Craft Hope for Haiti

By now you have probably read about Craft Hope. Founded by Jade Sims, Craft Hope aims to share handmade crafts with those less fortunate. Craft Hope has organised craft projects as far reaching as making toys for orphanages to blankets for homeless shelters.

Their most recent project is Craft Hope for Haiti – where they have set up an etsy shop with handcrafted donations and all proceeds going direct to Doctors Without Borders. So far they have raised over US$20,000, but you can help them raise more! Click over there now; how about this cute card that you can download and print:


http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38848346

Thanks Holly for letting us know about this important project.

The Story Continues

The world is an amazing place. The Australian people, actually people of the world, have stepped forward in a remarkable way to help the victims of the bushfire tragedy. Money has been raised, food dropped off, rooms, homes, houses offered, hoards of volunteers doing all manner of things, blood given and it continues.

In just 48 hours the global Toy Society family (that's you) pledged 250+ handmade toys for children impacted by the fires and the pledges continue.

The fires still burn and the weather out look is not good so sadly the story also continues.

You can still:
- donate a handmade toy, just email thetoysociety@gmail.com
- donate other handmade goods here (keep an eye on the column on the right for updates)
- buy handmade goods with proceeds going to the bushfire appeal

With a heavy heart The Toy Society will now revert back to documenting the world of secret toy drops. Any updates about handmade toy donations will be sent to the mailing list, feel free to join by emailing.

Bushfires

I'll keep this short, this morning the death toll sits at 173. 5000 people without homes, 750+ homes destroyed and the fires still burn. Thank you to everyone for your generous pledges of homemade toys, the response has been amazing, we have around 100 toys in just over 24 hours. I will be responding to all emails over the next few days and providing addresses to send donations.

More handmade toy donations are welcome - email thetoysociety@gmail.com I also urge you to donate cash to the Red Cross, even the smallest amount of $5 will help.

If you have other handmade items you wish to donate please see here for more information.

Off Topic

This is way off topic.

This weekend has seen a tragic series of massive bushfires sweep through the Australian state of Victoria. Bushfires are a common part of Australian life, but this weekend marks a sad day in Australian history. At last report 84 lives have been taken by the fire, including children. More than 750 homes have been lost, including whole towns. It is devastating to say the least.

Sarah and I have been chatting tonight about doing something for the survivors. Now there are many ways people can help out and you can click here to get more information on making a financial donation.

If you'd like to put your craft skills to good use, The Toy Society will be collecting handmade toys over the next couple of weeks to be donated to children impacted by the fires. Many families have nothing but the clothes on their backs. Please email thetoysociety@gmail.com if you're interested. At this stage there are no organisations collecting goods on behalf of survivors however, we will keep you informed about which organisation we find to take the donations.

If you have any ideas about existing charities looking for these kind of donations, please let me know.

12 Feb Edited to add: The first donated handmade toy was delivered to Whittlesea today. Thought you'd like to know. Any further updates will appear here on this post and will be emailed to anyone who volunteered to make a toy.