As I mentioned last week, the amazing people at Canadian North are sponsoring us with shipments for Jimmy Hikok school. We simply love them. We could not have a better sponsor.
So packing night is November 16th, but I got an email from the principal of the school this week: they are completely out of mittens and have had an unusually cold fall. They also appreciate neck warmers and hats. The age groups that they want are 5-12. I have packed up every pair of mittens in that category that I could find - many were in the boxes that I opened last week. I'm going to make a one-off trip to the airport this weekend just so that we can get the box (big box, which I will vacuum pack) to them before the Christmas cargo rush. Fingers crossed. For Jimmy Hikok, we will probably drop off in early Jan for the next set of boxes and we will do as many as we can in one shot.
Also, the doctors are going up in Jan, just to note.
In the meantime, we are now at "0" for mittens. If you've got them, I'd be grateful to receive them. I'd also be grateful to receive more hats and neck warmers in the age group mentioned above. We're especially low in the smaller sizes.
Here is the second ask: we are going to partner with the Inuit Children's Centre in Ottawa. They have several head start, preschool and young people projects on the go. Here is my note from the program head:
To give you an idea of the numbers of children/youth that attend our programs, we have about 120 children attend programming daily between our Early years and afterschool program, we also have about 40-50 teenagers attending programming.
Here is what I'd really like to do but I don't know if its possible: I'd like to do a project where we give sweaters, hats, and neck warmers to the program, along with wrapping paper/wrapping supplies. Then the teens can wrap presents for the little ones. I understand that a part of the program relates to giving back to the community, so we'd just be oiling the wheels a bit.
What do we think? I am a bit worried about the numbers and timing, but it wouldn't be the first time that you guys have pulled off something spectacular. Again, think young sizes: up to age 12. But its also nice if we can put together a box for the teens. If we think we can do this, then I'm going to reach out to the organizers and find out age groups. If we can't pull it together quickly, its fine: we will still deliver everything we can.
***So peeps, if you've got stuff you've been hiding away, and you can get it to me by November 16th (packing night), then maybe we can get it done. Stronger together!
I opened a few more boxes tonight and here are some pics. With love and gratitude,
ab
 |
| Olive Wade (Omaw) of Moncton NB: your stuff went so well with my tablecloth that I just had to photograph them. |
 |
| The ladies of Huntsville are very close to my heart. They provided these lovely neck warmers as well as some AMAZING blankets, which I'm going to keep as presents for the preschoolers at the Children's Centre. Bernice and Janet Smith, and Karen McKaskill, you know I love you guys, right? |
 |
| And the Ottawa Knitter's Guild made these amazing sweaters. Thank you so much, guys! |
