ReallyGive Holiday Party
On December 13th, the ReallyGive NY chapter said “no” to the cliche holiday party and decided, instead, to bring together volunteer musicians, community members and, most importantly, the gift of warmth to the homeless this winter.
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- Warth Feeds the Heart Event
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- Donation include over 60 assorted tops (sweaters, fleeces, dress shirts, etc), 14 assorted bottoms, 2 dresses, 11 heavy coats, 52 winter accessories (pairs of socks, hats, gloves, scarves,etc). 258 items total!
HavenSafe Fall 2008
HavenSafe is a great program where volunteers come together to sew custom toiletry bags for women who are displaced from their homes due to domestic violence. These gifts are then filled with donated perfume, lotions, tooth brushes and other essentials and distributed by local shelters. This is the second time we ran this project. The first time was in Spring 2008 with funding from the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
Friends and supporters came together in the Central District of Seattle to assemble the bags. After about four hours of effort and several broken zippers, 30 unique bags were created. The contents included soaps, perfume, lotion, tooth brushes, and tooth paste. Each gift was finished off with a kind note written with a gel pen, and a loop of ribbon.
Audio from an interview with the staff of the Broadview Emergency Shelter.
SchoolReady 2008 – SUCCESS!
Today was the successful completion of SchoolReady program for 2008. Community members came together and gifted 34 school bags to Bailey Gatzert Elementary in Seattle, Washington. The bags were unique gifts full of pencils, pens, markers, stamps, notebooks, and other special gifts that ensured that the recipient would feel special. We dropped off the gifts to Carrie Bolden, Student Support Administrator for Bailey Gatzert.
These gifts were particularly important because the school has one of the neediest student body – with over 80% of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunches. A special thanks to all those that contributed. Thank you for helping to ensure a few more children in your community are ready for school!
Impact: 34 schoolbags filled with supplies to one school benefitting 34 students
SchoolReady 2008
Following the success of last year’s SchoolReady project, I’m helping to organize another school supplies gifting effort this year and we would like you help. Can you fill a child’s school bag with pencils, pens, paper, art supplies or any other essentials children need to succeed in school? It’s easy and makes a real difference for children who need support.
WATCH the video from last year’s effort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Ma-zMXRpA&e
REPLY to this message if you would like to participate I have 12 bags for you to fill (assorted colors for you to choose from), or you can purchase your own and create your own unique gift.
You contribution is a unique gift for students at Bailey Gatzert Elementary, a school where over 80% of students receive free or reduced-cost school lunches and where your support would make a real difference. Last year we donated 23 school bags to children at Bailey Gatzert Elementary filled with pens, pencils, chalk, markers, binders and other helpful supplies. We’d like to continue this effort. I appreciate your support. DROP OFF your bag at 10763 Burke Ave N Seattle, WA 98133 or send me an email at joel@reallygive.org and I can pick up these gifts wherever you would like. Please have your gifts complete by August 31st. Thanks for your support!
Katrina Hoffman & Joel Ballezza
HavenSafe Spring 2008
For the Haven Safe gift bag project project we sewed toiletry bags and filling them with gifts of perfume and lotion for women displaced from their homes due to domestic violence. For this event we teamed up with New Beginnings, a Seattle-based shelter that cares for women who have escaped abusive relationships. We were fortunate to have received a grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Matching Fund. This “Small Sparks” grant of $250 allowed us to purchase the necessary fabric and materials to construct the gift bags.
This project required a lot of preparation. Purchasing the materials to make the bags, ensuring there were enough yards of fabric, zippers and lace and ribbon. We also collected travel sized toiletries that were generously donated from several area hotels (Hotel Deca, Watertown Hotel, and the University Inn) and area retails including Sephora. We are grateful for all those that contributed.
The day of sewing began with setting up the three sewing machines and setting out all the donated items on one table at the Greenlake Public Library. Some people sat tracing the proper size rectangle onto the pre-cut fabric to keep it consistent. Others sewed the lines and piled them for the zipper sewers. After the zippers were attached we had several individuals doing quality control, snipping stray threads. The last touch before they were filled was attaching a handwritten message with ribbon to the zipper closure for a more personal touch.
Everyone found something they could do with the skills they had. There was a lot of learning and troubleshooting but in the end some 40 bags were made full of such items as shampoo, soap, perfume, deodorant, moisturizer, toothpaste etc. Knowing these handmade gifts would be going to women who needed support and care, made the process all worth it! We were all incredibly proud of what we had made. The event was a huge success.
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- The original sketch for the bag design
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- Retails and neighbors donated lotions, soaps and perfumes
WarmFeet 2007
Thank to all those that contributed! ReallyGive community members gifted 104 pairs of wool, cotton and acrylic socks to clients cared for by the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC). Community members also gifted two fleeces to keep out the cold Seattle chill. This gift of new and unused socks was focused on addressing the critical shortage of warm winter socks for homeless men living in Seattle, Washington.
SchoolReady 2007 – 23 bags, 2 schools, and tons of smiles!
The ReallyGive community did it again! We proved that giving real gifts to those in need makes a huge difference. Through our first SchoolReady giving event we donated 10 high school and 13 elementary school backpacks full of valuable tools for students.
Just a few weeks ago, our team put out a call for school supply gifts and the response was wonderful. From Dora the Explorer backpacks to 1 gig flash drives, from writing paper to scientific calculators, the giving community went above and beyond our expectations.
Trevor Dilley, our first web developer and a recent graduate of Ballard High School, and co-founder Joel Ballezza filled a small Honda with all the school supplies and drove to Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle and Bailey Gatzert Elementary School in South Seattle. These schools were selected because of demonstrated need. At Chief Sealth High School, 55% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch; over 88% of students at Bailey Gatzert Elementary fall into that category.
We knew this was a great opportunity to contribute to their school communities. At each site, we were welcomed by school administrators who appreciated the “no-strings attached” offering of school supplies.
Kick it Forward 2007
Working in connection with a local youth group from the University Unitarian Church, ReallyGive launched its first program, Kick it Forward, a soccer ball gifting effort. Donations from friends and family members, coupled with discounts from local sports equipment apparel stores enabled ReallyGive to purchase twenty-four soccer balls and fifteen soccer pumps for donation to communities in Guatemala. ReallyGive is excited to be part of this effort to deliver community-enriching athletic equipment to those in need.
The Kick it Forward program began in Colomba, a medium-sized city in northwest Guatemala. Here six balls and two pumps were gifted to a scout group of children and their young troop leader, Tito.
Next stop was Antigua, a colonial city in the center of the nation. There the youth and their adult leaders teamed up with Common Hope, a US-founded non-profit dedicated to improving lives through education, health care, and housing. Four balls and two pumps were gifted to the center.
In addition to learning about the country and gifting additional school supplies, the cohort also traveled to more rural communities like Nuevo San Jose where the school lacked any balls. The team left four balls and two pumps for the children to enjoy.
Last stop for the Kick it Forward gift givers was in Xela, Guatemala, a small, formerly rebel-held village where more soccer supplies were gifted to a technical institute for children ages 16-19.
With 24 balls and 15 pumps gifted to four Guatemalan communities, the inaugural Kick it Forward Program was a huge success. ReallyGive would like to thank the University Unitarian Church youth ambassadors, their adult leaders, and most of all the ReallyGive community.
Impact: 24 soccer balls, 15 pumps, four communities
You’ve shown that you can make a real difference in people’s lives through real gifts!
An interview with Joe Cribbs describing the first inaugural Kick it Forward Program and the impact the gifts made on the communities they were provided to throughout Guatemala. More photos from the Kick it Forward Effort
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- Packed soccer supplies
Hudson Valley Chapter!
ReallyGive is proud to announce a new chapter to our growing national community, ReallyGive Upstate New York!
This chapter is a spin-off of the efforts of Bernadette and Richard Ballezza who through a scholarship and bookbag program started over 15 years ago in Newburgh, NY, have assisted over 600 students. Just as important, they have empowered a community of givers in the Newburgh, New Windsor, and Kingston, NY areas, enabling them to participate in the joy of giving. Cheers to Bernadette & Rich and to the members of the new ReallyGive Upstate NY Chapter! Be sure to check out there future successes as they continue their noble mission!