Pam Johnson's Blog
I have moved house and had the holiday and a lovely Christmas. I have missed the Forum but soooo much has been happening - just on the KAS front let alone with the house etc. Here is a summary -
Moved house and lost internet access for 2 months - agony!
* - One lady tracked me down to new house - she had heard about me collecting knitting for KAS - told her craft group of 26 ladies - and arrived on my doorstep with a wonderful box of vests, hats and squares
* - I had a coffee morning to show friends the new house - some turned up with hats and squares
* - another craft group had a Christmas fair stall and donated to me the Izzy dolls that were left over
* - knitting group members and drama group friends have started knitting squares and some have given me donations for postage
* - helped with Operation Christmas Child (shoebox scheme) and met 3 new ladies who want to knit squares and gave me donations for postage
* - the Chair of Governors at the school where I work runs a wholesale wool business - yes, exciting!! She is donating to me bags of wool where the courier has burst the paper band around one ball so the batch cannot go to a wool shop!
* - the same lady has also offered her courier service to me and provided me with mailing bags! So far I have sent just teddies in the UK but she is checking out costs to SA and hopefully it will be cheaper
* - one Christmas present was a knitting board/loom! I have never seen one before but it is great. A friend bought it as she knew I was having elbow trouble. It is quicker than 2 needle knitting and produces thick double sided knitting - lovely and cosy!
* - elbow trouble has cleared up as I have not done much knitting for 2 months with the move and everything
* - previous owners left us a huge oak chest in the house - which is now the storage place for - guess what, yep, teddies and squares and wool and vests and Izzy dolls and .......
As soon as the New Year starts I shall get organised and get it all posted. I see you have enough small vests so will try to get them all on other things but mostly just encourage squares and more squares.
So as you see you have not been forgotten although I have not been on the forum.
So Happy New Year to KAS and to you all. One resolution is to try not to spend tooo much time on here as the hours disappear but it has been great to catch up and I see so much has been happening.
Pics attached of just some of the knitting that has been given to me since November
Pam
x
Moved house and lost internet access for 2 months - agony!
* - One lady tracked me down to new house - she had heard about me collecting knitting for KAS - told her craft group of 26 ladies - and arrived on my doorstep with a wonderful box of vests, hats and squares
* - I had a coffee morning to show friends the new house - some turned up with hats and squares
* - another craft group had a Christmas fair stall and donated to me the Izzy dolls that were left over
* - knitting group members and drama group friends have started knitting squares and some have given me donations for postage
* - helped with Operation Christmas Child (shoebox scheme) and met 3 new ladies who want to knit squares and gave me donations for postage
* - the Chair of Governors at the school where I work runs a wholesale wool business - yes, exciting!! She is donating to me bags of wool where the courier has burst the paper band around one ball so the batch cannot go to a wool shop!
* - the same lady has also offered her courier service to me and provided me with mailing bags! So far I have sent just teddies in the UK but she is checking out costs to SA and hopefully it will be cheaper
* - one Christmas present was a knitting board/loom! I have never seen one before but it is great. A friend bought it as she knew I was having elbow trouble. It is quicker than 2 needle knitting and produces thick double sided knitting - lovely and cosy!
* - elbow trouble has cleared up as I have not done much knitting for 2 months with the move and everything
* - previous owners left us a huge oak chest in the house - which is now the storage place for - guess what, yep, teddies and squares and wool and vests and Izzy dolls and .......
As soon as the New Year starts I shall get organised and get it all posted. I see you have enough small vests so will try to get them all on other things but mostly just encourage squares and more squares.
So as you see you have not been forgotten although I have not been on the forum.
So Happy New Year to KAS and to you all. One resolution is to try not to spend tooo much time on here as the hours disappear but it has been great to catch up and I see so much has been happening.
Pics attached of just some of the knitting that has been given to me since November
Pam
x
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Helen M. Flagg on -
Pam, this is so awesome! You have some wonderful friends and neighbors! So many good things happening in your life for KAS! Glad your elbow is better; the loom sounds perfect for you! Happy New Year!
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on -
Oh Pam - I am just so pleased that you are back - I've been looking for you!! And congrats on figuring our the Personal Blog on your first day back.
You are obviously a great promoter - you have a knack for inspiring others to join the program and donate squares... and I think this is the secret to our ongoing success. I am having much the same luck here in Canada - people I don't even know are leaving squares in my box at church each week, and some lovely senior ladies I had never met have handed me bags of 100 squares... it's like ripples in a pond.
I look forward to sharing ideas for keeping this "production line" going and lots of future postings from you on how you are inspiring people.
Welcome Home Pam
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on
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PS Pam - would it be possible for you to rename your personal blog "Pam Johnsons's Blog" since I hope it will be a long and ongoing one... and that would make it easier for people visiting the Personal blog category to find yours??
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Permalink Reply by Pam Johnson on -
Have renamed Anne - thanks for the quick responses - it is so heartening to know our little community is always on the go. Off to play with the loom now!
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Permalink Reply by Pam Johnson on
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Thanks for the kind comments Anne - I don't know about inspiring people but I think there are a lot of lonely ladies around who just don't know how to put their skills to good use and are thrilled to be able to send their handiwork my way. I keep meaning to get some more homes for the elderly on the KAS chain - but time and postage are the issues. If I could just win the Lottery (not likely as I don't buy tickets) I could do this full time but I'm sure a way will be found.
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Permalink Reply by gayle DeGroot on -
Pam...those pics are absolutly so gorgeous.....the little Izzy dolls are so cute. and what a batch of hats you have there...you did better being gone then I did being here all the time...bless you for all you do...sending them will take you some time...and $$$'s....sure happy some of your people are donating cash to you for sending...
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Permalink Reply by Christine Johnson on -
Welcome back Pam. I'm glad your elbow is now better. Wonderful results from your community. I too have been given many squares but haven't found a way yet of getting postage donations so I'm afraid that sometimes when I'm give a bag of squares my heart sinks - like you I will be sending loads of stuff in the New Year as and when I can afford it. At least I don't have to spend much on yarns as they give that too. Have a happy and healthy 2010.
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Permalink Reply by Pam Johnson on
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The postage is a real problem isn't it? You may have seen on other posts that I do a small village lunch once a month and make £15-£20 profit from that which all goes on postage. So far I have spent £137 (about 215USD I think) since July 2009 which has all come from fundraising - but the donations of knitting keep outstripping the donations of cash! I have suggested that people might like to give me 20p (30 cents) with each item they knit but so far no one has! In the new year I hope to have a fundraising party for some serious cash - I have friends who don't knit but who cook and would gladly help with catering - and the local Rotary Club might well help with a donation. I think the Rotary and Lions are worldwide - maybe local groups could help in other countries. I don't fell guilty if I'm not knitting as at least I am getting funds to forward everyone else's wonderful knitting.
By the way - does anyone else have a knitting board? It's a straight one - not a round loom. I am getting the hang of it but would like to chat to someone who knows about them - they come from the USA and there's not much info here in the UK.
Wishing everyone in KAS a Happy New Year - I'm sure the whole project and everyone involved in the chain is blessed by Whoever Is Up There - and it certainly brings joy to us all - knitters and organisers and sew-er uppers and recipients.
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Permalink Reply by Sue Gillman on -
Pam you are a miracle worker!!!
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Permalink Reply by Pam Johnson on
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Just a chronic organiser Sue :D
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on
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Christine -I know just how you feel about the postage problem. The more I talk about KAS, the more squares I receive - and last summer I found myself wondering how on earth I was going to get them to Africa. I can produce more squares on my own than I can afford to send... and other donations kept pouring in.... but I was sure I would find a way... and happily... I did.
My own solution was to approach the Mission Society at my church. Not only did they give me permission to ask the congregation for help with the postage,, they officially adopted KAS as an outreach mission - so the support will be ongoing. I needed about $350 to mail the items I had gathered. I had all the squares and hats laid out in the foyer one Sunday morning and invited people to sponsor bags of 10 squares at the cost of $5.00. In addition, a special collection was taken up during the service and people trucked up to the front of the church and dropped coins or bills into a basket. It was obvious before the second service even began, that we were “over the top” and I asked our minister if we should omit asking during the 11 o’clock service. His response was - “Let’s keep going” and in the end, we raised enough $$ to cover our mailing for the next year. The first 17 boxes sent included 670 squares, 15 hats, some GO-OVERS and some items like teddies and school supplies that “fell in” to the boxes.... and the cost was $384.
It seems there are some people in KAS who are becoming “square magnets” - we can attract piles of donated squares, hats etc. and so we have to find ways of getting the postage sponsored. I guess you and I are in that group, but so is Pam Johnson - and she is being very creative about fund-raising for postage... and Pam - I think your idea about approaching Lions and Rotary is something we should be putting our heads together to explore for the benefit of the whole group, since they are both international organizations, and if we could get just one chapter onboard, others will follow.
Helen Flagg in Texas is doing an awesome job and her church has adopted KAS as an outreach and is supporting the postage costs, and she has women knitting like crazy.
Jacqueline Sousa has found a way to get, not only donations of squares, but also support for postage in her workplace. Just before Christmas she put a copy of my little “Night Before Christmas” poem from my blog, on the bulletin board at work and it brought in some more donations.
As we move into 2010, we need to put our heads together to share ideas for postage fundraising. We mods are currently ‘housecleaning’ the forum - trying to streamline it a bit.... and we have not attacked the Postage Category yet. Once that is organized, I will start a discussion group there and hopefully we will be able to share our fund-raising ideas and successes.
For KAS to keep growing, we need to inspire as many people as we can to knit for us. For some of us - providing a way to mail the squares at no cost to the knitters is our most important function. Seniors who are presenting me with bags of 100 squares could never afford to mail them. Knitters who are handing me 12 or 15, probably would not make the effort to package them up and send them.... But who cares... if they will keep knitting, I am more than happy to find ways to get them mailed.
Sandy has provided us with some wonderful promotional pieces which are available for download on the main site. I hope we might make one of our challenges in the new year, a challenge to mail out some of these - especially the introductory letter, to groups and organizations in our communities, to attract not only more squares, but also postage $$. We just never know whose heart will be touched and where our support will come from.
I think to get the help we need, we need to concentrate on “promotion with emotion” - get the word out - not just about the squares - but about the plight of the kids we knit for. Showing people photos of the kids from the e-zines or repeating some of the heart-wrenching stories, makes it pretty hard for non-members to resist jumping in to support our cause. When they see the tin shacks, the faces of the shivering kids in t-shirts and the happy smiles of the ones who have received a blanket and hat, the squares will keep pouring in, the $$ to mail them will start to come.
Sandy has given us the tools - we need to find creative ways to use them. It will attract more donated squares and the $$ to get them mailed..
Most of the time, this will mean stepping out of our comfort zone a bit - but WE CAN DO THIS... and sharing our ideas is the first step.
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Permalink Reply by gayle DeGroot on
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Anne...How wonderful of you to write this piece....I might add....I had my calender made in a print shop and people just melt when they see the front cover.....so that would be another way to show people about KAS...My grand daughter is going to India on a mission trip in April...and yesterday she came and helped me clean house....she took that calender and hugged it and said "thats where I am going next....just look at those cute litte faces".....I was so thrilled...I have a pile of squares too waiting for me to pick up...and I am wondering too....How can I get these all shipped...but like you say...maybe we can step out of that comfort zone....you did such a great job Anne....
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