Crafting Some Hope for Haiti

(photo courtesy of Craft Hope)

When something happens in the world, like what has occurred in Haiti, I always feel I have to do something, however small, to help. As citizens of the earth, I believe we owe this one another. The question for me is always, what is the best way for me to help? Then I came across this new to me website/blog--Craft Hope.

Craft Hope is a website that finds opportunities for people to hand-make specific items for those in need. For instance, they recently concluded a project for Margaret's Hope Chest focused on handmade quilts that would be donated homeless children in the Michigan area, where they have been so hard hit by the recession. Through Craft Hope's initiative, 437 (yes, 437, people!) quilts were handmade and donated.

So, now they have set their sights on Haiti and the opportunity here is to donate any handmade item of your own making that will then be offered for sale in a special Craft Hope Etsy shop (go check it out now--items are already in there and for sale). 100% of the proceeds from the sales will be donated to Doctors Without Borders so they might continue their critical work helping the injured in Haiti. You read more about it here.

Perfect for me. I plan to make and donate one of my Bitty Birdies--because they always sell right away and because they are one of my more pricey items, so it will raise more for the project. Mr Beeper is also considering making something to contribute.

So, I would ask all of you who are crafty and who are artists to please consider making something to donate to this effort. It could be anything--a knitted hat, a plushie, a necklace, pottery--anything you might make yourself and that you feel would sell well. You can find all the details about how the Craft Hope Etsy shop will work and how to make a donation, here. I would also ask those of you who are bloggers to consider putting the Craft Hope button (found in their sidebar) in your sidebar with a link to the site, or put up your own post about Craft Hope and the effort to garner handmade donations for this project--as well as to get traffic out to the Craft Hope Etsy shop to purchase what is out there.. The more we spread the word, the more we will help this very important effort.

And one more thing, The Pioneer Woman is donating 10 cents for every comment left on this entry (there are 24,000+ already--you do the math if you think your 10 cents is not worth it)--as well as an opportunity to be the winner of a $500 donation to a charity of your choice that will benefit Haiti. Yup--head over there now. NOTE: This opportunity is closed now--there were about 25,000 comments which meant $2500 to be donated--but Ree ended deciding to donate $2500 to 3 of the top charities mentioned--so there is $2500 going to Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, and CARE. This is in addition to the two $500 giveaways--amazing generosity.

Oh, and thanks to One Pearl Button for pointing me in the direction of both of the above opportunities to help Haiti. So lovely of you.

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

--Mother Teresa