Driving by a women's shelter, Cara from Cara Quilts was so emotionally stirred by a sign asking for papertowels that she drove straight to the grocery store, loaded up her cart with as many packages of papertowels as it would hold and drove right back to the shelter to drop them off. Papertowels. Basic, everyday papertowels. So symbolic of how a woman who has found the courage and critical timing to leave an abusive situation often walks (runs) away with nothing but her children and the shirt on her back. She doesn't have the basics - she barely has herself. Shelters who protect and care for these women & children depend upon their local communities for charitable donations of the most basic-basic necessities to facilitate the beneficial guardianship they provide.
Cara is now putting this in our laps. What can we do to help our local women's shelters? What basics do they need right now to help a woman and her children? She's encouraging everyone to contact their local women's shelter, find out what they need and drop it off. In order to motivate everyone a bit more, she's put together a nice selection of sewing / quilting prizes to those who leave a comment saying what they've donated ... pop over to Cara's blog to get all the details on her Basics Charity Challenge and learn how doing a good deed can make you a double winner!
I've donated a fat quarter bundle of my Shades of Grey organic fabric collection to the Basics Charity Challenge. Not in stores until the end of March!
Every December, a dear friend organizes a Women in Crisis coffee, and everyone brings a load of basics to donate to our local women's shelter. I always bring a variety of feminine care products because I think having something to choose from gives a woman back her power and her confidence little by little. Even in the simplest ways.
Thank you, Cara, for reminding me that I need to do this more often. On my list for this week.
