18 is for Yamileisy and Jose Manuel's family in the Dominican Republic to start a business. They need about $330 more to start the business. Here is the link

#19 is for Carla in Chile. The fundraiser is almost halfway to completion with only a little over $100 to go!! Here is the link

#20~ Is for Jerry's family in the Philippines. They only need $100 to buy a table, cabinet & family-sized mosquito net. Here is the link

Sara S. capped off fundraiser #15 yesterday!!! YAY!! Now Maria & Ullysette will get the beds and food they need. Thank you, every one who helped make that happen for these two precious children!

These are the 3 fundraisers we now have going on. I expect them to fund quickly. 2 of them are almost complete, so it shouldn't take long. We have lots of families waiting in line, so I am anxious to get these completed ASAP. (20 more families are waiting for us- Can you believe it!?)

I will be adding some funds that I have today. Please join me in helping these 3 families. I think we can get at least one of these funded today, and the more we fund, the more people we can help!!

Thank you again for all you do! Have I ever told you how much I appreciate each and every one of you? Well, If I haven't...

I APPRECIATE YOU TREMENDOUSLY!!!!

**By the way, the money made from the princess dolls discussed in the post right before this one will be donated immediately! That being said, 8 dolls have already been purchased, and $64 has been donated to the fundraisers listed above. That means it will be even easier to get these funded!!

Three Active Fundraisers

Carla's fundraiser only needs $148 more!!!

Jose Manuel & Yamileisy's fundraiser needs $410.40

Maria & Ullysette's fundraiser only needs $74!!!

Look at how close we are to finishing Robyn's fundraiser!! I know we can finish it off this week- probably even today!! Stephanie's fundraiser only needs a little over $100, too! After one of these fundraisers funds, I will launch the next one. The next one is only for $100, so we are moving right along!!

If you have a fundraiser coming up, please make sure your donations match up with what you need to have donated before your fundraiser begins. I had to stop my inventory of donations because the end of the year got hectic, but I will be back counting again in a few days. I want to make sure that everyone is doing their part to help everyone else. The 3 people with fundraisers coming up soon whose doantions I have not checked yet are:

Tamara

Cherise

Kate

Please double check your donations and make sure that you have already donated your 25%, so that your fundraisers can go off as planned.

Also, I have been adding more items to the web store. I will go more in depth about the web store in my next post. Check out the store and you will see many new things! I am adding more candy & games a little later in the week. Here is the store link

Current Fundraisers

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on our current fundraisers. We have 2 (not including the 2 big ones for homes). Once we are close to completion on either one of these, I will add an additional small fundraiser. I have a few that are $200 and below, so they should go quicker. I just want to get these two closer to completion first (by that I mean only $100 left).

We have Maria & Ullysette's fundraiser that only needs $245!

And, Yamileisy and Jose Manuel's fundraiser that needs a little over $400.

The good news is we don't have very many of these $500 fundraisers left. 2010 should be an easier year, since the fundraisers will hover around $300. Plus, with the profit from the web store sales going into these fundraisers, they should move quicker. Of course, it won't be a HUGE profit because I wanted to keep the prices in the store closer to reality of what they cost to buy & ship. The more people participate, the more chance we have to earn something significant for the fundraisers.

Please consider giving to one of the 2 fundraisers above, and get it written off on your 2009 taxes.

A Final Plea before Christmas

We are already only a few days away from Christmas! I don't know about you all, but it has been crazy around my house all month long!! Some things that I have been meaning to do have fallen through the cracks somehow. I will have to run out this week and do the last of my Christmas shopping (and I am not a last minute shopping kind of person). It scares me that I won't be able to find the "perfect gift" for the 3 people left on my list!

Oh, the worries we have!

I have been thinking about Dee's children Jose Manuel and Yamileisy these past few days. Mostly because their fundraiser hasn't gotten a single donation. I am trying to internalize exactly how it would feel to be in their shoes.

Until recently, they were using a community latrine! Those are just words, but I want you to think about it for a minute. Have you or your children (if you have any) ever woken up in the middle of the night needing to run to the rest room? Would you feel comfortable having your kids go out to the community latrine at 3AM?

Then, I thought of my husband's grandmother. His grandmother built her own home, and it is quite a piece of work (considering it was done by people who had never built a house before in their lives). However, it is laking a few things. There is one toilet, but when there are 10 people in the house inevitably, you are going to need to go and being waiting impatiently outside the bathroom door for the person inside to finish. Imagine if you have to share a toilet with a whole community!!!

The family finally got the bathroom they needed, thanks to Dee's hard work and determination. That is one less thing to worry about. I am sure the family is very happy to have that!

Their income is only $70. I am not sure how they are able to buy all of the food and other necessities. I imagine there are a lot of necessities that they have to go without.

The family is not asking for a handout. In fact, they didn't ask for any thing. However, Dee saw an extremely poor family and wanted to help them change their situation. When approached by CI about an IGP, the family took us up on it. This business could easily help them double their income.

In the Dominican Republic, unemployment is high, and it is difficult to find and keep a job. This gives them something they can do on their own.

I know this is Christmas week, and every one has a lot going on. This is all I am asking of you...

If everyone could just donate $10, we could make a big dent in this fundraiser. And, I will leave you alone until after Christmas :0)

http://www.firstgiving.com/dominicanfamilyigp

Yamileisly & her family get a bathroom!

Yamileisly is sponsored by Dee. Although Dee has been hit by the hard financial times of this economy, she was still able to pull together funds to provide her sponsor child with something the rest of us take for granted~ a toilet (as well as the sink and room to go with it)!!! Talk about having a heart of gold! She has definitely gone the extra mile to make sure that her sponsor child Yamileisly can remain healthy (and so can her family)!

This is what Dee had to say:

"I'm so excited that the family received the materials for their new bathroom, What a difference it will make. Something so simple yet so needed! I can't wait to see the finished project. Yamileisy's letter says;

"My Dear Darleny;
Hello, I am very happy because you are thinking about me and my family. Thanks for the donation. We received; clothes, shoes, 1 Polo shirt (for dad) 2 blouses (for mom) 2 pair pants (Yami) 1 toy, construction materials; concrete blocks, pipes, cement, sink, toilet, etc. With love, Yamileisy"

Comments: The child was very happy and thankful to the sponsor for this great donation. The family gives thanks to the sponsor and said: "We are really happy and will ask God to bless and give health for the sponsor."
I really wish they didn't have to take up so much precious room listing everything. The photos are enough proof. I'd rather hear all about them, as many have mentioned before.

Just the other day I was telling an acquaintance about my CI kids and getting them a bathroom. He is a foster parent so I thought he'd be interested in my story. I told him about my upcoming fundraiser for the family's Income Generating Project. He then gave me $10 to put towards it. I was so grateful. I came home and put it into my FirstGiving page (even though it isn't up to my number yet). I love my CI kids and talking about them to whoever will listen. I try to carry my trip photos and SNG photos with me so that they know how real it is!

$$$$$ Money, Money all around!! $$$$$

Jonathan received $13.60

Yamileisy and Jose Manuel received $15.60

Eloina received $24.60

Nsenzeni received $15

The magazine fundraiser check arrived today!!! For those of you expecting $$$, check your fundraisers for the donations! They have all been made. Maybe our next check will make an even bigger dent in these fundraisers!

So close!

http://www.firstgiving.com/igp4nsenzeni

I hope everyone can help with this fundraiser. It only needs $200 more, which is the amount of our small fundraisers that we originally started with. I know these large fundraisers are hard to fund, and most of us are short on cash. Soon we will be back to the lower amounts, and these will move more quickly. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Every dollar counts, so if you can donate $1 or $3 or whatever, it all adds up!!

2. Once this one funds, we will go on to the next fundraiser!!

3. Here is the list of fundraisers coming up soon after this one... Make sure that you have put in your 25% by the time it is time to launch your fundraiser, so that it doesn't get delayed!:

Next in line~ Crystal & Gema (Su)

2nd in line~ Maila (Steve)

3rd in line~ Adriana (Candace)

4th in line~ Yamileisy (Dee)

These other sponsors, bless their hearts, have been given the short end of the stick!! Jennifer and Robyn have both been pushed out to later fundraisers because of problems getting the reply back from the field. Jennifer got a reply from the field, but instead of giving us a fundraiser of $500 or less, they requested $2,500!! Because Robyn's was being delayed, we sent another request out for a different child of hers, that way at least one will come back in time! I hope that by the time Dee's is getting ready to finish, they will have their responses that they need!