A Plan

Last February I held a little fundraiser for some folks in this area who lost their uninsured store in a fire, and I gave 50% of all sales for the month to them. The response was amazing, so many people wanted to help and even gave direct donations, and the final sum of over $1000 collected was really wonderful for the recipients. Since then I've been thinking a lot about doing something like that on an ongoing basis, and it's really time to stop thinking and start doing. I've spent some time looking into various charities and have settled on Heifer International. I had thought to go with Doctors Without Borders, which is a truly amazing organization, but I really like Heifer because they provide people with a means to support themselves in an ongoing way. The basic idea is that they buy animals for poor families all over the world (including the US) - not the half-starved, diseased animals that might be available to those people, but healthy, strong ones - so that they can produce their own sustenance, or sell the products of the animals. Check out their site - there are some amazing stories of lives they've changed.

Obviously I can't give 50% and hope to stay in business, but I think 10% is reasonable. My plan is to keep a count here on the blog every month, and at the end of the month go to the Heifer site and buy the most expensive thing I can with what I've collected. And then report back to you on what we got. So we might buy a llama for a family in South America, or on a really great month a Knitting Basket of four fiber animals (how great is it that we could buy a knitting basket?). In addition to 10% per month, I want to add a handspun skein of the week whose sale will go 100% to Heifer. I think I can keep up with spinning one a week. If anybody wants to donate their handspun to add, I'd be happy to list it! Send it to
6873 Traveler's Rest Pt.
Easton, MD 21601
Please include fiber content and yardage.

So what do you say, shall we join forces and bring more sheep to people in need?