Wow. Just wow. Sarah here, stopping in to say thank you to everyone who has been part of the wild ride that is Craft Hope for Haiti.
As I’m sure you’ve seen on the Etsy shop, we’ve been listing and selling items nonstop since Friday morning. The response from the craft community has been amazing and overwhelming. You are a remarkable bunch of people. Jade and I and the other volunteers are humbled by your willingness to give when often you don’t have much yourselves. This experience has been a testament to the power of a connected community.
Jade and I started this effort as a quick offshoot of Craft Hope because we wanted to help and knew that sending things was not a viable option. We hatched a little idea about the shop on Etsy and figured we’d raise a few hundred dollars. We had this pie in the sky idea that we’d maybe get to $5,000 eventually. You all got us there by yesterday at noon. As of now, we’re rapidly approaching the $10,000 mark. Amazing. Overwhelming.
From a housekeeping perspective, you should know that listings are taking up to 72 hours to place on Etsy. Currently we are notifying sellers of the shipping information the day after the sale, and we will try to maintain that pace, but it may go to 2 days. We ask for your patience as we process a tremendous number of transactions. We may make an occasional listing mistake, and we’ll hope you forgive us. We have streamlined and slowed down our pace a bit so we don’t make hurried errors. There are only a few of us, and so many generous gifts.
This operation is being run by a mom with 3 kids under 5, including a 3 month old baby and by a mom who is 7 months pregnant and has 2 homeschooling kids. We are relying on the kindness of our wonderful friends (who are also all moms with babies or homeschooled kids or jobs) and our husbands who have given up their weekends to help out. The task at hand has become far larger than we can maintain for any length of time. We don’t want the program to become a victim of its own success because we were so excited to help that we didn’t take the time to set up sustainable systems.
We have decided to stop accepting donations on Wednesday evening, January 20. We will list everything we have received by the following weekend, and we will keep the store open until everything has sold. The plan is to be closed to new donations for 2 weeks while we regroup. This has taken us in a direction that we never anticipated Craft Hope going. In order to serve the community better, we are going to take a break and organize our thoughts, our systems, and our mission. While we would LOVE to just keep on going, we have to do so in a sustainable way so that we do it well and still have time to feed our children, take showers, and interact with our families on occasion.
Over the next few days, we will be forwarding funds to Doctors Without Borders and will post the transactions to this site, so you have verification of the donations. We understand that donating and buying is an act of trust by all of you, and we are committed to living up to that trust. Thank you, all of you, for giving us the opportunity to help the Haitian people in a meaningful way. Because this isn’t about us at all. It’s about the generosity of each and every one of you.
We are all so grateful to be a part of this effort, which is a small part of the larger effort to help the Haitian people. We hope you understand our reasons for regrouping in order to serve the effort even better. Thank you again for everything you have done and continue to do.
In hope,
Sarah
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Hi Sarah and Co.,
you are sooo amazing! I had a question about shipping to Germany today, sent a convo and in a 10-minutes time had the answer. That never happened to me on Etsy- sooo fast! You really can slow down a little and still be very fast and customer-friendly! And, it´s important to take good care of you and your families while helping others as well. So, completely understandable that you want to close and (eventually) reopen. I think it´s just such a great idea. I wanted to contribute something as well by crafting, but, I´m in the middle of exams and organizing to move, so it just didn´t work out so far. But, at least I could contribute a tiny bit- by buying some wonderful donated items!
Thank you, Sarah and Co. and all the crafty donaters!!!
Viola.
pat on the backs to all involved. i was happy to donate and even happier to buy! crafters and artist rock!
Oh! Just reading this made me tear up! Even in the midst of this horrible tragedy it is easy to see that God is good!
You are doing a wonderful job. Thank you so much!
Wow! This is SO fabulous! I worked with Doctors Without Borders in 2002 and I was so glad they already had medical teams in Haiti when the earthquake hit and are doing an amazing job caring for people. So I am especially thrilled that all this money is going to their wonderful efforts!
Even though Doctors Without Borders will keep doing their good work all over the world, I’d also like to suggest that future donations go to Heifer International. Heifer is not a “first responder,” like Doctors Without Borders, but they have projects that provide families with farm animals and training. Donations to Heifer will help Haitian families recover in the wake of the earthquake (http://bit.ly/579YnG).
Thanks again SO much to this wonderful community!
It is so wonderful to see people come together to help out in a critical situation as this. Thank you ladies you are doing an incredible thing!!
Thank YOU all for all of your hard work! Donating was the easy part! I am thrilled to have been able to take part, and excited to see all of the wonderful sales and lovely items up for sale! It’s simply amazing!
You guys are doing an wonderful job! Thanks for your dedication and hard work for something so important!
You truly are an amazing group of people. This is a remarkable acheivement and you all deserve true praise. I cried again when reading the post. Thank you so much, i wish you all the luck in the world xox
thank you all again SO MUCH for all of your hard work and dedication to this effort. i feel honored to be a (very small!) part of it.
also, there is at least one other shop doing similar work, accepting donations and donating the funds to doctors without borders, for folks who want to donate, but might not make it in before wednesday- heartsforhaiti.etsy.com.
and seriously, $10,000?! a.maz.ing.
a gigantic thank you to each of you!!! what you have done is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow! Thanks for the updates. I heard on NPR that Doctors Without Borders had to let 5 people die because they didn’t have the supplies to save them, not because they couldn’t be saved. I’m glad the funds are going to them. Thanks for all that you do. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know. I’d be glad to do some typing for you!
I live in Austin and would be happy to help you in any way I can. I do work part time, but have days off often. Please contact me if I can do anything.
Craft Hope for Haiti is such a wonderful mission.
I don’t know how you busy mommas are staying sane, but I am so thankful that I could be a small part of this amazing effort to help the people of Haiti!
Thank you for everything you have done and for allowing so many to get involved in such a meaningful and personal way!
Bravo, Ladies!! I’m thrilled to be a part of this dream-come-true.
I’d love to participate… everything left in my etsy store at the moment could be part of my donation… what do I do next?
http://www.littlebirddesigns.etsy.com
I would love to join in with some of my items. What do I do next?
http://www.little-z.nl
Thank you
I’m not gonna be able to finish my two angels in time, so I will wait patiently for you to take a breath and I will participate when again possible
You truly are amazing, thank you for what are you doing.
Much respect and kind regards from Slovenia.
thank you so much for all your hard work and long hours! this truly is such an amazing project and it’s been so wonderful to see the response. i can’t thank you enough for providing a way for us to come together to make a difference. I’m so glad to be a part of it.
Many thanks for this amazing work! I’m really delighted with my purchase and the whole experience — you’re doing a marvelous job, and I know we’re all grateful to you for coordinating our individual longings to help.
This effort is just amazing. I donated two items yesterday and by the time I had a chance to post to my blog the bracelet had sold, with the necklace not far behind. I’m thrilled I managed to purchase a purse I fell in love with before someone else beat me to it!
Incredible effort, ladies, and incredible community. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to help.
I just donated another apron to this wonderful cause!! Sold the first apron and was promptly given the address to the buyer and shipped out, easy to do!!!
Not really knowing what to do, but wanting to help in my small way!!
Blessings…
http://anniesattic.etsy.com/
i so love what you are doing and all that craft hope stands for.
You are all Beautiful!
What a wonderful thing y’all are doing!
I’d love to donate a skirt I made. I sent you an email – I hope I’m not too late!
Thank you SO much for doing this. What amazing women you are! I can’t wait to get my doll in the mail.
Thank you to you and your families~ I appreciate all the love that you are giving to this and know that the sacrifices that you are making in your everyday family life will be greatly rewarded by your amazing accomplishments. Regroup as long as you need so that this heartfelt project can be sustainable!
With peace and gratitude,
Sarah
May you be blessed ten-fold for serving as the
hands of Jesus and helping His children in need.
This is so wonderful of you! Unfortunately I just found out about it or I would have certainly donated a quilt to sell. I’ll just have to shop instead
Sarah, just want to be sure I had left you all my info with my donations. I gave the eye pillows, and all had been sold by yesterday morning. I haven’t gotten info yet on where to ship, so just checking. Not trying to rush you, though
). Thank you so much for all your hard work, and allowing me to feel as though I’ve made a little difference. You all deserve a standing ovation. Bravo!
Wow!! I just stumbled upon this blog… what an amazing thing you are doing! I realize that I have missed the deadline (yesterday) but after your “regrouping” I would love to donate some items. I create mixed media painting and collage with a inspired by life & inspiration. You can find me on etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/kristajbrock
Please let me know as soon as I can participate!!
oh no oh no oh no, this is mostly not about the people who donated. well, it’s first of all about the people who need to receive the funds you raised, but it’s you who did it. Or are doing it. Donating is easy, you know? From the little I have read on Facebook or elsewhere, it’s the processing and listing part that takes time. Thanks so much for doing this. You guys are great.
Just found about your site today. What a wonderful project. I would love to donate something when you accept donations again.
Have a heart…
Last summer, I was asked to submit a project for the upcoming Craft Hope book. The book will feature pairs of projects and charities, the idea being that you can make the projects and then donate them to the charities. I was honored to be included, and…