craft hope » kindness of strangers

Special Delivery.

Kim — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:53:06 +0000

The day of delivery is finally upon us! After spending hours on Saturday night, loading the Uhaul truck and eventually my xB, until 11pm with 65,000 Project 8 donations (although 35+ boxes still did not make it in the uhaul or my car due to the fact we ran out of room).

Sunrise came rather quickly on Sunday morning, and a 5am wake-up call came even quicker. Did we even sleep? haha! No matter, we were ready to go!!! The above Uhaul picture is a 5am sunrise crowning through the treetops over the Project 8 Uhaul, all ready for departure! Apologies for no loading photos from the night before… it was pitch black and we were focused on loading more so than snapping photos. Work was to be done.

This is inside my xB, or “the box”…. Lots of boxes in the Box. Ah the Irony…. So anyway, I had loaded it up to the roof of my car, with a small peep hole for my rear view. However, weight and safety restrictions required me to unload several packages. Safety first.

The front passenger side of the car, which became interesting as boxes shifted around during commute. That manila envelope under my purse is filled with all the sweet letters and children illustrations that everyone sent, which are now being displayed in the administration hallways at IMMS.

So both boxes on wheels all loaded up and ready to go! So here we go!!

Goodbye Pensacola! IMMS OR BUST!!!

My view for 3 hours. Honk if you love Craft Hope!

We finally made it!! Safe and Sound! Everyone meet the Project 8 Uhaul Driver and the muscle behind the Shipping Department, my dear husband, Daniel Davion. I couldn’t have manage receiving heavy packages, loading/unloading and Uhaul transportation without his help and support! Thank your for being so patient with me, thank you for not thinking I had gone completely daft, and thank you for surrendering your man cave/garage to the Project, and thank you for taking care of the house, dinner, laundry and everything else, when I was logging in and counting donations. Without your help, well… It would not have been possible…
Many Thanks and Love… xoxoxo – K

The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies!

Let the Private Tour begin:

The Museum. IMMS to the Rescue! The container that you see under the sign, is actually what IMMS uses to aid stranded dolphins and prepare them for transport back to the facility.

Here are some of the many faces you will see at IMMS.

This is a 2 month old baby Horseshoe crab! Adorable!

Getting a little up close and personal with an adult Horseshoe crab at the IMMS Touch Pool.

And…. someone else was quite jealous over the Horseshoe Crab Fanfare…

Meet TJ. Star of the Touch Pool. He loves attention and loves being hand fed shrimp!

Hello Sea Snail…

Horseshoe Crab… and… can you see it…

Take a Look closer….

Can you see it now?

Its a Flounder! Mimi at IMMS informed me that this Flounder was rescued, he was a very dark dark brown color and was not doing well at all. And since being rescued and cared for, he is now healthy and a lovely sandy white! It is so great to see that not only does IMMS care for larger sea animals but small ones too!

Here is a video that I took during the touch pool session. Here is TJ again, his personality really did steal our hearts. The conversation in the background is that TJ is very hungry and wants shrimp, like NOW, and a frantic search was going on for shrimp.

watch?v=l_OMhlKxXV4

Now onto the Rescue Center where all the rescued marine mammals are kept to be examined, cleaned free of oil, and rehabilitated for future release. Here are some photos of recent rescues, now clean.

Several Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles have been rescued and are ongoing rehabilitation.

This one was camera shy.

There was also a enormous Loggerhead Sea Turtle. He was found North of Chandeleur Sound.

The massive barnacle growths on his shell were quite impressive!

I also happened to catch a really quickie video of one of the rescued Kemp’s Ridleys pictured above. It’s a really quick video since it was a private tour and we were moving very quickly from tank to tank. Sorry its not longer….couldn’t linger very long in the rescue area. But oh, isn’t he just gorgeous!! THIS is the reason for Project 8!! Getting a chance to see where the donations are going to help is amazing!

watch?v=2YFrlR8yLLU

After our private tour, we began to unload the Uhaul and my car. Photos to come. I, myself, did not get to take any photos of that, since I was literally in the back of the Uhaul working on unloading all of the boxes. However one of the IMMS staff members was taking photos of the unloading of the truck, and of Dan and I with the massive mountain of all 65,000 donations. They will be emailing those photos later. As soon as I receive the pictures, you all know I will post those up to share as soon as possible!

Everyone at IMMS were just shell shocked by all of the donations. Lots of tears were brought up to the eyes of everyone there, and words just couldn’t describe the amount of gratitude they felt toward these donations. They were stunned and speechless over the generosity of so many. And that was something amazing to witness and be a part of. I am still amped up about it. And it still gives me chills.

After leaving IMMS, Dan and I dropped off the Uhaul, and headed over to see family, rest and recover for a little bit, drink some Gatorade and ice water in the air conditioning. After we got cooled off and recovered, we hit the road back to Florida, but not before stopping for lunch.

Little did we know that, we would have an wild rukus greedy crowd join us for our picnic lunch.

This lot, did not know the meaning of table manners. tisk tisk. Check out the guy staring directly at me.

After sharing a picnic lunch with our rowdy lunch crew, it was back home to spend quality time with a tube of Icy Hot, my pillow and snuggle in bed. All in a Days Good Work.

Home Sweet Home.

Again…. I want to THANK YOU ALL for the Generous Support, Donations, Words of Inspiration, Supply and Transportation Proceeds, and being a part of Craft Hope. And Thank You Jade for being patient, kind, and so helpful and supportive. This project would not have been possible without ALL OF YOU!!!

GOD BLESS YOU ALL! WITH LOVE – KIMBERLY & DANIEL DAVION

Stay tuned, more Project 8 stories and photos to come… to be continued!

quilts for india

jade — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:22:57 +0000

One of the things I love about the Craft Hope community is the giving nature of everyone involved. You give your time, your handmade items, and your love. You carefully craft handwritten tags to accompany your gifts. You spend hours, after the children have gone to bed, working on your donations. Finishing one last thing. You go through your yarn stash. You find just the right fabric. You pull items from your own Etsy shop. To help others.

Every little thing makes a difference. It is that sweet comment, posting our button on your site, and twittering about our effort. You are spreading the word. You are showing the world you care. And that matters.

Last summer, we did a project (project 3) to benefit the Miracle Foundation. We collected blankets, beanies, booties, burp cloths, crib sheets, blocks and balls for children in orphanages in India. The first item that I received, out of the 2,809 items we collected, was a beautiful quilt by Ronit. It was the only I thing I had in my possession when I went to visit the Miracle Foundation’s headquarters downtown Austin. I sat there and held that sweet baby quilt. Thinking about my own baby soon to be born, and the new baby in India that would soon be wrapped in love by that beautiful quilt.

Caroline, the founder of the Miracle Foundation, held up the quilt and was in love. She asked if Ronit would mind making a few more to hang on the walls of the orphanages. They are concrete walls, with no decoration. Not like your home, or mine. No pictures strewn about of their families. No cheerful artwork. I quickly emailed Ronit and was greeted with an ‘of course.’ And not much longer, three beautiful quilts arrived for the children in India.

Thank you Ronit. Thank you Craft Hope community. You are the most loving, caring group of individuals I have ever been blessed to know. You are appreciated and you are making a difference.

the best thing since sliced bread

jade — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:51:27 +0000

{Peyton Thomas Ricker passed away this morning, December 15th, 2009. Please continue to pray for his family. All of our thoughts and prayers are with them.}

I think Craft Hope rocks. I am standing on top of a mountain and I am shouting it. Can you hear, hear, hear, hear me, me, me, me? The crafters of Craft Hope rock, rock, rock, rock. That’s an echo by the way. Just in case you haven’t had your morning cup of coffee and aren’t awake yet.

I received a comment last week from a sweet lady who is the aunt of a little boy with cancer. Peyton was diagnosed with Pontine Glioma, a very aggressive tumor in the middle of his brain stem. She told me that he loves manatees and would love it if someone could make him a sock manatee. She said she’d pay for it. WHATEVER. That is out of the question. So as fast as my fingers could type I sounded the horn. I twittered, I Facebooked, I emailed. Can anyone make a sock manatee for this little boy. It’s urgent. And not more than five minutes later emails started coming in.

A day later, I had my first picture of a sock manatee. He was whipped up in a day by Cheyenne. Thank you so much Cheyenne!

A few days later, a picture of a manatee quilt. Carin, of Margaret’s Hope Chest, made this lovely manatee quilt. Thank goodness for fast fabric shipping. She is a mama that dropped everything on a Saturday (before Christmas mind you) to make this quilt for this sweet little boy. What a wonderful example of the Christmas spirit. Giving of oneself, of ones time for others. And what a lovely organization that we are grateful to be partnered with, led by a woman with a heart as big as Texas.

They are all now on their way to his home in Houston. Merry Christmas sweet Peyton. We all love you and are praying for you.

******

We are requesting prayers for sweet Peyton and his family as they go through this difficult time. You can follow them on their family blog. And he’s also written a sweet book about manatees. You can buy it here.

If you would like to know at a moments notice the needs of people who have called upon Craft Hope please follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.