How You Can Help
Update on 8/6: We have finalized the lease and started the big move! Thanks to a huge flood relief grant from Cummins, we set up brand new shelving into the new space today, will be setting up more tomorrow, and will do the final move next weekend during what would normally be our regular monthly meeting. We will not be stuffing bundles Saturday, August 13th.
Update on 7/26: We are still negotiating the lease - hopefully we'll finalize this soon. Once that's done, we'll still need to do some renovations and repairs in the new space and can then move. We will, of course, need to some additional cleanup in the old space after our stuff is out before it can be returned back to the landlord. Please contact Teresa Wilts if you can help with the repairs, renovations, or cleanup.
Update @ 10am Saturday: The area is still drying out and we're emptying the dehumidifiers once or twice per day. We're still hearing from our laundry volunteers how much stuff has been thrown away and it's not as bad as we feared but is still more than we hoped. We are currently negotiating with the landlord to move into a new spot in the same building and hope to wrap that up next week. Then we have the large job of moving everything again and will certainly need a lot of volunteers to help. Please stay tuned for our call for help! In the mean time, if you can help raise money for the move or replacing the lost items, please do what you can. Remember that since we have our 501(c)3 status, all donations should be tax deductible.
Update @ 7pm Tuesday: The garbage has been thrown out but we're still getting some seepage from the saturated ground and that was aggravated today by the heavy rainstorm. We won't need more volunteers Wednesday but please check back Wednesday night. Please see the "Urgent Needs" page for the latest information on what we need to replace.
Update @ 7pm Monday: We do not need any more help on Tuesday - we have most of the garbage hauled to the dumpster and we had a lot of volunteers take home laundry. We're now waiting for some of the damp areas to dry out a bit more before we tackle the big shelving units. That might be on Wednesday or Thursday - please check back!
Update @ 9am Monday: We need more help for the cleanup! If you can make it, please show up at the workspace between 9:30am and 4pm Monday - we'll be there all day again. We may take a break over supper so please phone Teresa at 763-227-5957 if can make it in the evening. We're still cleaning floors and hauling the garbage away to the dumpster. There are many heavy bags of soggy diapers and soggy cardboard boxes that we need to disposed of. For lighter work, we can use people to help clean up baby wash bottles and other care items.
Update @ 5:00pm Saturday: We spent most of the day running ShopVacs and moving tubs and boxes of heavy wet fabric. A few volunteers took bins of fabric home to wash. If you can help, please come to the North Metro workspace Sunday, July 17, between 9:30am and 4:00pm. There's still a LOT of cleanup left to do. The water was about 2' up the wall behind the red door (the farthest point away from the main door). The neigbor reported that water in the parking lot was over the chain link fence. Another neighbor reported his 1,000 pound compressor was lying on its side.
We suffered MAJOR FLOODING in the North Metro workspace/warehouse (as did our commercial neighbors) on July 16, 2011. Overnight, over 2 feet of water mixed with mud entered through the doors of the leased space. Many items will need to be thrown away, a lot of others may hopefully be saved with a good washing, and floors and walls will need repairs, replacements, and repainting. Even goods that were in plastic bins floated away and then tipped over, spilling their contents. We expect to be in urgent need of MANY items, a lot of people time, and money shortly to help us recover.
Are you inspired to help but don't know how? This page will help!
Because we are an all-volunteer organization, our Fundraising and Management and General Expenses are very small. In 2009, our Program expenses were over 96.5% of our total expenses, so more of your donations go to help the babies. Please see our 2009 I-990 form online if you want the financial details. Please note that the vast majority of the donations and assets are in the form of fabric and finished goods.
There are 3 main ways of helping Bundles Of Love - please do what you can to help the needy babies and their families.
We always need people to do the work - from volunteering at a work group, helping with one-time events, fund-raising, delivering bundles, leading groups, presenting at events, and everything in between. If you have any free time at all, we can help use it up! You don't need to know how to knit or sew - after all, I'm a computer guy and do the web work. Other days I just lug stuff around or help set up for events. Other people sit in front of their TVs or on a bus on the way to work and knit or crochet. Thousands of hours are contributed every month by volunteers and all of them are important.
You can donate money or supplies - it costs us about $25 to produce a single bundle and we produce about 200 every month in addition to all of the single items we deliver. Some of the supplies are donated but we need real cash to pay for rent and buy non-donated supplies and equipment. We don't pay any staff - all of our hours are donated. We have several different ways you can help here.
You can also get other people to send us money and this is easier than it may seem! There are several programs that we've set up that get companies to send us money. With the Scrip program, you can purchase gift cards for things like gas and groceries (and a lot of other stuff) and when you do, the companies will send Bundles Of Love a percentage of the card value. With the iGive program, just do your normal online shopping and you might even be able to get the tax break! Lastly, you can use Goodsearch as your search engine when doing your online searches, and Bundles Of Love will get a donation for every search. Of course, working on fund-raising also falls into this category - it takes a lot of money to keep us going and we always need people to help here.
Lastly, many employers encourage their staff to donate to United Way through payroll deduction, and many also will match donations. When making your donation, please write "Bundles Of Love" in the note field on your check and the money will be directed to us! Please select from one of the items below for more details on how you can help.
Please do what you can to help. Feel good about helping the babies and your community.
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