Ready, set, go...to drop off supplies at the library!

I dropped off boxes and fliers at three libraries today and the other four put their own boxes out. So, to anyone reading this blog, feel free to drop off supplies at any Livingston County library (except Caledonia, the director of whom I just can't seem to catch.)

The Mount Morris library gladly accepted a box today, so thanks to them. And in another note, a kind lady left a box of old clothing and old Christmas cards for me at the Avon library. While we appreciate the intent, that's not exactly what we're hoping to collect!

Keeping my fingers crossed for collecting supplies in August!

I heart Target

Look what I found today ON SALE at Target. Flat single twin sheets for the whopping price of $5.90. I bought a dozen, figuring either we have a dozen quilt backs or six quilts. The sale lasts through Saturday (so the sign says) in case anyone else wants to make a rush on this AMAZING sale. What a lucky find for our quilt project.

I also should have taken a picture of the two bags of hotel shampoo and soap my neighbor, Judy, brought me. So grateful for those.

Keep up the good work!

YIKES!! A note on twin quilts

Soooo, I am not a mathematician. I previously wrote on this blog that a twin quilt was about 70" x 90", which is more the size of a full quilt. OOPS! Re-figure that somewhere more around 55-60" x 75-80". Anything in the neighborhood will do. Thanks!

Also, thanks to the Mount Morris Shopper for running a small advertisement on the service project in next week's edition!

Thanks to...

...The Genesee Valley Pennysaver for giving us a big, FREE ad in next week's pennysaver. As the my salary for all of my adult life has come for advertising revenue, I know the value of that space. Ad space costs money, and when I contacted them, I had hoped for something small in their Hometown stories section just to get the word out that individuals could donate to the project through almost any library in the county. Janet Olexy, Pennysaver director of promotions, kicked it up a notch and offered the ad. And then when wordy little me handed her 250 words of copy she said, "I'm going to run a bigger ad." Honestly, that just...well, it ROCKS!

Thanks Livingston County Libraries!

For the month of August, any individual willing to help with our service project will be able to drop off supplies at almost any Livingston County Library. The following libraries have agreed to be donation locations:

Avon Free Library
143 Genesee Street
Avon, NY 14414
Phone: 585-226-8461

Dansville Public Library
200 Main Street
Dansville, NY 14437
Phone: 585-335-6720

Lima Public Library
1872 Genesee Street
PO Box 58A
Lima, NY 14485
Phone: 585-582-1311

Livonia Public Library
2 Washington Street
PO Box 107
Livonia, NY 14487
Phone: 585-346-3450

Mount Morris Library
121 Main Street
Mount Morris, NY 14510
Phone: 585-658-4412


Wadsworth Library
24 Center Street
Geneseo, NY 14454
Phone: 585-243-0440

Watch the local penny savers and newspaper opening donations to this project to anyone in the community!

THANKS! to our new community partners

We are THRILLED to announce the addition of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish of Geneseo as a community partner to this project. Thank you St. Lukes! St. Lukes has also offered to be a community drop off location for supplies during the last two weeks of August. Stay tuned for more information!

Also, thanks to a lovely Livingston County lass, Lillian Kane, for offering to make two twin quilts with the backing and batting as well as a dozen hygiene kit bags. That's 10 percent of our quilting project accounted for and 1/4 of our bag needs met in one fell swoop.

Finally, thanks to Diana Ray for donating material and batting for yet another quilt.

Good things are happening!!!

A clarification on quilts

Quilts. The word brings to mind elaborate patterns, lots of cutting and LOTS of time. If you'd LIKE to do that for this project, way to go. However, our ambitions are much more simple. Two nice flat sheets, twin or full sized? We can turn that into a quilt. Just bring the sheets, maybe a plain one and a coordinating print, ironed and wahlaa, a quilt. The dimensions of a twin quilt are roughly 70" x 90" give or take a few inches either way. We have 10 bags of pre-cut fabric (think squares) for any kind volunteer to put together. In fact, as we are having a rough time hustling up volunteers for this, we will be getting together Tues., Aug. 18 @ 6:30 p.m. at the new LDS chapel on South Street for an evening of sewing and chatting. (Think straight squares, straight lines. Sorry to the true quilters of the world, but I'm just not that good.) I'll bring dessert. Any questions? Email amanda@lonsberry.com.

Service Project 101

A lot of people doing a little can accomplish great things.

At least, that’s what we hope.

On Sat., Sept. 26, several Livingston County women's groups, will join together in a service project that will primarily benefit Livingston County Social Services foster care and adult services divisions. While we are hoping to meet all our goals for quilts, “life boxes” and hygiene kits between our two organizations, we are hopeful that other local women’s groups will help us succeed, either through donations to the project or labor on Sat., Sept. 26.

This service day idea started from an attempt to clean out a church closet. We found ourselves staring at enough fabric leftover from past service projects to make 10 quilts and started wondering what we could do with them. Certainly we could find a local use for them, and we did! As it turns it, we are not the first to consider Livingston County’s foster care program. Other community quilting groups have donated quilts, and a group of the American Sewing Guild centered in Avon frequently donates quilts to the program for children coming into the foster care system. However, says senior caseworker Donna Mankoff, there is always a need for more quilts for those children and other children in the county who are under social services supervision. We will also provide 20 “life boxes,” which are decorated shoe boxes filled with the craft essentials (and a few fun extras) to help children to record their stay in foster care.

Over in the adult employment services division, coordinator Dave Peck reports that frequently, their clients come in without their basic hygiene needs met. How can they apply for work in that condition? He and his staff have a $50 annual budget for hygiene supplies and a general call throughout the county workforce to bring back any hotel hygiene supplies from their trips. The items are in a box and are given out hodgepodge to those in need. Occasionally, Peck said, staff members will buy needed supplies for clients from their own pockets. I think we can help. Our proposed hygiene kits will give the county a four-month supply and will help these people get on the right foot as they begin looking for work. As we hope to collect many more supplies then necessary (fingers crossed!) the extra supplies will be packaged and donated to Livingston County food pantries for distribution with food supplies. The full kits cost between $3.50 and $7 to make when shopping frugally.

We are hopeful that by working together, we can exceed these goals, be able to give more to these people and even spread the wealth around to other organizations in need. Please find the attached flier with more specific lists of what items/and or labor are needed. We would be very grateful for any help with this project. Also, we are happy to come and speak to your women’s groups about the project. Just leave a comment with your contact information or email amanda@lonsberry.com. Thanks!

The List

Well, if you're still reading, that means you're interested in helping with this project. First of all, thanks! Second of all, use your time, money and energy where you see fit as long as we have all items and/or monetary donations by Aug. 30. Here are our goals and what we need to accomplish them. (By the way, if we exceed our goals, wouldn't that be great?!)

Goal: 20 twin-sized quilt tops. Any quilt color is fine, but quilts of generic color that can be used for a boy or girl are appreciated! The quilts will be tied together and bound on Sept. 26.

We need:

* Batting for 20 quilts
* We have fabric for about 10 quilt tops. We need volunteers to piece those together.
* 10 other pieced together quilt tops or donated fabric for quilt tops for other volunteers to put together. Even two flat sheets, gently used or new would be fantastic!
* Also, backing...muslin? sheets?
* Pins, yarn and large needles to tie them!

Goal: 20 Life Boxes. These boxes give a child a chance to record memories of milestones that may be otherwise forgotten, especially if they spend years in foster care.

We need:

* 20 adult-sized shoe boxes
* Markers, erasers, stickers, glue sticks, paper,
* Any scrap booking supplies.
* Disposable cameras
* Reading books of various age levels, stuffed animals, socks, toothbrushes.
*Any small thing that could make children of various ages living in a rough situation a little more comfortable.
*Items to decorate the outside of the boxes, stickers, fun magazine page cutouts, foam stickers, stickers, wrapping paper, spray paint, etc.

Goal: 105 (or more!) hygiene kits for Livingston County Social Services adult employment division and local food pantries. These kits will mainly serve area adults who are in a tight spot and need a little help looking presentable for their job searches. These items bridge a gap for people who are without while they are between jobs and public assistance.

We need to collect:

Items for 35 kits for men:
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Bar of soap
Hand sanitizer
Small deodorant
Small shaving cream
Two razors
Comb
One roll toilet paper
Small hand sanitizer
Travel diaper wipes/wet wipes
Travel or small sized shampoo and conditioner
Small laundry soap/softener


Items for 35 kits for women:
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Bar of soap
Hand sanitizer
Small deodorant
One razor
Comb
One roll toilet paper
Small hand sanitizer
Travel diaper wipes/wet wipes
Feminine hygiene products
Travel or small sized shampoo and conditioner
Small laundry soap/softener

Items for 35 kits for children:
Children’s toothbrush
Children’s toothpaste
Bar of soap
Hand sanitizer
Comb
One roll toilet paper
Small hand sanitizer
Travel diaper wipes/wet wipes
Travel or small sized children’s shampoo
Small laundry soap/softener
If possible, infants/childrens Tylenol or similar

These will be put in homemade cloth bags or other donated bags. We have 50 and will need 55 more.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Extra supplies will be turned into hygiene kits for area food pantries, which contain:
2 packaged toothbrushes
1 tube toothpaste
1 bar soap
1 small deodorant
1 bottle hand sanitizer
2 small packages Kleenex
travel shampoo/conditioner (if we have extra)
a one-gallon, sealable bag.

Most importantly we will need YOUR HELPING HANDS to pull it all together!

All items or monetary donations to purchase other supplies are due for sorting by Sun., Aug. 30.
Questions?
Contact Amanda Lonsberry 658-4004 or amanda@lonsberry.com

or Tammy Hainey, 658-3835 or tammy76@rochester.rr.com