Author Topic: Christmas campaign (Read 24454 times)

madelaide · « **on:** November 26, 2011, 21:53 »

Hi everyone,

Last year many of you here helped with a Christmas campaign (this thread).

As usual, our Mail has set up the "Adopt a Santa Claus letter"
http://www.correios.com.br/papainoelcorreios2011/
also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/papainoeldoscorreios

This year again I organized a 2nd hand CD auction and people were amazingly generous - the CDs sold at an average price of US$30! We collected a lot of money from that. We have already selected 60 letters for starters and began buying their presents today. The school from which we got the letters have some kids with mental disabilities, so it is very comforting to know we will make them happy this Christmas. We hope to buy most of the presents tomorrow and if possible get more letters from the Mail along this week - their deadline is Dec 9th, so we don't have much time.

Anyway, last year many of you contributed for the campaign, but in the end we ran out of letters and the money was spent in a créche in a slum near our office. When we visited it last year, we were enchanted by the good, loving work they do with those kids. I was wondering if you guys would like to help them again this year. I am going to contact the girls there and see what we can arrange.

I won't be collecting any money right now, I just want to know if people will join me again. I totally understand if you don't, and I'm sure you will help other charities, which is what matters in the end.

michaeldb · « **Reply #1 on:** November 26, 2011, 22:33 »

I for one will be happy to join in and help out in whatever way I can!

sam100 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 27, 2011, 03:16 »

count me in again...

Patrick H.

madelaide · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2011, 18:19 »

Update. I talked to the girls from the créche and they'll hve the party on Dec 16th. This gives me some time to organzie stuff, as I am still involved with the Mail campaign in the next days. More later this week.

lisafx · « **Reply #4 on:** November 30, 2011, 11:51 »

Maria, I would love to help out again. In fact, I have been waiting for you to post about this.

fotografer · « **Reply #5 on:** November 30, 2011, 13:19 »

Yes I was pleased to be able to join in on this last year and would love to again.

madelaide · « **Reply #6 on:** November 30, 2011, 15:53 »

Thanks for all who have already jumped in. Money can be sent to my PP or MB accounts - both _adelaidebs_at_hotmail_dot_com_. PM me when you make the transfer, so I can check these accounts and acknowledge the donations.

I'm looking forward to doing this again. Seeing the smiles on the kids' faces is worth all the trouble!

lisafx · « **Reply #7 on:** November 30, 2011, 16:02 »

Done! Best of luck with this wonderful project

madelaide · « **Reply #8 on:** November 30, 2011, 16:03 »

Wow, you're fast!

sam100 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 30, 2011, 16:09 »

Done.

Patrick H.

madelaide · « **Reply #10 on:** November 30, 2011, 16:37 »

You guys are awesome.

michaeldb · « **Reply #11 on:** November 30, 2011, 20:15 »

Quote from: patrick1958 on November 30, 2011, 16:09

Done.

+1 I PMed you Maria as instructed, but I guess it won't hurt to post and put this thread back up to the top of the list

Clivia · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2011, 01:27 »

Count me in!

madelaide · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2011, 15:47 »

Got Lisa's, Patrick's and Michael's transfers. Thanks!

madelaide · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2011, 16:10 »

Ouch, PP is charging fees for these transfers. Thanks Lisa for the alert. They don't show that on the main page, only when we see the balance report it is shown. Around 8%.

Is there any way to avoid this in the future? Is it a matter of the account type you have vs what I have?

sam100 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 01, 2011, 16:25 »

I used my business paypal account, maybe that's why.?.

Patrick H.

madelaide · « **Reply #16 on:** December 01, 2011, 20:13 »

Perhaps, I am not very knowledgeable about their fees, but anyway 8% seems a very high bite! Greedy people.

madelaide · « **Reply #17 on:** December 06, 2011, 19:05 »

Just an update: I received the list of the 45 kids with names, ages, sex. Some were already there last year. I'm glad I kept a list of the gifts we bought, so we don't give the same thing again to those.

This week I'm still involved with the Mail's Santa project - we've bought over 100 gifts at work and there are still some to go. Next weekend I will probably be starting with the créche project - if not buying the gifts, at least selecting them. If anyone else is interested, just let me know.

ann · « **Reply #18 on:** December 06, 2011, 19:27 »

Madelaide - PP doesn't allow Personal transactions to Brazil from my spot on the globe, but Purchase worked. "Adopt a Santa Letter" smiles - Ann

madelaide · « **Reply #19 on:** December 06, 2011, 20:04 »

Thank you Ann!

Hmmm, perhaps this is why PP is taking that huge bite in your contributions? I may try something different next year, maybe on MB because I can transfer that to my account in UK and then use the card to withdraw it here.

madelaide · « **Reply #20 on:** December 12, 2011, 21:18 »

Guys, update. I received a total of US$128.74 and EUR92.25, after the fees. There will be fees once I withdraw this money, but I'll put that on my side. So roughly I have a budget of US$250 or R$454.

Today I bought the presents to 11 girls and 27 boys (photos attached) and we have 7 other girls who will get Barbie canteens that we received as a bonus gift from Mattel for buying Barbies to the Mail's Santa. The toys I bought costed R$403, so there is a balance I will use for some educational toys they asked me to use in the créche itself (toys with numbers and alphabet, puppets, educative songs CDs, etc). Should anyone else join this effort, that's where I will put the money into.

We will hire Santa using the Mail's Santa balance, which will also be used to help a shelter for children with cancer that come for treatment in Rio. They already have toys for the kids's party, but need extra nutrition stuff such as Sustagen for their daily meals.

The créche party will be on Friday and I intend to attend it. I'll keep you posted, and once again thanks Lisa, Patrick, Michael and Ann for helping this.

madelaide · « **Reply #21 on:** December 15, 2011, 16:10 »

First hand image. I haven't even uploaded it to my Facebook account. This is one lovely smile from today's Mail's Santa Claus. I went to the school where our presents would be given, and had a wonderful time enjoying smiles (and tears) of these kids. There are over 1,000 kids in this school and unfortunately I wasn't able to check all groups, but I did recognize some of the gifts and it was exciting to see the faces behind those letters we adopted. I'm in heaven!

Créche party will take place tomorrow. I have purchased some stuff for their activities and will post a photo here later.

lisafx · « **Reply #22 on:** December 15, 2011, 18:19 »

What a beautiful picture of a precious, happy little boy!

Thanks so much for sharing the story and photos with us and allowing us to be a small part of your wonderful charity work. You are awesome Maria!

michaeldb · « **Reply #23 on:** December 15, 2011, 19:23 »

Quote from: lisafx on December 15, 2011, 18:19

What a beautiful picture of a precious, happy little boy!

Thanks so much for sharing the story and photos with us and allowing us to be a small part of your wonderful charity work. You are awesome Maria!

+1

madelaide · « **Reply #24 on:** December 15, 2011, 20:05 »

Two more pics. There are so many, so delightful! One is of one of the little kids in tears with Santa, so cute!

You will see "your" kids tomorrow.

sam100 · « **Reply #25 on:** December 16, 2011, 03:00 »

Thanks for posting the images...

Patrick H

madelaide · « **Reply #26 on:** December 16, 2011, 09:35 »

Just got back from the créche, the kids I remember from last year sure grew up a bit. One of them is a little pest and didn't let Santa in peace while giving the presents. He even picked the presents from Santa to give them to their rightful owner.

Some of the helpers should have kicked him out, but they didn't.

The best photos were taken before, when they had the kids singing and dancing for their mothers. Nothing Christmasy, but some nice expressions. Few photos of the giving of the presents turned out good, but I got some nice shots of the kids with their presents afterwards. Not all kids though, because I got lost of who I had shot or not.

madelaide · « **Reply #27 on:** December 16, 2011, 16:16 »

Here are two photos, I picked these because there are two kids we interact with last year, so now you can see how they grew up. Here are Kauan and Micael last year:

And in the attachments you will see them now.

madelaide · « **Reply #28 on:** December 16, 2011, 16:24 »

The kids waiting for Santa.

madelaide · « **Reply #29 on:** December 16, 2011, 16:25 »

A few more smiles.

sam100 · « **Reply #30 on:** December 16, 2011, 17:46 »

lisafx · « **Reply #31 on:** December 16, 2011, 20:25 »

Wonderful photos! You made my day!

michaeldb · « **Reply #32 on:** December 16, 2011, 21:23 »

Quote from: lisafx on December 16, 2011, 20:25

Wonderful photos! You made my day!

You made Christmas merrier in two hemispheres!

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