Season of Giving - Charity has been chosen!

[pixy0stix]

@ameliapond's nominated charity Austin's House www.austinshouse.org/ has been chosen for our charity this year!

And with that, I'll turn it over to ameliapond!

[Deleted]

Thanks so much for voting for Austin's House! My aunt was so touched when I told her and really excited. Since they’re a fairly small facility and I don’t want to make anymore work for them during the season, here’s what I was thinking for ways to give:

1. Amazon wishlist for the house itself. My aunt is putting one together now. Items will ship directly to Austin’s House. If you want to buy items for the house from other sites, I'll provide the shipping address here.

2. ‘Stockings’ for the kids. The facility is short term and I want to give all the kids stuff they can easily take with them when they leave. They do have clothing/toiletries provided through other programs, so to make it special my thinking is more ‘luxury’ items. Fun makeup from Sephora, branded items, sports related clothing/hats, anything else you all can think of that would be fun. I’ll be getting more tailored info on the kids there now and we’ll want some more extras in case more kids come in closer to the holiday and others leave. I’ll set up a separate Amazon wishlist for this and maybe we can have a brainstorming thread for other ideas. Stocking items will ship to me so they can be packaged up and sent to the house.

3. Gift cards to Starbucks, fast food, other local places for the stockings Lots of the kids are teens and gift cards let them feel more normal by having money to spend and go out with their friends. I can buy these with money from my Paypal or you can buy them and have them mailed to me.

4. Paypal me at ameliapondgbcn@gmail to send money for items you’d like me to buy, to pool for larger items as well as wrapping/shipping supplies.

5. Would any of the NYC metro ladies be interested in having a packing GTG so we can put together all the stockings together for shipping, maybe the second week in December? We can use classroom space at my office for this.

[secretlyevil]

:: Claps hands together excitedly::

[laurenpetro]

I'm down for the GTG. I'm not exactly Metro but I love driving

Soo excited!!!!

[josieposy]

Have we set a deadline yet, or is that forthcoming?

I'm excited.

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2015 12:10:29 GMT -5 josieposy said:

Have we set a deadline yet, or is that forthcoming?

I'm excited.

I'd like to get the stocking packages packed maybe Dec 12 or 13 & sent on the 14th since I'm across the country. Stuff from the house wishlist will have a later deadline tbd.

[secretlyevil]

Should this be pinned pixy0stix?

[twotrue]

Depending on the date I'm up for driving down for a packaging party.

[wawa]

Yay!!! As soon as we have more details (ages, etc) I think I know where my carefully hoarded Ulta points are going to go! I'm glad I didn't just buy random shit just to buy it.

[Deleted]

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay, but I'm in the ER with DH waiting for him to be admitted. I'll try to get everything together soon.

[pixy0stix]

Nov 2, 2015 19:36:33 GMT -5 @ameliapond said:

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay, but I'm in the ER with DH waiting for him to be admitted. I'll try to get everything together soon.

We're early with this, so you're good. I hope his stay is short.

[secretlyevil]

Nov 2, 2015 19:36:33 GMT -5 @ameliapond said:

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay, but I'm in the ER with DH waiting for him to be admitted. I'll try to get everything together soon.

I hope it's not a long stay.

[sushi]

Having done this before, I think you have a great plan. I also had an amazon wishlist and paypal. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. It was fun having all those packages show up addressed to sushi Make sure to take pictures!

[scribellesam]

Hi all, I'm @ameliapond's sister. Her DH has been put into hospice care so she won't be able to head this up any longer. I'm happy to take over for her if that is all right with everyone. I post fairly regularly over on MMM.

I'm getting my own PayPal and email set up right now, and as soon as my aunt emails me the link to the Amazon wish list and a shipping address we should be ready to go and I will start a new thread. I will probably not be able to do the stocking stuffer portion, unfortunately. Thank you for understanding.

[laurenpetro]

Omg, I'm so sorry for them. Please pass along our best thoughts.

Guys, can we make a list of who has done this in the past as contacts for questions?

[pixy0stix]

Nov 5, 2015 14:10:38 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

Omg, I'm so sorry for them. Please pass along our best thoughts.

Guys, can we make a list of who has done this in the past as contacts for questions?

sushi and twotrue have both headed it up in the past.

[twotrue]

scribellesam - I coordinated this last year and am happy to answer any questions. Setting up an Amazon wish list takes a bit of work but, once in place, makes things easy. When I made the list I made sure to pick items that were eligible for Amazon Prime or free shipping. Then just make sure to watch the list (I think you get sent emails too) in case things go out of stock. I also watched to make sure prices didn't jump too much. For example I put a pair of shoes on the list that were something like $40 and then a few day later they had doubled in price. I did some searching and found a similar pair for less (in this case the person getting the shoes was specific about the pair she wanted).

As for the stockings, perhaps that can be an option for people. We can put together stockings ourselves and mail them directly to the charity.

[pixy0stix]

I have faith in this community that we will make this work.

[twotrue]

Also - it's early still, but as we get closer, if your Aunt can give us ages and genders of the kids likely to get the stockings that will help.

[scribellesam]

Nov 5, 2015 15:07:12 GMT -5 twotrue said:

scribellesam - I coordinated this last year and am happy to answer any questions. Setting up an Amazon wish list takes a bit of work but, once in place, makes things easy. When I made the list I made sure to pick items that were eligible for Amazon Prime or free shipping. Then just make sure to watch the list (I think you get sent emails too) in case things go out of stock. I also watched to make sure prices didn't jump too much. For example I put a pair of shoes on the list that were something like $40 and then a few day later they had doubled in price. I did some searching and found a similar pair for less (in this case the person getting the shoes was specific about the pair she wanted).

As for the stockings, perhaps that can be an option for people. We can put together stockings ourselves and mail them directly to the charity.

Thank you, this is all good information to know. I will update the stocking stuffer description so we can try to keep it as an option.

[secretlyevil]

Nov 5, 2015 14:08:10 GMT -5 scribellesam said:

Hi all, I'm @ameliapond's sister. Her DH has been put into hospice care so she won't be able to head this up any longer. I'm happy to take over for her if that is all right with everyone. I post fairly regularly over on MMM.

I'm getting my own PayPal and email set up right now, and as soon as my aunt emails me the link to the Amazon wish list and a shipping address we should be ready to go and I will start a new thread. I will probably not be able to do the stocking stuffer portion, unfortunately. Thank you for understanding.

Please let her know she and her H are in our thoughts. Give her a big hug from us as well.

[secretlyevil]

Nov 5, 2015 15:08:56 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I have faith in this community that we will make this work.

me too, I am always in awe of what GBCN can do.