Despite being in the middle of chemo & radiation we decided to still have our monthly downline meeting this past week and I am SO glad I forged through and did it (I was pretty tired that day). We kept it very loose and focussed only on talking about workshops (as two newer downline were about to have their first) and then the activity during the chatting was to revamp swap cards to donate to charitable organizations.
Recently, demonstrator Aimee Wayment contacted me to identify herself as a long-term demonstrator in our general area who has moved a few times to follow her husband's career and did I have any meetings that would be open to someone not connected to me as she has no local group? Well, of course! Aimee joined us for the first time this week and we loved her! Welcome Aimee – you are an "orphan" no more.
Aimee shared cards that she created (she says copied) for recent classes and she gave me permission to share them here. All so cute!
And, for our activity, as I said, we revamped swap cards. Downline Cathy (who had breast cancer almost 2 years ago) lovingly contributes thank you cards for a local breast cancer org that creates "necessities" kits for breast cancer patients. In addition, as our downline group name is Stampers for Others, I always look for ways to share our cards in a philanthropic manner and all the non-thank you cards we revamped will go to a group started by SU! demonstrators called From Our Hearts found here http://www.fromourhearts.info/ It'll be our first time donating to this organization as I just learned about them during our July convention when the two founders were honored by our company with a special award called Heart of Stampin' Up! Award. Our CEO announced that these ladies' group has sent out over 56,000 cards to the troups already! They are sent fresh to the troups for the soldiers' personal use to send a note back home – as though they were being sent a card store but they're free. A personal congratulations to demonstrators Susan Troxel and Martie Shea for their big hearts in starting this amazing ministry for our soldiers.
Funny thing: 6 of us at our downline meeting just grabbed old swaps I had (most from Founder's Circle) and some brought their own. We had no set number or deadline. We just cut and remade and tweaked till it seemed time to finish for the evening. The reason I think this is funny is that in preparation for this blog post I counted the cards in the photo below – exactly 100! I am so excited that our little meeting yielded so much and I am honored to move them along to a very worthy cause. Thank you Cathy, Christine, JoAnn, Kay and Aimee!
