Going wireless

When we get to Bangladesh, I want to be able to update my posts regularly.

I think I've found a way to e-mail my posts from my iPhone.

We'll know it works if this appears on the blog.

[Note: Hurray, it worked! Now I've got to figure out how to do it with photographs.]

Odds and ends

Got my Criminal Records Search (aka Police Check) done at the Peel Regional Police headquarters on Friday. This was the first time for me, and I was amazed at how many people were there for the same thing. It took about 10 minutes and $25.

My fundraising appeal has gone viral, as they say in the online marketing biz. I am now hearing from people twice removed from those I originally contacted. Many are already aware of Sleeping Children, and some tell wonderful stories about founder Murray Dryden in the early days of the organization.

I also heard from editor Sue, who confirms that my article will be in the next community newsletter.

Picking up speed

The donations are really coming in now. Some of my neighbourhood friends picked up the ball on this and are spreading the word to their own circles of friends (Thank-you Donna, Jim and Keith), with the result that people I never would have reached are telling me they're buying bedkits for Bangladesh. This is fun!

Also several of my CharityVillage.com team mates have donated bed kits. By my rough tally, including the matching kits I am buying, it looks like we are probably getting close to 200 kits, and I am sure there are many that I haven't even heard about.

One issue is the online payment form. People are telling me it's a bit cumbersome to use, and doesn't really provide a place to direct the gift to Bangladesh, so I am starting to suggest they print out a donation form and mail it in with a cheque. They can do that at http://www.scaw.org/reports/download.html.

Helping hands

As I mentioned earlier, I got the word out on this by e-mail to a few friends, neighbours, and relatives. I must say I have been pleasantly surprised by the positive response, so I am emboldened to cast the net a bit wider. I have asked our local newsletter the Rosedale Village Voice to run an article containing the info on ways to donate.

Also, earlier this week, I had an opportunity to make a little presentation to my CharityVillage.com team mates, and one of them (Thank you Natalya!) actually donated online before I finished speaking --- the wonders of technology. I told them that I would be donating a bedkit in each of their names. I'm hopeful that more of them will warm to this fantastic cause, although I know that everyone already has several favourite charities of their own. 

Say Cheese

Several people have asked me about the pictures we'll be taking of the kids who get your bedkits, so here's a sample from a previous Sleeping Children trip. 

Note that those spiffy outfits they're wearing came from their bedkits. They come to the distribution site well scrubbed, but with clothing that would have been pitched in the trash long ago here in Canada.

The team is very careful to ensure that the donor's name on the plaque is matched up to the actual kids that received their kits, and that all donors receive their pictures.

P.S. I'm told by experienced team members that the kids always have big, excited smiles until they get in front of the camera, and then often put on a serious expression befitting such a momentous occasion (usually the first time in their lives that they have posed for a picture).

The "Ask"

I sent out an e-mail to friends and family today. Not everyone I know, but just those I thought might be likely to help this along by donating to Sleeping Children to buy a bedkit or two. I will match their gifts with my own. My fundraiser friends call this "The Ask."

This is something new for me, and I was a bit hesitant, wondering how the recipients would react. But I figured "What the heck, might as well find out." Already heard from several of them, so maybe it went down OK.

If you would like to help out, please go to the donation page.

If you're game to help out, you need to:

1. Do it now, so your bedkit gets put into the Bangladesh distribution.

2. Clearly state when you make your donation that it is for Bangladesh.

I'll be there handing that kit directly to a child, and I'll be telling her or him that it came from my friend back in Canada. And we'll snap a picture for you so you can see the smile, too.