Half a world away, Typhoon Haiyan wrecked havoc in my mother's country. A moment before I had been complaining about my trivial problems, but I still had a roof over my head, electricity, fresh water to drink, food to eat, a toilet to use.... but someone I am related to didn't. They were evacuated from the only home they knew, that was now washed away.
Everything blurred. It made me feel very small. It made me feel powerless. But it also made me feel fortunate for all the blessings in my life and I realized that there IS something that I could do.
We're not rich and what little money we do make goes directly back into the store. But I have my hands and I have my imagination and I belong to a beautiful community of other creative individuals and appreciators of art. So a list came to mind. At first it was just a few scribbles and had bullet items like, "REBUILD". But right now, rebuilding ranks low on the list when there's no clean water or food to eat. So, after a few hours of online research and talking with my sister and my partner, an action plan formed.
William and I plan to:
* Donate a percentage of sales to a charity. We will do this from November 14th to December 5th.
* Host a blog hop of silent auctions to raise funds. This will help cross promote and allow other artists who want to contribute to help out. The auctions will run from November 29th to December 5th.
* Sell items in the store made from materials from the Philippines to raise money for a charitable donation. Materials will be purchased from Filipino-owned companies. The items will be sold on Project Wall 2 for the month of December.
* Have a Destash Sale with all of the proceeds going towards disaster relief. The Destash Event is scheduled for Wednesday, November 20th at 8PM EST. The Facebook group where I conduct the events is closed, but if you're interested in participating, just request to be added to the group. CLICK HERE to go to the group page.
* Have a raffle with tickets available both online and in-person. All money raised from ticket sales will go towards a charitable contribution. CLICK HERE to find out more about the raffle and to purchase $1 tickets.
The money that we raise will go to CARE's typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) relief efforts. CLICK HERE to find out more about what they are doing and to donate. We will also make a charitable contribution to the Association of Bantayanons in America headed by fellow bead-maker and artisan, Precy Mansueto Marban.
I also came up with a list of things that others can do to help:
* Host an auction on their blog.
* Donate an item to the raffle.
* Buy raffle tickets.
* Promote our fundraising efforts.
More information on how to help and the details of this plan of action will be forthcoming.
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