School Supplies #4 - From Maureen, Pat and Gaylene

This is the fourth donation acknowledgement of school supplies I am collecting for a campaign I just thought of a new name tonight - Education without borders. The school supplies and the fabric bags for the school starter kits came from Maureen O'Brien, Pat Burton and Gaylene Herrmann. A collection of 41 school starter bags, 6 exercise books and packs of pens, pencils and crayons

Thank you so much Ladies for your kindness and generosity. Your unwavering support not only with dresses  but with school supplies as well is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#84 to #86 - From the two Bettys, Maureen and Lyn

Three more parcels for the month of June came from the two Bettys - Betty Barrett and Betty Paull, Lyn Granger and Maureen O'Brien. A mix donations of dresses, pairs of shorts, bags for school starter kits and school supplies. The bags and school supplies will be acknowledged separately.

1) Donation #84 is from the two Bettys - Betty Barrett and Betty Paull, It is a parcel of 11 dresses and 6 pairs of boys shorts - 

2) Donation #85 is from Maureen O'Brien - 6 boys t-shirts which is going to help me build up another  collection of t-shirts for boys - 

3) And donation #86 is from Lynette Granger - a parcel of 12 dresses, a baby set of clothes, 9 pairs of shorts, a girls' blouse which I paired with one of the shorts I received and a small fabric shoulder bag. One lucky girl is going to get a new set of clothes with a small shoulder bag with this parcel -

Again, my wholehearted thank you Ladies for the dress donations, t-shirts and shorts. Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#81 to #83 - From Pat, Gaylene, Vanya & Friends

I have six more parcels to acknowledge before I closed off the month of June donations. First 3 parcels are from Pat Burton, Gaylene Herrmann and Vanya Bryant and her friends June and Val.

1) Parcel 1 and Donation #81 are 4 dresses from Pat Burton. Included in the parcel are 6 school bags which will be acknowledged separately -

2) Parcel 2 and Donation #82 are 11 dresses, hair ties and 4 soft cuties from Vanya Bryant and her friends June and Val when they had their sewing day and had great fun making the dresses.

3) Parcel #3 and Donation #83 are 9 dresses and 25 school bags from Gaylene Herrmann. The bags will be acknowledged separately.

Thank you so much Ladies for your dress donations and other accessories. Thank you all for your kindness and generosity. You make this world a better place for everyone especially for the disadvantaged kiddies around the world. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#75 & 76 - From Margie and Pam

Two acknowledgements this time. Number 75 is from Margie McDonald which is a parcel of  13 dresses and 1 boys' shorts.

The second acknowledgement is number 76 on the list from Pam of Threading My Way. Here is the dress -

and again, 5 small bags for my school starter kits and some exercise books and notepads -

Ladies, thank you so much for these wonderful donations. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is so much appreciated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#72 - From Elaine

First parcel of donations received for the month of June and number 72 on my list is from Elaine Klein. It is a parcel of 23 dresses and 40 pieces of small bags which I can use for my school kits. I think some of these dresses were sewn by a group of ladies from their church. Here are the dresses and the bags -

To Elaine, Thank you for the wonderful dresses and for your support of this campaign. Please extend my thank you as well to the group of ladies from your church who did the sewing of some of the dresses. Much appreciated.

Real good buy I think for school starter kits

Last week while I was finalizing my purchases for the things I need to bring for our Peru trip, I came upon an on-line shop which was selling school supplies at wholesale prices without any minimum quantity or amount to purchase. The shop was selling full-sized colouring pencils (10 colours in a pack) for as low as ninety cents per pack. These packs normally cost at least $2.00 each in retail or bargain shops. Although they are no-name brands but I dont think it would make any difference at all. A child can still do some colouring using these pencils, a red would still be a red, a blue would still be a blue and so with the rest of the colours. So I ordered 36 of the sets and it arrived today. 

Unless someone can tell me where to buy these items at these prices, I think I found a good value for money for my school starter kits. Instead of buying 3 quick dry t-shirts for my trek I ended up just buying 2 at the moment so I can pay for these colouring sets. Not complaining though. At least I am not buying fabrics or fat quarters. LOL! I think I still have time to buy another shirt before the month of June ends. And when I get back from my holiday I can start making my starter sets.

More school supplies from old books

Two months ago I listed most of my old school books and bestseller books in ebay especially the ones that I think I would not like to read or refer back in the future since they were offering free listings. I sold all of them after a month and last week I decided to spend the money on these school supplies. I was inspired to make a purchase after I fell in love with my school starter bags.

From this batch, I think I would be able to make another 25 school starter kits. And lucky me the shop I went to were selling their 48-exercise books for fifteen cents each. I will be making starter kits again and keep them until I have decided which school/location it would be going to. I may not be able to send them though until I get back from my July holidays as my main focus would be the sending of the dress parcels. I still have more old books to sell and new craft books which I hope to list to sell soon. All I need is time.

Link to tutorial of small bag used for school starter kit

Have had a few emails asking about the small bag I used for the Dress A Girl Australia school starter kit. Here is the link to the tutorial by Pam of Threading My Way. Just click here or click on the image below -

Thank you Pam!

School Supplies Distribution #2 - for the school kids of School for Life Foundation in Uganda

It is time for another distribution of school supplies and this time it is for the school kids of the School for Life Foundation in Uganda c-o Annabelle Chauncy, a co-founder of the foundation. For the very first time, I will be giving away the very first 10 sets ever made of the Dress A Girl Australia School Starter Bags.

Here is the parcel -

and here are the contents of the parcel including 58 96-page exercise books-

made possible by the following donors -
1) Monika Osvald
2) Karina Tomlinson
3) Pam of Threading my Way
4) Carolyn Walker
5) Dress A Girl Australia

For larger images of the items, please click here. For more details on this distribution (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

A wholehearted thank you to Monika, Karina, Carolyn and Pam for making this donation to the school kids of the School for Life Foundation in Uganda so much possible. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is so much appreciated. Thanks!

Dress A Girl Australia's School Supplies Starter Kit

This year I wanted to make a School Supplies starter kit to distribute every now and then and if and when I can collect supplies I wanted to include in the kit but could not find the time to actually sit down and start making one until about six weeks ago when I received 10 mini bags from Pam of Threading my Way. I had the choice of either selling the bags to raise money to help with postage or do something with the bags that can make a difference. 

Seeing the bags finally made me sit down to start creating a Dress A Girl Australia School Starter kit. After the Indi Kindi collection charity drive, I was still able to collect a number of school supplies from generous donors. And from what I had collected I was able to come up with the following to put inside Pam's bag - good enough for a kid to own especially if they are just about to start school or even in the middle of school. It would be such a big help to them, perhaps inspire them more to go to school everyday. My Dad who used to own and run a technical school in the Philippines before he retired used to say that you need a kit for the students to work on to inspire them to go to school and learn more. So here is my inspirational kit -

2 exercise books
1 pack of colouring pencils
1 pencil sharpener
1 eraser
3 pencils
2 pens
And this is how the school starter bag looks like with its contents -

I was able to make 10 sets of starter kits for the 10 bags I received and the first lucky recipients of these starter kits will be 10 school kids of the School for Life Foundation in Uganda c-o Annabelle Chauncy, a co-founder of this organization. Perhaps they can use it as an award to their best students since there are only 10 sets...but at least I finally made the kit I always wanted to make...and I hope to make more in the future...and maybe include a dress or a pair of shorts to wear to school. Endless possibilities that started with Pam's bag. ♥

Heaps and heaps of thanks to Monika Osvald and Karina Tomlinson for their school supplies' contributions that enabled me to fill the bag with the supplies I wanted as starters and to Pam of Threading my Way for the mini bags that triggered the start of the School Supplies starter kit. Thank you so much.