Vacation Giveaway!

Update 1/27/2014: We have a winner! Thank you so much to everyone who has taken part and helped us make this a great fundraiser!

So, who wants to spend Valentine's Day at Disney in Florida?

We are auctioning the week from February 8th, 2014 to February 15th, 2014 in a two-bedroom, three-bathroom villa that sleeps 8 people. You will stay at the Westgate Towers resort, just minutes from Disney.

These rooms are beautiful.  There is also a full kitchen in your suite, plus a dining and sitting area. Here is the floor plan.

You will need to buy your own park tickets, but my husband is a Disney expert, and he is willing to help you plan any part of your trip and answer any questions you may have!

Would you like to know more about what we are raising money for?  

This is Theo.  Theo lives in an institution in Eastern Europe.  He loves music and going for walks.  He also has cerebral palsy.  He does not receive any kind of therapy right now.  He is incredible, and he has so much potential.  We are in the middle of the adoption process right now!  So not only will you have the opportunity to take a wonderful vacation with your family, you'll be able to help a child get a family of his own. How cool is that?


We are also adopting Orion now!  Orion is an amazing, funny boy who is just a ton of fun. He is curious and excited about everything! We can't wait to have both of them here!

Shoes!

Okay, I am over-the-top excited for this.  This is going to be the most awesome, ginormous shoe drive in the history of the planet.  Or at least close to it.

Who can you collect shoes for? 

You can collect shoes to raise the grant of your favorite waiting child.  You can collect shoes to raise money for your family's adoption.  You can even collect shoes to raise money for another family in process!

Do you want to participate?  We have three regions or zones.  

The first region is within 125 miles of Holyoke, MA.  If you are in this zone, our first 500 lbs collected will earn 30 cents per pound.  That is about 10 packed boxes, which we should be able to collect very quickly.  After that, this region will earn 35 cents per pound.  Personally delivering is another option if you live near the facility we are shipping to.  If you have a large quantity, say 1500 pounds of shoes, you can earn 45 cents per pound by delivering the shoes yourself and eliminating the shipping cost to the business we are working with.

Our second region is everything outside of the first region, heading west through Ohio. This will include the areas of New England further than 125 miles from Holyoke, MA.  It will also include the rest of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio. This region will earn 20 cents per pound on the first 500 pounds collected, and 30 cents per pound after that.

Our third region is everything south and west of Ohio.  This region will earn 20 cents per pound. We don't have a minimum to meet for this region, but it is extra important that we send the right kinds of shoes and that we pack our shoes as tightly as possible in the boxes from this region. I know this region will go as far west as Missouri.  If you're further than that and you're interested, I can see if you can be included too.

So what kinds of shoes do we need?

We need gently used shoes that can be cleaned up and reused. We can use men's shoes, women's flats, kid's shoes, athletic shoes, and sandals. The shoes will be sent to Africa, so there are a few kinds of shoes that we can't accept.  We can't take any boots, like snow boots or fashion boots. We can't use stilettos or spike heels, although flats and low heels are okay. We also can't take flip-flops or crocs. I have a PDF poster that shows the type of shoes we want.

Collecting

You can start collecting shoes now!  Talk to your local community.  You can go to your churches, schools, friends and family. We've had recommendations to ask resale shops and garage sales for their leftover shoes.

I've got shoes.  Now what?

Okay, do you have a lot of shoes or a few? It takes about fifty pairs of shoes to fill one of the shipping boxes.  If you have a smaller batch, we can try to find someone nearby for you to combine with.  We can prepay for boxes and be reimbursed or you can use your own boxes if you have a good supply of uniform boxes approximately 18" by 18" by 24".  We will get you shipping labels, and you can drop the boxes off at the store that will be shipping them.  For larger shipments we can get a pickup of your packed boxes.

How do you know who should get credit for these shoes?

When you tell us you are ready for a batch of shipping labels, you will also tell us whose account you want your shoes to be credited to.  We will keep track of the numbers on the shipping labels.  Because of the tracking system we are using and the company's shipping system, it will be very important to not print the same shipping label more than once.  When the company receives your shoes, they will mark the shipping number and any other coding and weigh your box.  Reece's Rainbow will get checks from the company for the weight of those boxes, and they will use those tracking codes to make sure that the money earned goes into the correct accounts.

How long will this go on for?

Hmmmm....forever?  Well, maybe not forever, but it will go on indefinitely.  There isn't a set deadline for this fundraiser to end.  You can collect and ship shoes throughout the year.  That's part of why this is so awesome.  Reece's Rainbow could be receiving a check every week for the next year!

Have more questions? Feel free to contact me here or on Facebook!

What Are We Working On Right Now?

Where are we in the process?

So, here is where we are right now.  Our homestudy is mostly finished.   We have provided all of our paperwork and we have a single remaining visit this week.  Once that has been completed, we will be mailing copies to USCIS and to Eastern Europe.

Our USCIS paperwork is in! So the clock has started ticking on that front.  That is good - we could adopt any child whose 16th birthday is before the date we were logged in the system.  It also means that our paperwork is on its way to the correct place within their system, and we can send the homestudy as soon as it is finished.

Then there is the mountain of paperwork we need to send to Eastern Europe.  The first batch of those papers will be going out soon.  Finding an available notary, taking our papers to the county, then getting apostilles is tedious.  I think my husband has said, "They need us to do what?" about every single document. We are working our way through it as quickly as we can.

We also have a few fundraisers in the works.  We are really excited about the shoe drive we are organizing.  It has the potential to benefit so many families. Anyone in the eastern half of the United States can participate to raise grant money for waiting children or for families currently in process.  Plus we should have a t-shirt sale ready in time for the holidays!    

Exciting News!

For those who haven't heard, our family is growing!  We will be blooming in even more new and exciting ways.

http://reecesrainbow.org/67790/sponsorbloom

This is Theo.  He is an incredible 14 year old boy who likes to go for walks and dance to music.  We are working as fast as we can to complete all of our paperwork to travel and meet him!