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Passing Kindness On, One Act at a Time
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WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO - 2006
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On April 1, 2006, we held our first official "Wrap Party" attended by 10 volunteers. A total of 223 gift packages were wrapped, with a Shyann kindness card attached to each.
The following events happened on April 23, Shyann's birthday:
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Between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 10:15 p.m., volunteers took shifts handing out a total of 69 kindness gift packages at Tucson Medical Center to sick children who came into the emergency room. A total of 39 books, activity books and card games were also given to any siblings who came in with them, to also occupy them during the waiting period. Reports coming back from our volunteers indicate they had as much fun giving out the gifts as the children and their families had getting them!
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Kindness gift packages were brought to Gospel Rescue Mission's Women and Children's Center and distributed to the 10 children who are currently living there. The gift packages brought big smiles to the children, with several of them making comments to their mom's about getting a gift "from Shyann in Heaven."
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At the 6th birthday celebration of Beginnings Church, Tina Valente sold her handmade jewelry, with all the net proceeds going to The Shyann Kindness Project. (Tina has only recently begun selling her jewelry through jewelry parties as a way of supporting the project.)
On May 4, Tina held a jewelry party at Children's Clinics for Rehabilitative Services. All net proceeds from the sale of her handmade jewelry and Madeleine McKinnon's decorated gecko pins went directly to The Shyann Kindness Project. An 11 lb. bar of Belgian chocolate, donated by American Roland Foods, was raffled off, with all net proceeds going to The Shyann Kindness Project as well.
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| Mary Beth at the 'Wrap Party" |
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| Gifts wrapped and ready to go! |
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| A Happy Jewelry Customer |
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On May 25, our volunteers handed out gift packages, along with donated individually wrapped cookies and snacks, to very excited children at a homeless feeding program. We also held a raffle (free of course) for a donated child's guitar and racetrack set, both with very happy recipients!
Having quite a few gift packages left at the end of the feeding program, we were told about an apartment complex which was currently housing refugees. Several volunteers went there, where the "makeshift setup" out of the back of our car quickly drew a lot of attention! The rest of the gift packages, along with some books and snacks, were handed out to the children staying there. Altogether that night we handed out 100 kindness gift packages, and received many smiles in return!
Ronald McDonald House was the recipient of kindness gift packages on June 10. Our volunteers, the Valente family, distributed 23 kindness gift packages to the children staying there, as well as books, activity books and card games for the siblings staying with them. Cookies donated by Color-A-Cookie were left for the children to decorate for a fun activity during "Saturday night movies." Bringing kindness gift packages here had a special meaning to the Valente's since they've stayed in several Ronald McDonald Houses in other states with their son Joey.
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| First Group at Feeding Program |
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| Quick Setup at Refugee Apartments |
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| Ronald McDonald & Special Friends |
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On June 28, we handed out kindness gift packages and books to 40 children at a summer bible camp at Life in Christ Community Church. Located in a low-income community, the children who come to this camp are exposed to drugs and gangs on a regular basis. A comment was made to one of our volunteers by the person who runs the Anti-Gang Program that "The Shyann Kindness Project showed these kids there were people out there that love them, and that they don't need to turn to gangs to find the love they aren't receiving at home." We were also told that the teens were very excited that they had also received a gift package. One young teen, who originally told us he was "too cool" to receive a gift package, not only found something he liked, but also had a big smile on his face when his name was called as the winner of one of the four items we raffled off!
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| Too many choices!! |
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Kindness gift packages and books were distributed on July 19 to the Bone Marrow, Infusion and Angel (diabetes) Clinics at University Medical Center. Ronald McDonald videos donated by Mary Stulac of McDonald's were left at each of the three clinics for the children to watch as they receive their treatments. Kindness gift packages and books were also taken to the Emergency Room to be left for distribution to the children as they come in to be treated. Altogether, a total of 100 kindness gift packages and 64 books were given out.
St. Andrew's Clinica for Children with Special Needs in Nogales, Arizona, on August 3 was our biggest event to date. Our volunteers came back very excited....and pooped! Due to the "pleasurable mayhem" as one volunteer put it, we're not sure how many children were served, but we do know that well over 520 books, activity and coloring books, crayons, craft items, stuffed animals, head wreaths, pillows and blankets, special needs hand sewn items, and miscellaneous toys were given out! Donated boxes of snacks, juice and water were also distributed. One little boy was so thrilled to get a bottle of juice that he started walking away thinking that was all he was getting. What a wonderful surprise he had when the volunteers called him back to give him his gifts! The donated handmade head wreaths were a big hit, and all the girls who received them had big smiles on their faces! At one point, our volunteers were curious as to why the noisy room had suddenly become so quiet, and were amused when they saw it was because someone had handed out our Spanish brochures and everyone was sitting there reading them!
Special thanks to Valerie Echeverria for doing such a wonderful job of translating for us. According to our volunteers, without her help, they would have been lost and overwhelmed!
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| Ready for distribution at UMC |
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| Janet's smile says it all! |
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| Abraham happy with his new wheelchair fan! |
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On August 21, we brought 25 kindness gift packages, 25 books and 30 comic books to St. Mary's Hospital to be given out when children come into the Emergency Room. Although we were originally told they only see a couple of children per week in the E.R., the social worker told us they have recently been getting "slammed" with children coming in, and she was very grateful to have these gift packages and books to offer them.
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The 28 children at Casa de los Niņos, a shelter for abused, neglected and medically fragile children, received kindness gift packages, comic books and books, along with a potato chip snack on August 25. As the children came into the room where everything was laid out, they excitedly asked, "is that for us?" After the gift packages were given out and the volunteers were given a tour, their hearts were warmed to find happy children playing with their new toys, and the carefully arranged toys on the bed of a little boy who didn't want to put them in his storage bin.
Brewster Center, a shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence, received 28 kindness gift packages, along with comic books and books on September 15. Diapers, linens, toiletries and clothes, which were donated by many of our volunteers, were also dropped off, as well as donated snack items.
The children at Gospel Rescue Mission's Saturday morning Kid's Club had big smiles on their faces as we visited with them on September 23. We went with lots of goodies and gave out 53 kindness gift packages, along with books, comic books and snacks. Two of our young volunteers, Gio and Niko Ripoll, gave out beaded necklaces made by them. We also had our "free raffles" of 5 different items with very happy recipients! My heart was touched by one little girl, who only spoke in a whisper, as she asked me what happened to Shyann. After I explained and told her how much I miss Shyann, the little girl gave me a hug I will never forget.
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| Casa kids showing off their gift packages |
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| Large crowd at Kid's Club |
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| Happy faces trying to make a decision |
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We partnered with the Community Food Bank on October 4 at one of their after school Kids Club Programs, located in a poverty area where 95% of the children who attend qualify for free food. We were welcomed by the children playing outside as they anxiously waited for our program to start. The 39 kindness gift packages and books were politely and gratefully received, and 5 of the children were also winners of our "free raffle" items. To coincide with CFB's emphasis on good nutrition, we provided donated soy crisps, trail mix and cereal bars. The event was best summed up by a comment someone made...."it's like Christmas in October!" Special thanks to Sandra Akers from the Community Food Bank for filling in for one of our volunteers who didn't make it due to car trouble.
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| Happy with their gift packages |
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On October 27, we dropped off 80 kindness gift packages and 150 books at an office for Child Protective Services, to be distributed to children who have been removed from their parents care due to allegations of abuse or neglect. They were also given to children during supervised visits with their parents to help facilitate contact between them, as well as families who struggle with poverty. The children who received these kindness gift packages were definitely in need of a reason to smile!
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| Dropping off at CPS |
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The "Spread A Little Kindness" Silent Auction & Pizza Party held on November 15, was a great success, and raised $4,000 for The Shyann Kindness Project! Our special thanks to everyone who donated, volunteered their time, or attended this fun event. For more details, check out the Silent Auction webpage.
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The Salvation Army Homeless Feeding Program was the site of our kindness gift-giving program on Thanksgiving Day. We gave out 154 kindness gift packages and had a large selection of books for the children to choose from. Our young volunteers Gio and Niko Ripoll had fun offering backpacks to both children and adults due to a great buy we got on them. Another young volunteer, Mariah Santillan, gave out cookies and brownies baked by Carol Lindemann, and holiday snowman cookies donated by Starbucks. Many happy children were seen walking away with backpacks filled with goodies on their backs, and all TSKP volunteers were happy to have been a part of serving others on Thanksgiving Day.
The holiday toy drive at all the Tucson Starbucks stores was a huge success, with hundreds of toys and books being donated! On December 12, a "wrap party" was held with Starbucks partners and TSKP volunteers. Kindness gift packages were put together and then taken to University Medical Center, where the volunteers gave them out to the children in the hospital at the Ronald McDonald Room Holiday Party hosted by Starbucks. One little girl was very thrilled with a doll she received, which was almost as big as she was. She walked around hugging it close, and wouldn't let anyone else touch it! Kindness gift packages were also taken back to the Ronald McDonald House for the children there.
Since the concept of TSKP came about Christmas Eve of 2005, when Mary Beth Santillan dropped off gift packages at the Children's Emergency Center at Tucson Medical Center, we decided to continue that as a tradition for The Shyann Kindness Project. On December 24, volunteers took shifts from 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. and handed out 86 kindness gift packages and 60 books to the children who came into the Children's Emergency Center. Coloring books and crayons, card games and activity books were given to siblings of the patients so they would also be kept occupied. Our volunteers also left behind extra kindness gift packages and books to be given out to children coming in after they left.
TSKP volunteers saw first hand how a kindness gift package can help children feeling the stress of a visit to a hospital emergency room when one little boy was "bribed" to drink some "yucky stuff" for a test, and another boy who wouldn't stop crying did stop long enough to receive and check out his gift package!
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| TSKP Volunteers at Salvation Army Feeding Program |
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| Volunteers busy at "Wrap Party" |
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| Jude Trautlein starting things off at TMC |
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Thanks to all the generous donations we received, TSKP was able to help four families who came to us for help due to illness, loss of jobs or financial struggles. The families received toys for the children as well as grocery store gift cards to help with their holiday needs. We were also able to help provide gifts and backpacks for needy teenagers at Flowing Wells High School.
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Bill Lindemann of Creative Printers received the very first "Shyann's Angel Award" in recognition of his generosity and kind support for The Shyann Kindness Project. Bill is not only the first recipient of this award, he was also the inspiration for it, due to his generosity of printing services, time, guidance and support.
Bill continues to generously donate all our printing needs, allowing us to use our limited funds for kindness gift packages and books. We are very grateful for his continued support.
Thanks for everything Bill!
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