Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I'm Small I Know, But Wherever I Go....*

I owe you a post about Fernando's recent trip to the hospital (he's completely fine) and about the the utter pointlessness of showering at this point in my life, and I will get around to that ANY SECOND NOW, but before I do, I have to post this...

I'm working on a winter service project with a few of my book club friends.

(I know some of your eyes just glazed over right there, but I have no choice but to post about it, since I keep blathering on to my friends about how I'm going to "get the blogging community involved.")

(As an aside - there is nothing that makes me feel like more of a dork than mentioning my blog to non-bloggers. Sure, they all nod and smile supportively, but I'm pretty sure they're secretly wondering when I'm going to publish my English-to-Klingon translation of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail soundtrack.)

(It probably doesn't help that I say things like "blogging community.")

Anyway, BLOGGING COMMUNITY, we're collecting new (or very gently used), warm coats and clothing for refugee children who live here in Salt Lake City. The kids in question came to SLC from war torn areas in Africa and Asia. Most of them have never experienced snow and have nothing appropriate to wear. The refugee specialist we've been working with says they are still desperately in need of warm children's clothing for this season. It's already November, so we're going to have to do this thing QUICKLY.

I'm collecting clothing locally (the old fashioned way - walking around handing out flyers and pestering friends and neighbors) - but I also wanted to start a virtual clothing drive.

The idea is pretty basic: You purchase new infant/toddler/child/teen size coats and/or warm clothing online and ship your items directly to the refugee center. Once you've purchased your items, come back here (to this post or any other) and let me know what you donated so we can keep track of how close we're getting to the goal. (You can email me if you're feeling shy.)

My goal is to wrangle 100 new coats and/or warm winter outfits. (Gloves and boots are always good too.)

The shipping address is:

Gayane Manukyan
Att: 100 Coats for Kids Project
Refugee Center at AAU
1588 South Major Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84115

In order to help spread the word about the clothing drive, I'm giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon.com. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment.

I'm also going to do one of those obnoxious things where you get additional entries if you blog or tweet or facebook about it. (Those tweet/blog/facebook type giveaways always sort of make me want to punch myself in the face, but I figure this is for the good of humanity.)

(Or at least the rag-tag little portion of humanity currently shivering on the playground over at Rose Park Elementary.)

So please, please - submit this post to the social media gods at facebook or twitter or Digg or kirtsy or wherever you happen to currently do your social media worshipping.

(For those of you concerned that this is self-promotional and I will benefit in some way from the traffic - 1) I don't have ads, and 2) I'm sure that if by some miracle my blog ever became anything close to popular, I would promptly take an eight month blogging break and lose all of my readers.) (It's what I do.)

If anyone else would like to get involved - locally or virtually - please email me or leave your info in the comments. The more people we can get involved, the better.

The giveaway ends Thursday night at midnight MT. Thanks for spreading the word.

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I've gotten a few tips for buying cheap coats online, if you're looking to contribute but are low on funds (aren't we all!):

A few good deals:

If you have any tips to add, please let me know!


* The title is a reference to a children's primary (sunday school) song - "Give Said the Little Stream" - which contains the line, "I'm small I know, but wherever I go, the fields grows greener still." (Thanks for the correction on the lyrics, guys.)

59 comments:

  1. I'll post and facebook. Maybe I've got coats to send. Let me look.

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  2. I'd like to get my blog involved as well!

    ~Brandi

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  3. I'm a-tweet'n and a-stumblin'. Good luck gathering coats and things!

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  4. Great idea. I sent the word out to my tweeps too! :)

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  5. Any idea on the ages/sizes of the kids? Which size is most needed? I'd love to help!

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  6. Thanks guys!

    Jessica - there are hundreds of kids and teens who need warm clothing, so any size works.

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  7. I'm pretty sure I've got *something* I haven't donated to DI yet that would work. Great idea!

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  8. Pick me!

    I may as well send you all my winter clothing, as I have no need of it here in Texas...

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  9. The authenticity of the blogging community has been challenged!

    I'm in! Lemme know when you get the address setup and all that.

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  10. Now you've got that song stuck in my head.

    Posting to my Facebook...

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  11. That is awesome. I am in.

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  12. just blogged it.

    seriously a great idea. And I feel dumb talking about my blog with non-bloggers, too. They just don't get it.

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  13. Coats are on sale at oldnavy.com this week.

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  14. I comment here, and I tweetered there...I'll look around and see what else I can do (pretty sure we've got some 'gently used' in my basement). This is a great idea, Sue.

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  15. Need infant/toddler?

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  16. Infant/toddler would be great!

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  17. It's a good thing you're doing this, Sue; I wouldn't want you sitting around getting bored or anything.

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  18. Good luck! what a great cause. They collect coats locally here during the winter and we try to give to them.

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  19. What a great idea. I am excited to help and will put this up on my blog.

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  20. I'll see what I can do. Coats are pretty much useless here.

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  21. Count me in too. There are few things worse than being cold.
    And I'll post it on my fb page. I'll let you know if it makes it onto my blog. (I still haven't put Halloween photos up so I can't promise anything.)

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  22. Awesome idea. Good luck!

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  23. Count me in! I'll put the word out for warm clothes and see what I can send you!!! Great cause by the way :)

    Christina

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  24. Tweet Tweet!!

    http://twitter.com/sistermckinney/statuses/5637892291

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  25. tiffany8:05 PM

    I'm totally on this.

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  26. Candice in AF10:07 PM

    Hi Sue. I'm not a blogger, but wanted to let you know I bought 2 coats in little girl sizes from walmart and had them shipped to the project address. Walmart is having a 97 cent shipping sale right now, and coats are in the $15 - 30 range so it was pretty painless.

    Thanks for reminding us to serve.

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  27. Wow, here's to your success!

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  28. Anonymous10:26 PM

    Thanks for giving us an idea for an easy way to do something nice for others.

    I bought and shipped a new colorblock puffer coat for a boy, size 7/9. It should be there in about 5 days, coming from The Children's Place. It is from Scott and Terri in Taylorsville.

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  29. Will you keep us posted on what sizes and things you need more of? This idea gave me warm fuzzies. I love taking my kids to do stuff like this around the holidays.

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  30. Ok, 3 coats (2 boys 1 girls) are on their way from Old Navy.com. Thanks for the heads up for this project!

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  31. I have this song stuck in my head now too. :)

    What a good idea.

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  32. I facebooked about it and sent messages to friends in Salt Lake, so some of them may contact you for more information. So if some total strangers from Salt Lake send you a message on facebook asking about the drive, it might be them. Or it might be someone else's total stranger friend. No telling.

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  33. I'm in too. I have some winter snow suits used 1x that I will send up. We don't get a lot of snow here in Vegas.

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  34. Anonymous11:25 AM

    I just downloaded a 30% of coupon for Old Navy and affiliated stores good 11/12 - 11/15. It can be used in the store or online. A bonus: they give 5% of the amount spent to Care, another non-profit, so a double opportunity to give. The website was: http://gap.m.delivery.net/w/webView
    I hear the outlet mall calling me.

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  35. I have some gently used coats I could give,(mostly infant and toddler) and I'm wondering if I can just drop them off myself rather than shipping them, since I'm close to S.L. I'm assuming they don't care?

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  36. So I just had four coats sent from WalMart online. They had reversible coats for around $13, and some fleece jacket things for as low as $7. This is a very nice thing you're doing, Sue.

    (And I hate mentioning my blog, too. I'd much rather be able to mention my nationally syndicated talk show or my book tour, but I guess we work with what we got!)

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  37. Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone!

    Misty - yes, you can definitely drop them off at the center.

    Alternatively, if anyone wants me to come pick them up, I'd be happy to do that.

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  38. Catherine1:09 PM

    I believe it's actually "fields grow greener still", not that anyone ever learned it that way growing up. I have checked both the new and old old primary songbooks to confirm. Somewhere, there is a primary chorister who really left her stamp on the world by singing the wrong words.

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  39. My kids and I have gathered 4 gently used coats and one girls pair of boots from our giant overstuffed closet and will deliver them to the center next Friday on our way to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Who do we ask for when we get to the center?

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  40. Hi JM - that's wonderful - thank you so much! You would ask for Gayane Manukyan (although I have no idea how on earth that is pronounced). If all else fails, you can tell them that Amy Wylie sent you over (she's the refugee specialist who is helping to coordinate this). Thanks so, so, so much!

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  41. Okay, I blogged about it so here's my second comment.
    Is there a deadline to get the coats there?

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  42. I just ordered two jackets from Old Navy.

    Also posted on Facebook.

    Best of luck!

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  43. Misty - thanks so much! There's no deadline for getting the coats there - the only urgency is that its cold outside! :)

    Thanks so much soybeanlover!!

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  44. I just shipped two from WalMart to the center. One girl and one boy coat.

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  45. Melanie - thank you so much!

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  46. I love this and will be sending some coats soon.

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  47. Sent three coats.

    I think you may end up with more than 100. What then?

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  48. Alison - thank you so much! And if that happens, then I guess there will be more than 100 warm, happy kids :) YAY!

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  49. If I can get one of my teens to make a post office run I'll add a coat to your collection.

    It's snowing here in Utah today. These coats are needed NOW.

    Such a great idea. Thanks for putting it together.

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  50. Thank you ParkerMama, that's fantastic.

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  51. I just sent two coats from Overstock with the hopes that someday they'll let me into Heaven.

    (Girl size 10 and boy size 5, in case you were wondering.)

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  52. I made your button 'clickable' and added it to one of my blog posts. Now if I get (or get someone to go) to the post office I will get my coat out to you! Yeah!

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  53. ohnoyoudidnt

    You put "blood clot" in your header! Just the words totally freak out this hypochondriac.

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  54. I saw the link on Jen's blog, and will look to see what we've got.

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