Small Change - Month One Recap

January’s Small Change Challenge was to get involved with Make A Child Smile.

Make A Child Smile’s January featured kids were Nicky, Ashlee and Caroline.

I didn’t make a huge production out of it, I just said “Hey, Sunshine, I’ve got an idea!” I showed her the kids’ pictures and told her (mildly) why each child was spending so much time in the hospital. I got her to empathize with them by asking, “Wouldn’t you be so sad if you had to be in the hospital all the time? Do you know what we can do to cheer them up?”

She really doesn’t need an excuse to get crafty, but she was very excited that I was going to be sending her art to someone and had been assured it would, well, make them smile.

She got to work and carefully chose items to paste onto the cardstock.


As soon as the neighbor kid left, Ninja Boy became highly interested in what we were doing. He started asking questions about the kids – which Sunshine promptly answered. She carefully explained to him that these kids were all very sick – even gave him general descriptions of their ailments. She said, “And I’m making them cards that say I hope they feel better.” I was a little surprised when he wanted to help. He’s not a super-crafty guy and also has a really hard time empathizing with people. But he got in there and made Nicky two cards (a guy thing, I guess).


We decided as a family that we would do this every month. We spent about an hour making them – the hardest part of it all was getting them to the post office (note to self to buy bigger envelopes this month!).


I’m getting very excited about my upcoming party for Cheerful Givers. Next week, I will be hosting a Birthday Bag Blitz at my mom’s house (it’s so much bigger!).

My mom and I have been buying out every good deal we can find. I’ve known that I was going to do this for a while now, so when Target clearanced out their excess of Christmas toys, I hopped on it! (Seriously, “guys” for a DOLLAR!) I’m also going to a surplus store at lunch tomorrow to see if I can pick up a few more things.

It really wasn’t hard to plan the party. I used evite to send out my crafty invitation and also posted it a couple places around my office. We’re planning a small lunch that day, so I’ll have to get to the grocery store, too. I’ve been stocking up on toys, bags, tissue paper, etc. The plan is to meet at my mom’s house, sort the toys by age/gender, then form an assembly line of sorts. I’m going to print some cute little tags today to write the contents on. That’s not a requirement, but I think it will help the parents and organizations get the kids something they’ll really like, given there is enough to choose from.

The kids were initially confused about what was going on. They found the bag of toys and thought they’d hit the jackpot. After they were over the shock that they weren’t for them, they started to get excited. Sunshine has been trying to get me to buy just about everything for it. Hats, candy...even a pinata! However, I’m not big on cone-shaped hats. Especially ones that require an elastic string around my face. And with all the kids that are going to be there, I think candy would just fuel the fire.

The hardest part was getting people to RSVP. Seriously, even with evite, where all you have to do is click a button…it still looks like this:

I even updated it and re-sent it, asking people to please respond. This just doesn’t settle well with me. I can handle a “No” just fine…I can NOT handle not knowing how many people are just going to show up that day. I mean, what if all 22 unresponsive people just SHOW UP?? That’s a far cry from the ten adults (and X amount of kids) I’m expecting. I’ve been planning for a few extra with the seven “I don’t knows”. What if there’s not enough food? What if I don’t have enough bags? OMG, what if I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH BAGS???

Okay…I’m alright. I guess I’ll just buy extra. Really, who can’t use more gift bags?? Right? Okay, NOT FRANTIC AT ALL.

I’m definitely looking for more ideas on how to get people to respond to invitations if ya got ‘em. (I have this problem with all kinds of invitations, even birthday invitations that have “Please respond by XX-XX-XX” written right by the phone number).

Sooo….anyway….

You’re going to have to check back tomorrow for the new challenge, as Beth has been very busy lately. That’s okay, though, because it’s Valentine’s Day and I have some egreetings to send.

Small Change

I am often talking about all the selfless, philanthropic deeds I do…because I’m such a wonderful person and I want YOU ALL TO KNOW IT!!

No, actually, I’m pretty humble and even a little shy. I tell you all about it because I want to inspire you. If my rambling on and on every year about ringing a bell or walking will inspire ONE person to do the same, then what a difference WE will have made.

Well, this chicky BLEW ME AWAY.

She wrote about her resolution to be a better role model for her daughter. She wanted to start doing something small every month for disadvantaged children. She suggested maybe a group of people get together once a month and do the SAME activity benefiting children (who are not our own). She says, ‘Leave me a comment if you want to join’.

At last count, there were 99 people.

NINETY-NINE PEOPLE, people! 99 People who are all going to do ONE SMALL THING every month to make someone else’s life brighter. Can you imagine what a HUGE difference it will make when these 99 people all do something “small”??

It should be spectacular.


If you will please turn your attention to the right sidebar, you will notice the new button bestowed upon me (and anyone else who wants to copy it off her blog). Also new is a list of children’s charities. A lot of these charities I have first-hand experience with: Locks of Love, Cheerful Givers, March of Dimes, (I feel like I’m name-dropping). Some of them I’ve yet to work with. If you have any you’d like to see represented, let me know and I’ll add it.

From now on, the second Wednesday of each month will be Small Change Day. We will post updates on how we did with our last challenge, as well as unveil the new one. If you would like to participate, email me your stories, pictures, etc. and I will post them on Small Change Day. Note that you don’t HAVE to do the challenge. If the challenge is donating money and you’re broke, don’t feel obligated to dip into savings to be part of the pack. Do something else that makes you happy, like making a card for a sick kid. Which is, coincidentally, this month’s challenge.

Visit Make A Child Smile’s website to see this month’s featured kids. Read their stories and pick one (or all!) to send a card to. It doesn’t have to be fancy, though it can be if you so desire. You can make a card, buy a card, you can even buy a gift if you can afford it. There aren’t a whole lot of standards or regulations. Just use your imagination and your heart.

I am planning on doing this with my kids tonight. Wednesdays are No Homework days, so it’s perfect. I’m going to tell them about each child’s story and let them pick which they would like to mail a card to (forced charity is hardly ever feel-good charity). They are going to hand-make the cards and I will mail them in the morning.

Don’t forget to snap some pics if you do this…if not to show off your artistic abilities, then to at least give others some ideas!

I feel like a total rump-kisser constantly telling Beth how glad I am to be a part of this. But do you know what I see? I see a wonderful organization in the works.

Apparently, so do 98 other people.