What. A. Weekend!!!
It was a weekend chock
full of more kindness than any 2 days should be able to hold! It was glorious!
A few months ago, I got
excited thinking about creating some art with kids again (which is always fun!)
and scheduled a Junior Kindness Activist event – making Mother’s Day gifts (now,
in the spirit of the Big Yellow House being inclusive and not having a whole
heck of a lot of structure or rules, these gifts were not specifically for
mothers, but could be made to give to anyone).
We have done several of these events:
parents sign their child up, then drop them off for an hour-ish of
CREATIVITY! They make a piece of art to take
home (and the parent gets a well deserved hour of peace). There are some kids who are “regulars” and
know how it all works and feel safe when their adult leaves, and others who are
new to the experience and are a bit more trepidatious.
26 kids came for this one
- in only 2 days! Sign-ups were done in advance with a maximum
of 4 kids per time slot. And wow, did we
have fun!! The project this time was a
special flower in a little flower pot and a card. Kids painted their pots and flowers and
filled the pots with pretend dirt. There
were sequins available to artists. And
glass beads. Oh – and GLITTER, did I mention
glitter?? The regulars have come to
expect that when they come to Miss Susan’s to craft, they WILL be allowed to
use glitter (even if the person they are making the gift for is not a big fan
of this “ingredient”…).
We used so many supplies
this time! Here are the ones that I can
remember: colored paper, glitter, markers,
glue, sequins, paint pens, paint, paint brushes, more glitter, wooden sticks,
rocks, glass beads, even more glitter, clay pots, fake flowers made of some
sort of thin wood I think, silk leaves, card paper, shiny rock bits, floral
foam, and GLITTTTER! Many of these items
were donations that came in for the Kindness Yard Sale that were squirreled
away for this project instead (thank you donors – I hope you are cool with this
use of the items!).
The kids who created,
ranging in ages from 2 to 10, were so lovely!!
They were polite and funny and artistic and silly and all-around
fantastic. We had kids who weren’t sure
what their mother’s favorite color was and then one kid who actually knew his
mom’s favorite FLOWER (and chose to make one that looked just like that variety
to surprise her). We had kids who
thanked their moms in their cards for being the best mom in the whole wide
world (how can so many of you be the best one in the world…) to one child who
admitted in their card that maybe this hadn’t been the best of years… We had kids who wanted to use every single
color of paint imaginable to one who simply wanted to use BLACK (but later
decided to spice it up by adding some yellow).
And we had everything in between.
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| One very proud artist - her flower pot is next to her |
And we had SNACKS. Ahhh snacks!
Thank you to donors of the Little Yellow Free Pantry – snack supplies
were pulled from the pantry stock. Capri
Suns hit the spot on this sunny weekend, and chips, candies, fruit leathers,
crackers, and more delighted the artists.
 |
| Artists hard at work |
Special thanks to
volunteers Nadya (who stayed much longer than the times she registered for and
made the perfect model of the project), and Gary and Marc (who helped with the clean-up
and giggled with me when the child asked for the “teal marker” – since when did
kindergartners differentiate shades of blue??).
Kindness Activist funds
used: $23.63
(lots of the craft supplies (like the glitter!!) were from my stash and others
were donated so this came in at a great price!)
Only, as I alluded to at
the beginning of this story, this was a BUSY WEEKEND… So, making crafts was not the only Kindness
Activist event. Oh no, as kids and I were
working in the BACKYARD, the PLANT WHISPERERS were working in the
FRONTYARD!
You see, May 6th
was the Kindness Plant Sale, too!!!
A group of amazing women
in the community asked last year if they might pitch in and host a plant sale
to raise money for Kindness Activist.
They said they would do everything, but could they host it at our house
since we live on such a busy corner??
Well now, who could resist that offer???
So, this was the 3rd
Kindness Plant Sale and my oh my, was it ever successful!! People donated so many plants and plant
related items! There were huge plants,
baby plants, plants with thorns, plants with smooth leaves, PLANTS, PLANTS,
PLANTS! And they were gorgeous!!
The sun was shining. The air was warm. And the shoppers turned out! Boy howdy, did they turn out!
The event was supposed to last
for 4 hours on Saturday, but because there were SO MANY donations, we had
plenty left to extend another day, so we opened on Sunday too (albeit with a
skeleton crew 😊 ).
Generous shoppers/donors
hit it out of the park on this one, people.
The Kindness Plant Sale more than doubled the total the volunteers
brought in last time!! I am so very
grateful to these neighbors – thank you thank you thank you!
And if you did not get a
chance to stop by and enjoy the extravaganza in person, remember, it’s not too
late to shop the companion online auction event!!! But you better check it out soon, because the
final gavel bangs at 10:00 pm ET on May 9th. You know what they say – bid early and bid
often!! The proceeds from the online
auction will also go to Kindness Activist and will be used to spread kindness. Link to the online Kindness Plant Sale Art
Auction here: Kindness Plant Sale Art Auction
Kindness Activist funds
raised from the Kindness Plant Sale so far:
$2330 (and more is likely to trickle in, the GIGANTIC yucca
that was donated is now listed on Facebook Marketplace…)
Other kind things that
happened in this short weekend:
-
We brought a hot dinner
to our homeless friend
-
An AMAZING
neighbor donated a very nice sofa to our friend (and a Kindness Activist
volunteer) who just received permanent housing from the county – and not only
did he donate the sofa, he donated the use of his TRUCK so that we could
deliver it!
-
Another neighbor helped
us get the sofa out of a basement apartment (not easy) and transport it. Then he refused to accept money for his help.
-
A stranger helped
carry sofa pillows and hold doors for us
-
A community
member who needed something for dinner was comfortable enough to ask for it and
received it
-
A neighbor girl
who is a pantry guest was very happy to receive the first ever box of Q-Tips
that pantry has had
-
A pantry visitor
received a hot meal
-
Supplies were donated
to the pantry
More thanks to:
·
The woman who
bought David and I lunch when we hadn’t eaten
·
The children who
worked at the lemonade stand (and sold a LOT of drinks and treats!)
·
The people who
work literally year-round to propagate and grow plants for these sales
·
The woman who
bought David and I a box of wine 😊
·
The woman who
made the cool Kindness Plant Sale sign for the last event that was used again
this time
·
The women who
patiently instruct those of us who do not know much about plants how often we
should water our purchases and how much light they need
·
The stranger who recognized
me in line at Trader Joe’s buying a cart full of flowers to make into bouquets for
the sale and gave me a $25 gift card to help pay for them
·
The partners of
the women who give up a lot of their time to come set up, sell, and tear down
this massive event
·
The woman who
brought David and I a bag of homegrown lettuce
·
The shoppers,
many of whom donate more than they know the items are worth to keep this
mission alive
·
The person who
pulled up next to David and I at a red light when our Prius hatchback was full
of the biggest yucca tree I have ever seen and said, “Hey, I bet you are going
to the Kindness Plant Sale!” and made us crack up
·
The woman who
brought David and I fresh watermelon
·
The woman who
made cupcakes with EDIBLE FLOWERS on top to sell at the lemonade stand so that they
would match the theme of the event
·
The women who
holed up in our basement drinking “elf juice” and making floral arrangements
until midnight (even if you did make fun of the ONE arrangement I made…)
·
The partner (#husbandforscale)
who gave up his entire weekend to jump into this mumbo jumbo messy fun
·
The volunteers
who stayed much longer than they ever planned to
·
The people who
donated plants
·
The people who
came to shop
·
And anyone I have
forgotten in my exhausted state
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