So about a month ago I was at a friend's house watching "The Bachelor" and we were talking and my friend Traci mentioned that a family in our ward, who has a daughter with autism and is deaf, was trying to earn money to pay for an assistance dog for their daughter. I had no clue they could train dogs to help autistic children, but they can, so neat I know. But anyways, this family had found a dog and received it but the cost was $6,000 for the dog and it's training, the person that sold it to them was going to give them time to pay it, but that is a lot of money and they were asking for donations. I had been to a garage sale several week prior where all the proceeds were donated to a girl that suffered from down syndrome. I thought that was so neat that someone did that, but as Traci was mentioning the Jensen family this garage sale popped into my head. We have so many crafty people in the ward and craft items sell for more money than used garage sale items so I thought to myself how cool would that be if we could do a big craft sale and donate the proceeds to the Jensens. Anyways I mentioned this to the girls at "Bachelor" night and they all said it was a great idea. But laughed and said, "you go and plan that Niki". I kind of laughed it off too, though I thought it was a good idea, I knew it could be a big undertaking. Well the thought kept nagging at me that I should put this thing together. I pushed it aside, but again I just felt really strongly that I needed to pursue it, I realized that was the Holy Ghost pushing me so I emailed the Jensens and told them my idea. They replied and said it would be wonderful if I would do that for them. Anyways, so I sent out mass facebook messages to the crafters in our ward and they passed it on to people they knew and we had a huge response. So many people were so excited to help and craft for a cause. I decided to call it, "Mommies Crafting for A Cause". Anyways, it was so fun. I made some plushie items, a car seat cover, key chains and several camera strap covers. It was so much more fun crafting as a service rather than for myself. It was so neat to see the response and so many people were involved in the whole process of helping me put this thing together. I planned it for the day after I got back from my cruise (not purposely), so I was stressed there for a little bit, but so many offered to jump in and take over while I was gone. Well the day came and it was such a success!
Our young woman created signs and banners to put around the neighborhood to advertise for us.
We had so many donations. Many had told me they were donating and what they were donating. But, there were many who showed up with items they had made that I didn't know were donating and people also did more than they said they were going to.
We had everything from baby blankets, to hair accessories, jewelry, clothing, home decor, holiday decor and much more.
We even decided last minute to do a bake sale also, there were so many people who didn't craft that wanted to participate also and offered to make baked goods to sell.
We had a Hispanic man come and check out Clint's tools, luckily we didn't have to tell him they weren't for sale.
The day was very successful and what we didn't sale we had plans to sell at another community garage sale the next week. We ended up earning almost $2,000. It way exceeded our expectations! Everyone enjoyed doing it so much that we decided that we were going to do it again next year for another family in need, closer to the Holidays. We were so excited we were able help the Jensen family so Mckenzie could get her guide dog, Lacy. It was such a neat experience that I was so glad to be apart of. Thank you everyone who helped out and participated, the Jensen family was so grateful for your service.
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