Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll toss some supplies your way my friend.

Janet

Cheryl said...

I can help you out Kate. I have alot of older stuff that I have come to realize I am really not ever going to use. Lots of stickers from my creative memories days. email me at chillycharlie20@hotmail.com

Dawn Hueser said...

Hey there girl, if you need an extra set of hands for teaching or helping out........... would love to give you a hand.

Kate said...

LOL-You know you guys ROCK but this was not a call for donations. I wanted to demonstrate how others can use (very appreciatively) the things they just toss in the trash. But you know I'll never turn anything down! I may have need for guest teachers in the Fall as well...come one come all!

Anonymous said...

Waht were people doing digging in the dumpsters to begin with?

Lauren Ferguson said...

Thanks so much for the love!

First let me say that I did not crawl into the dumpster for product. I climbed into the dumpster over the obvious wasteful and selfish act of dumping paint over perfectly good craft supplies that could have been given to any one of a dozen agencies.

The box that I sent turned into a 50 pound box of donated supplies from everywhere.

Bottom line is kindness really is contagious!

Thanks for doing what you do!

Lauren