Share the love, don't just throw it in the trash

For those of you who don't know, I started a free scrapbooking class for underprivileged children when we lived in the North. I also used my own supplies to teach card classes to 150 gradeschoolers for every single holiday. That went on for over a year before some friends and internet acquaintences started sending me donations of scraps. Then Leica Forrest's layout Girl With A Cause was featured in the winter 07/08 edition of Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine and boxes started rolling in from all over the country. That is how my classes stay afloat. I am now volunteering with the Boys and Girls Club and soon to be with the Canadian Mental Health Association as a scrapbook teacher. I certainly don't get paid and we don't have a budget. I am forever trying to come up with creative ideas using little product or using my own money to augment our stash. So you can imagine how enraged I was when I saw this:

But Kate...why are you showing a big pile of garbage covered in pink paint??? That is pink paint...but it's not garbage. It's many, many, MANY packages of very sought after Heidi Swapp/Advantus scrapbooking product. And this is just what Lauren Ferguson was able to rescue from a dumpster at a scrapbooking show in the States. She and 3 of her dedicated friends brought it home, cleaned it up and donated it to worthy causes. Bless your hearts ladies. You are a shining example at a time when apparently SOME people (namely large companies who deem this stuff garbage) need a lesson in charity. Not to mention reduce, reuse, recycle. For the full story GO HERE and check out Lauren's blog. Show her some love! I will have to think very seriously if I will continue to support companies who have such ignorant and apathetic attitudes. Put some effort in people. The scrapbooking world is not going to stand for this.