Well, if you have a smart-packing older sister like I do this is what it looks like! I wheeled one suitcase of donations over to the clinic this morning as I went... it was quite funny to see the nurse's face as Dan unpacked the bag for me! LOL
Showing posts with label donations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label donations. Show all posts
Monday, July 6, 2009
What do 3425 Playtex bottle liners look like?
Well, if you have a smart-packing older sister like I do this is what it looks like! I wheeled one suitcase of donations over to the clinic this morning as I went... it was quite funny to see the nurse's face as Dan unpacked the bag for me! LOL
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Items from Shopping Yesterday (using donations)!
All the shoes from Walmart.. they look big in this pic but they are anywhere from 3 - 5 little kids ($10 + tax)
Babies R Us purchases: soft bowling ball set and shape toy approx. $30 including tax (I am going to teach the Mobiles to play if it kills me! LOL I want them to start learning that toys are things you can play with not just throw!! LOL So at least bowling has a cause and effect that they can see immediately!) The book Gallop! ($12.95 + tax) is the coolest book I have ever seen -- I bought it specifically with Alexandra (6yo w/ brittle bone disease and dwarfism) in mind. She loves to read and I think this will fascinate her! The book ($6.99 + tax)below it is a soft baby book that you can insert pictures into -- I will print out pictures from December and add them to the book. Since I bought every bottle liner I could find I thought I should throw in some nipples also! ($3.99 + tax per pack). The 2 teething rings ($1.99 + tax each) will be easier for the babies to hold instead of the chunkier teething rings they already have.
Six.. yes 6 of the pink outfits with butterflies -- t-shirt and shorts together 74 cents for each outfit!! Woo hoo gotta love 75% off sales!! The little fishie outfit was too cute to pass up ($3.49) and the clinic tends to need newborn size when they get itty bitty new babies in who are malnourished. Also in this pic the temporal artery thermometer I wanted to buy -- a steal at Target for $34.99 + tax!! They only had one in stock -- the same exact thermometer is $49.99 at Walgreens!!
All the boxes of original liners we were able to find in Knoxville!! LOL Approximately $5.50 a box
All the Target brand drop-in liners we found at the first Target. The problem is going to be that the boxes are HUGE!! So I also bought this tote.. my thinking was this: when we take them out of the boxes they have the potential to become unsanitary during both the flight AND during storage in the clinic -- so if I put them in ziploc baggies and then put them in the tote then the clinic can store them in the tote forever :-)
Okay I am a sucker for baby clothes... The clothes above I bought for some of the smaller girls -- yes, Ema-Elena will probably be the first to wear them all! :-) The rattle is a fairly soft one that I hope big Andreea can hold without dropping or bonking herself on the head too much! About $35 for all at Babies R Us.
The clothes above have a specific purpose!! LOL When I emailed Mihaela about needs for the clinic she said the bottle liners, of course, but she also said a couple of the older girls (Ana Maria and Miastra) needed clothing. They are bigger than any of the other children so the clothes that fit all the others are too small for them. So the shorts outfits on the left are for Ana-Maria ($5 each at Walmart) and the shorts outfits on the right are for Miastra ($5 each at Walmart).. the 2 cute onesies at the bottom were on clearance at Kohl's for $2.50 each.
Finally.. you all know how I am about books!! :-) I got about 25 of the books below at the Dollar Zone in Target!! YIPEE!!! Several of them are copies of the same book but that way the pre-school teacher can put them up until a book is destroyed then bring out another copy! At a dollar a book for board books there was no way to pass this one up!!
Donations, donations, donations...
My dear past team member Evan sent me a HUGE box of stuff to bring over to the babies.. all the cute clothes above AND the sweet sunhats, socks, bibs, and neck monkey thingie (this will hopefully be used for big Andreea who needs help holding her head up in her rocking chair).
Then my new friend and former volunteer, Caroline, sent the cute outfits above for the babies!
My mom and sisters donated the clothes above from things my nieces have long outgrown -- it will be sweet seeing the babies using things my nieces looked so cute in!!
THEN a friend of an old school friend, Cindi in AZ, knitted these sweet hats for the babies!! Aren't they precious?!? They'll be even cuter next week when you see them on the babies!! LOLThese are gonna be the best dressed kids in Romania!! :-)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
36 hours until I leave for the airport!!
YIPEE!!
LOL I am so excited and cannot wait to get back to those babies!!
On June 3rd I spoke at the Pigeon Forge Rotary meeting about my past and upcoming trip with Global Volunteers to Romania. Shortly thereafter a friend, who happens to be a Rotary member, called and told me their International Committee would like to make a donation! I had to contact the committee chair and explained a little bit more the types of things I would do with donated money (purchase medicine, wipes, diapers, yogurt, anything the clinic staff and Dr. Delia say that the clinic needs). After playing phone tag for a couple of weeks due to my trip with Emily and the committee chair's trip with his family I finally found out that they had decided to donate $700!! YIPEE again!!
This morning I went back to the PF Rotary meeting and thanked them for their donation and gave them a mini update about things I have learned since my last presentation (i.e., Playtex bottle liners not being sold in Romania). They were very supportive and a couple of members even suggested I spend the entire amount on the airline's extra luggage fee and fill an additional suitcase with bottle liners!
I didn't go to quite that extreme -- I think! LOL However, as soon as the meeting was over I met my sister, Trish, my niece, Hannah, and Emily for a whirlwind ride to Knoxville. Emily had a dentist/orthodontist appointment then we hit the stores!! LOL We bought EVERY box of the Target brand of bottle liners at the West Town Target. Then headed to Babies R Us and bought EVERY box of the original - pull down the sides bottle liners. Then we hit Walmart at Turkey Creek -- they didn't have ANY of the original liners but they had the most precious baby crocs on clearance for $1 each so I bought all of those they had. Then we hit Target at Turkey Creek for more liners. Checked a BIG LOTS for original liners -- no luck... Then Trish ran into Burlington Coat Factory's Baby Depot to see if maybe they would have liners -- SUCCESS!! She grabbed 6 boxes there for less than we had paid anywhere! One last stop at Walgreens on Northshore before heading back to Pigeon Forge.. no luck -- you have no idea how hard it is to find the original baby bottle liners!! We have definitely become a society of convenience!!! How hard is it to pull down the sides of the bag over the outside of the bottle?!
So, all in all, I spent about $400 today on items to take with me to Romania. Some clothing for some of the older babies/children, a couple of cute toys we were unable to pass up, books -- you guys know how I feel about books!! I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them but tonight I just want to fall into bed and turn the lights off!! Not sure how I am going to fit everything in my suitcase and I think Mihaela or Dan will have to help me (and all my crazy luggage) get on the train in Bucharest but I had so much fun today/tonight the exhaustion is worth it!!
One last thing before I head to bed... I am sure some of you are thinking why did she buy all this stuff here to cart over there?!? On my last trip I wanted money to take with me to purchase items the clinic needed -- and that worked out great UNTIL we spent an entire day wandering around Barlad looking for all the things they requested and finding very little!! There is no Walmart in Romania -- Well not in any part of Romania I visited anyway!! LOL If you need something for your kitchen -- you go to the little kitchen store. If you need contact solution, you go to the optometry store (yes, I ran out while in Romania!!). If you need baby bottle nipples you go to the pharmacy (and they don't have 500 nipples like Walmart they might have 10.. so you walk across town to another pharmacy and buy 10 more there and repeat until you have located the 35 or so the clinic needs!!! LOL Again experience speaking!). I am so excited though to take the remaining money and help the clinic out with day to day needs like YUMMY YOGURT!! :-)
Thank you Rotary for voting to make a donation - I promise I'll bring back lots of pictures!! (No comments from the peanut gallery ;-p )
LOL I am so excited and cannot wait to get back to those babies!!
On June 3rd I spoke at the Pigeon Forge Rotary meeting about my past and upcoming trip with Global Volunteers to Romania. Shortly thereafter a friend, who happens to be a Rotary member, called and told me their International Committee would like to make a donation! I had to contact the committee chair and explained a little bit more the types of things I would do with donated money (purchase medicine, wipes, diapers, yogurt, anything the clinic staff and Dr. Delia say that the clinic needs). After playing phone tag for a couple of weeks due to my trip with Emily and the committee chair's trip with his family I finally found out that they had decided to donate $700!! YIPEE again!!
This morning I went back to the PF Rotary meeting and thanked them for their donation and gave them a mini update about things I have learned since my last presentation (i.e., Playtex bottle liners not being sold in Romania). They were very supportive and a couple of members even suggested I spend the entire amount on the airline's extra luggage fee and fill an additional suitcase with bottle liners!
I didn't go to quite that extreme -- I think! LOL However, as soon as the meeting was over I met my sister, Trish, my niece, Hannah, and Emily for a whirlwind ride to Knoxville. Emily had a dentist/orthodontist appointment then we hit the stores!! LOL We bought EVERY box of the Target brand of bottle liners at the West Town Target. Then headed to Babies R Us and bought EVERY box of the original - pull down the sides bottle liners. Then we hit Walmart at Turkey Creek -- they didn't have ANY of the original liners but they had the most precious baby crocs on clearance for $1 each so I bought all of those they had. Then we hit Target at Turkey Creek for more liners. Checked a BIG LOTS for original liners -- no luck... Then Trish ran into Burlington Coat Factory's Baby Depot to see if maybe they would have liners -- SUCCESS!! She grabbed 6 boxes there for less than we had paid anywhere! One last stop at Walgreens on Northshore before heading back to Pigeon Forge.. no luck -- you have no idea how hard it is to find the original baby bottle liners!! We have definitely become a society of convenience!!! How hard is it to pull down the sides of the bag over the outside of the bottle?!
So, all in all, I spent about $400 today on items to take with me to Romania. Some clothing for some of the older babies/children, a couple of cute toys we were unable to pass up, books -- you guys know how I feel about books!! I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them but tonight I just want to fall into bed and turn the lights off!! Not sure how I am going to fit everything in my suitcase and I think Mihaela or Dan will have to help me (and all my crazy luggage) get on the train in Bucharest but I had so much fun today/tonight the exhaustion is worth it!!
One last thing before I head to bed... I am sure some of you are thinking why did she buy all this stuff here to cart over there?!? On my last trip I wanted money to take with me to purchase items the clinic needed -- and that worked out great UNTIL we spent an entire day wandering around Barlad looking for all the things they requested and finding very little!! There is no Walmart in Romania -- Well not in any part of Romania I visited anyway!! LOL If you need something for your kitchen -- you go to the little kitchen store. If you need contact solution, you go to the optometry store (yes, I ran out while in Romania!!). If you need baby bottle nipples you go to the pharmacy (and they don't have 500 nipples like Walmart they might have 10.. so you walk across town to another pharmacy and buy 10 more there and repeat until you have located the 35 or so the clinic needs!!! LOL Again experience speaking!). I am so excited though to take the remaining money and help the clinic out with day to day needs like YUMMY YOGURT!! :-)
Thank you Rotary for voting to make a donation - I promise I'll bring back lots of pictures!! (No comments from the peanut gallery ;-p )
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Finally some good news
Ever heard of FuzziBunz?? LOL http://www.fuzzibunz.com/ It is an AWESOME cloth diaper company that is sending me a donation of diapers to take with me to Romania! I am so excited!
The idea to asked for donations of the new and improved cloth diapers came about from conversations with a previous volunteer who stumbled across my blog and sent me an email (Hey Stephanie!). She was asking me to give her an update on a couple of kids she and her mom worked closely with and made a comment about how huge the diapers were on one of the little girls (Alina) at the clinic. I thought, hey I will buy some of those new and improved cloth diapers to take with me for the smaller babies. (The clinic has to pay to dispose of disposable diapers so I was trying to come up with something other than Huggies.) Then I saw how expensive the new and improved cloth diapers are -- yikes! Finally the idea hit to ask for donations and FuzziBunz said yes!
So thank you to Stephanie for contacting me and FuzziBunz for their donation -- I needed some good news after the crap with Delta! :-)
The idea to asked for donations of the new and improved cloth diapers came about from conversations with a previous volunteer who stumbled across my blog and sent me an email (Hey Stephanie!). She was asking me to give her an update on a couple of kids she and her mom worked closely with and made a comment about how huge the diapers were on one of the little girls (Alina) at the clinic. I thought, hey I will buy some of those new and improved cloth diapers to take with me for the smaller babies. (The clinic has to pay to dispose of disposable diapers so I was trying to come up with something other than Huggies.) Then I saw how expensive the new and improved cloth diapers are -- yikes! Finally the idea hit to ask for donations and FuzziBunz said yes!
So thank you to Stephanie for contacting me and FuzziBunz for their donation -- I needed some good news after the crap with Delta! :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
