Care Package Packing

by Melody, age 11 with Note from Mom (Joyce) toward at the bottom of the post

Thank you to June, Irma, the Weinberger family, Rothi Dental office, our discipleship group for donations and picking up items, our family members who sponsored bags, and anyone who purchased CV Swap+Sell items from us during the month of February!

After we did our first care packaging party (you can read about it at moychronicles.com/2017/08/28/chance-of-showers), I wanted to do another one, and so half a year later, here we are, our 2nd package party! 

Why We Hosted

Well, I really wanted to do another one because I wanted to help our neighbors in need. They usually don’t have a place to go when it is cold or rainy or snowy or hailing, or when there are earthquakes (depending on where you live). And most of the time, unless they scavenge for food, they don’t get food to eat. So I decided to fix that.

What We Did

We packed 48 bags and this picture below is our table with all of our supplies.

This is us trying to rearrange it. We tried to do that a lot that night and then…

Our cousin Sam came over to pack half of the packages. That picture below is us packing some.

Then our neighbor Mia came over and helped also pack the rest.

How Many Packages Did We Pack?

We packed 48 like I told you at the beginning, and we got donations, too. Followers of Moy Chronicles – this is important. I am going to do another one in August. If you want to donate, it only cost $6-$8 dollars for 1 bag. And you can do multiple too. (I sponsored 2 bags.) You can see the progression of donated/collected item. Guess what? All of the monetary donations matched the amount needed to pay for the remaining items we needed to buy to fill the bags!

And this is how they look now. We packaged all of them and labeled the sock sizes.

Making a Difference

Like I told you before – I’ll repeat it so you can make a difference too. Everybody can make a difference. Sometimes in my project, I felt like I wanted to give up and I thought it wasn’t worth it anymore. But it paid off. And you can make a difference too, and donate $6-$8+ in July-August to me or my family. I have a quote on my desk. It says, “Take Action NOW!” Whether in your home or in your community, you can make a difference today.

Note from Melody’s Mom:

I’m always slightly hesitant about posting about these things. I know someone who said they were refraining from sharing a good deed their daughter did because they didn’t want to come off as a show-off do-gooder. Obviously, no one wants to come across as boastful, but I am honestly thankful for posts similar to this because it gives us ways to find opportunities to serve and love others. It was because others had shared their experience with hair donation that we are able to be involved in that, and it was because someone shared about a last-minute family situation that a community was able to rally around the foster parents and provide them with everything they need to bring an unexpected bundle in their home. And I’m sure there are more stories that spur on people to go beyond their normal routine to improve lives. But I digress… here are a few things about this project…

Sometimes there are so many needs around us and around the world, we don’t know what to do or where to start. Instead of getting stuck with analysis paralysis, Melody got to work planning how to complete her birthday project. We did look around to see what items are really needed because some unnecessary items simply become more trash in our community. Thanks to Pinterest and our experience from last time, we were able to pack the right things…hopefully. If anyone wants to host something similar, I’m sure M would love to help you out. We originally were going to pack with our discipleship group but was tight on time in our schedule, but that gave an opportunity for my nephew and our little neighbor friend to join in. It’s rare to find organizations that need little volunteers, so we just make up our own opportunities. :p

What are some of the service projects you and/or your family have been a part of locally or globally? What was the experience like?