Elves!!!!!

It's getting to be that time of year again!!! Time to start thinking about the birth of Christ, Christmas shopping, my favorite music of the year, Santa (or HoHo as he's referred to at our house right now), and visits from elves. Last year a great little project got started. Elves from Catie... If you missed it last year, check this out: That Silly Old Elf . We are on the move again with Elves from Catie and there are several ways you can get involved. It's easy to get involved and it's SUCH a great tradition!!! (You really do need to click the link above and read about it if you don't know about the tradition.) Ok... so ways you can be a part....

1. Donate an Elf from Catie kit to a child in the hospital -- Kits are $35 and include an elf, an Elf from Catie book (about an elf that visits the hospital -- very cute story), and elf food (jelly beans) (go to the website and just click on the Elves from Catie logo)
2. Purchase an elf for a child you know. Elves come with all the things listed above and the price for these is $35 as well. (go to the website and click on Host an Elf)
3. Have your civic organization, ladies' circle, youth group, etc. get involved and work to donate elves to kids in the hospital.
4. Copy and paste this into an e-mail and send it out to all your contacts. Ask them to continue to forward it on. This was HUGELY successful last year.

The website is Host an Elf. All Elves from Catie purchases (elves donated to a child in the hospital) will have $5 of the purchase donated to CURE Childhood Cancer. Your elf purchase for a child you know can also benefit CURE. Just BE SURE to indicate that you want CURE to benefit. To do this, on the page that says non-profit donations at the bottom, choose fundraiser under category and CURE Childhood Cancer under name. If you don't do this, CURE won't receive the $5.

Last year was hugely successful... I hope this year can be even more so. Help us out and spread the word!! Elves from Catie is great because it shares a wonderful, memory-making tradition with families AND raises money for a CURE. And a CURE is so desperately needed... Spread the joy (and the elfish mischief)!!

Elf Stuff -- You Interested??

Ok, so we've got the go to launch the elf project in other areas. Now we just need to make it happen. We would LOVE to see Elves from Catie in at least 10 other hospitals around the country.

The hope is to partner with groups or businesses and have them sponsor a hospital. The number of elves needed for a particular hospital depends on the needs of that hospital. One of the problems we're running into is that many organizations already have their calendars set for this year, so they are unable to help us for this year. We would still really like to meet our goal of 10 new hospitals.

So, here's where I ask for a bit of help. If you are a member of an organization or church group or business that would be interested in working with us on this, I would love to hear from you. We will partner your organization with a hospital -- ideally, one in your area. You would help us "elf-raise" to get enough elves donated for kids at your partner hospital.

Now -- how can you do this? All you have to do is contact me and we will help you get set up. Maybe your MOPS group is looking for a project for the fall. Maybe the teachers at the school you teach at or the folks where you work could have a dress down day where folks pay to dress down. Maybe your tennis team or book club would like to make a difference in the lives of kids fighting cancer. Maybe your company could offer this to its employees -- just have the information available so that people you work with could donate elves (and maybe the company would be willing to match the employees' donation). Maybe your church group is looking for a new project. Maybe you're a family who has been touched by childhood cancer and you would like to see the hospital your child was treated at benefit from Elves from Catie.

Remember that 30% from the sales of every single one of Elves from Catie goes to CURE Childhood Cancer. CURE is funding some tremendously exciting research right now. We would love to see this make a big impact. If you can help us out in any way, please let us know! 10 hospitals is the goal! We have to get things set up soon so that we can get elves donated in time to be sure there are enough for the hospitals we want to work with. Each elf will come with a book about an elf's adventures in the hospital. You can click benefit here for more information. I hope that link works -- I've never linked to a document from here. It may only last for 3 days though. We shall see!

Feel free to post questions in the comments section or e-mail me (jencarrollwilkinsATgmail.com). Use @ symbol, not word AT -- trying to prevent SPAM. Hope to hear from some of you soon!

That Silly Old Elf

I know that several of you have asked about how Catie's Elves program turned out at Christmas. Would you believe it if I told you that 350 elves were donated to kids in the hospital and at the Clinic? Would you believe it if I told you that Host an Elf donated over $3000 to CURE Childhood Cancer? Would you believe it if I told you that all of this happened in a span of about 3 weeks??? Would you believe it if I told you that Host an Elf wants to launch the Elf from Catie program in at least 10 hospitals across the country this year and that 30% of their profit will continue to go to CURE Childhood Cancer by way of The Catie Wilkins Memorial Fund??? How's that for an update????

Tre' and I are very excited about the possibilities that lie ahead with this program. We are truly overwhelmed by the generosity of Host an Elf and are so grateful for all they are doing to raise money and awareness for the cause that is nearest and dearest to our hearts. I'm excited about working with them to implement Catie's program.

Now... if any of you who ordered an elf last year or received one from the hospital or clinic have pictures of your child(ren) with the elf, we would love it if you would share them with us. We're looking for pics to include on the website and in the marketing brochures that we will be using. If you have a story about what the elf tradition meant to your family, we'd love to hear it. Also, if you live somewhere near a big children's hospital and have contacts in the area that could help us launch this there, we'd love to hear from you. We're particularly interested in partnering w/ organizations like Junior League or National Charity League.... any group that is philanthropically minded and has a few folks who would be willing to help us get some elves donated. Pictures, stories, and questions can be directed to my e-mail (I'm writing out "AT", but use the @ symbol.... trying to prevent spam), jencarrollwilkinsATgmail.com .

The beauty of this project is that donated elves go straight to the kids AND 30% of the profit of all sales goes to CURE... That is seriously hard to beat!!

Pretty cool stuff, huh????

Pictures of Izzy coming soon, I promise, but for today, here's an oldie that fits today's news!