Day 36- Donate to Grassroots

Donate to Grassroots.
done on 1-31-10

I live in one of the most wealthy counties in the united states. We have one crisis intervention shelter. It meet the needs of those who have lost their homes in Howard County. It's called Grassroots Crisis prevention This shelter is increbible. Their pledge is this: (cut and pasted directly from their webpage)

Our mission is not very complicated, it's to serve those in need. Of course, more and more these days, carrying out that mission gets complicated. Today, providing our various services requires more staff, more planning, more resources and more skill than ever before. That's why we are so grateful to all of you in both the public and private sector who support the work that we do. We would not be able to help those in need without the help we get from you.

Be Nice to a Stranger and the economy in general has made me very aware how much people are struggling.

I wanted to do something important and I wanted to help a local cause.

Event:
I wanted to donate to Grassroots. Step one in this process was researching what they wanted and needed.
I went to the wishlist, yes they have a lot of needs. I wanted to make sure I donated exactly what they needed. I spoke to my husband about donating goods to the Grassroots. He called them and asked them.

Large size diapers-- they have "a lot of little ones" and they are in constant need of large size diapers. Here's a little consumer tip--- the larger the diapers the fewer are in the box-- Just because there's less in the box doesn't mean the babies pee or poop less.

Coffee-- they go through a lot of coffee.

Laundry detergent-- They go through a lot of laundry. Which makes sense, if you've lost your house, you would take your clothes with you, but you would have less and wear it more often. Therefore your clothes get dirty.

My husband, daughter and I drove around trying to find the best deals and think about what would best meet the needs of the shelter.
We bought 4 bottles of detergent at Cheap Ollies which would wash 160 loads of laundry.
2 tubs of Coffee that each made 380 cups at BJ's.
A box of diapers size 5- 128 diapers at BJ's.
A box of diapers size 6- 104 diapers at BJ's.
A box of baby wipes. 560 wipes at BJ's.

Reaction:
I walked into grassroots, because I wasn't sure where the donation center was. I asked an administrator, who lit up when I told her what I had. She smiled and pointed me in the direction of the family care area.
When I told them what I had, they smiled, asked me to fill out a quick form and helped me unload my car.
She thanked me for thinking about them while I was out shopping.
I told them why I was doing this and all about Project Nice.
She wished me good luck. She said she would send me a thank you letter and I could scan it and put it up on the website.

As a mom the thing that got me was the diapers. Being a parent has made me incredibly grateful for my husband, my house and all my basic needs. I can't image how terrifying it would be to lose your home, be in a crisis and to have my two year old daughter crying.

Would I do it again? yes. Absolutely. It's not far from my daughters daycare and it would be easy to drop off things they need.
Cost: $18 @ cheap Ollies $86 at BJ's grand total of $104. Ok A quick side note, because the other people doing Project Nice might be screaming at their computer screens right now. I gave everyone a price limit of $5 per person. Here's what I didn't tell anyone. My hubby and I have in our budget to give money to a charity every month. I was using that money for this good deed.
Effort: Yeah, this one was a lot. Between researching, shopping and delivery, the whole thing took more effort then most of the other nice deeds I do.
Time: all in all it was about two- three hours.