Hello Fellow Guild Members,
Please consider helping Praisealujah, the organization that has helped our guilds so much at our Festival of Trees events. See the letter below from Festival of Trees and Flashman Guild member, Elna Duffield
From Elna Duffield:
I received a call from the Praisealujah Discipleship from their founder, Pastor Kelly, asking for ideas to help them with one of their community projects. Each year, their ministry collects new and gently used toys and then prior to Christmas (It will be on Dec. 14th or 15th this year.) gathers the children of families that are struggling to make ends meet, and lets them pick out toys from their donations. This year, for some reason, they haven't been able to collect as many toys as they hoped and are trying to come up with ideas so they can continue with this part of their ministry. I would like to ask members of our guild to help them if possible.
I had two ideas. The first would be a win-win for Seattle Children's and for Praisealujah. The Children's Hospital Bargain Boutiques are having two sales coming up. The first is a Toy Sale on Friday, December 2 in the hospital cafeteria from 7 AM to 4 PM. (7th floor, Ocean Level) Although not published to the general public, this sale is open to anyone coming to the hospital. They have literally thousands of toys that they sell at extremely reasonable prices. The other sale the Bargain Boutique is hosting will beat Zulily at 2601 Elliott Ave (Cedar St) / Seattle, WA 98121 on Saturday, December 10. 8:30-9:30 am (presale-$20 entry) and 9:30 am to 3 pm (free entry). There is an abundance of merchandise including clothing, household items, toys and more at amazingly low prices. I will be volunteering / working at both of the sales and I was hoping that some of our guild members would be willing to donate some amount (My idea was $20) and I could then meet up with the ministry at both of these sales and let them select toys.
My other idea was to ask each of you to let your immediate family and friends know about Praisealujah's request and ask them to consider donating gently used toys. Christmas time is usually a time when families go through the kids toys and cull out those that the children have outgrown or no longer are interested in playing with. I asked my daughter-in-law to do this and ended up with a pretty large donation. I would be happy to be the collection point for those toys and make sure they are donated to Praisealujah.
I know this is late notice but if you would contact me and let me know the amount you are willing to donate, I will keep a list and make sure that each donor receives an acknowledgement letter from Praisealujah for their donation. Checks could be made out to either me or cash and mailed to: Elna Duffield / 11239 Champagne Pt. Rd. NE / Kirkland, WA 98034. If you are willing to donate please email me at [email protected] and let me know the amount. I will then front the money for the purchases.
About Praisealujah: For those of you that may not be aware, this group has been helping out at our event for the last several years and have been a "God-Send" to us in that they handle so much of the heavy lifting, transporting, loading and also pitch in when we are short of volunteers in various areas. Praisealujah serves over 100 men and women who, after struggling with various addictions, are working to turn their lives around and become productive members of society. They live in about 12 houses in the Des Moines area and they have committed themselves to bring God into their lives, giving to the community and becoming more productive in their lives. We do make a donation to their ministry in return for their work but it is minimal, amounting to less than $5 per hour for each person working for us. This donation is used to help sustain their homes and ministry so the toy collection has very little funding for them to go out and purchase new items at retail prices. To learn more about this group please visit www.praisealujah.com.
I hope you will join with me this Christmas Season to give back to an organization that has helped us so much.
Thank you - Elna (206-779-5046)
Please consider helping Praisealujah, the organization that has helped our guilds so much at our Festival of Trees events. See the letter below from Festival of Trees and Flashman Guild member, Elna Duffield
From Elna Duffield:
I received a call from the Praisealujah Discipleship from their founder, Pastor Kelly, asking for ideas to help them with one of their community projects. Each year, their ministry collects new and gently used toys and then prior to Christmas (It will be on Dec. 14th or 15th this year.) gathers the children of families that are struggling to make ends meet, and lets them pick out toys from their donations. This year, for some reason, they haven't been able to collect as many toys as they hoped and are trying to come up with ideas so they can continue with this part of their ministry. I would like to ask members of our guild to help them if possible.
I had two ideas. The first would be a win-win for Seattle Children's and for Praisealujah. The Children's Hospital Bargain Boutiques are having two sales coming up. The first is a Toy Sale on Friday, December 2 in the hospital cafeteria from 7 AM to 4 PM. (7th floor, Ocean Level) Although not published to the general public, this sale is open to anyone coming to the hospital. They have literally thousands of toys that they sell at extremely reasonable prices. The other sale the Bargain Boutique is hosting will beat Zulily at 2601 Elliott Ave (Cedar St) / Seattle, WA 98121 on Saturday, December 10. 8:30-9:30 am (presale-$20 entry) and 9:30 am to 3 pm (free entry). There is an abundance of merchandise including clothing, household items, toys and more at amazingly low prices. I will be volunteering / working at both of the sales and I was hoping that some of our guild members would be willing to donate some amount (My idea was $20) and I could then meet up with the ministry at both of these sales and let them select toys.
My other idea was to ask each of you to let your immediate family and friends know about Praisealujah's request and ask them to consider donating gently used toys. Christmas time is usually a time when families go through the kids toys and cull out those that the children have outgrown or no longer are interested in playing with. I asked my daughter-in-law to do this and ended up with a pretty large donation. I would be happy to be the collection point for those toys and make sure they are donated to Praisealujah.
I know this is late notice but if you would contact me and let me know the amount you are willing to donate, I will keep a list and make sure that each donor receives an acknowledgement letter from Praisealujah for their donation. Checks could be made out to either me or cash and mailed to: Elna Duffield / 11239 Champagne Pt. Rd. NE / Kirkland, WA 98034. If you are willing to donate please email me at [email protected] and let me know the amount. I will then front the money for the purchases.
About Praisealujah: For those of you that may not be aware, this group has been helping out at our event for the last several years and have been a "God-Send" to us in that they handle so much of the heavy lifting, transporting, loading and also pitch in when we are short of volunteers in various areas. Praisealujah serves over 100 men and women who, after struggling with various addictions, are working to turn their lives around and become productive members of society. They live in about 12 houses in the Des Moines area and they have committed themselves to bring God into their lives, giving to the community and becoming more productive in their lives. We do make a donation to their ministry in return for their work but it is minimal, amounting to less than $5 per hour for each person working for us. This donation is used to help sustain their homes and ministry so the toy collection has very little funding for them to go out and purchase new items at retail prices. To learn more about this group please visit www.praisealujah.com.
I hope you will join with me this Christmas Season to give back to an organization that has helped us so much.
Thank you - Elna (206-779-5046)