4th Annual Trick-or-Toiletries is coming up!

Well here we are again, already October and time for another post. I can't believe how fast the year went! Remember that saying? Time flies! Anyway, we are trying out a new way to spread the word this year. My mom is using her facebook account to create a "Cause." This is all new to us so be patient as we figure it out. If you or your parents use facebook, please join us here:

http://www.causes.com/causes/796167-trick-or-toiletries

My goal this year is to collect 500 items. That's why I am starting early! I also have a goal of recruiting at least 10 other kids to collect at least 100 items each. My mom and I are talking about having a raffle for the kids who participate. I guess that's all for now. I'll be updating soon with more details!

p.s. Guess what! I have a new baby sister!!!! She is so cute. I'm thinking about dressing her up as a ladybug for Halloween!

The Actual 3rd Anual Trick-or-Toiletries!!!!

We were so happy to have our great-aunt with us because she was in the hospital for a few weeks, but is doing much better now!

What a great year! Let me give you a couple pieces of advice. First: don't ever go to streets you didn't pass out fliers to, I made that mistake this year and by the time I got home I was almost too tired to take in the donations and get out of my costume, I was almost falling asleep walking on the streets! Second: don't ever be Johnny Appleseed, ow! That's what I was this year, in the end I had to take off the pot!

Do you like my sea-sick pumpkin?

Anyway it was really fun. In total we got over 450 items!!! What a blessing!! When we went to go drop the donations off at Corona-Norco Rescue Mission we got a lot of thanks from the volunteers that work there.

Me and my brothers- they were a big help. Well, maybe not the baby!

We have also gotten reports from other families who have done Trick-or-Toiletries. There is one family in Temecula who exceeded their goal of 200, and there's another family in San Diego who met and went way over their goal of 150! I know I've said this before but I just have to say it, what a blessing!!

This was the total after Halloween, but the donations kept coming in over the next couple of weeks.

It was a lot of hard work, but I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to 2012 and posting about the next Trick-or-Toiletries!!!

Passing out the fliers!

We started passing out the fliers this past weekend and we got a lot of enthusiastic welcomes! Some people more than others, but all of them were willing to give and said that they would get something for me by Halloween. We even met a couple of families who were new to the area. I also found a new friend my age who lives down the street, her family is new in the community as well.

And guess what- I've already started collecting donations! A neighbor gave us a box of stuff before we even passed the fliers out. A friend from church and my great-aunt each gave me bags of toiletries; so with all that we got a total of 74 items! Also my great-grandma in Kentucky sent money to buy some more items for my project. I am so grateful to all of them for giving me a great start at reaching my goal!!

One more thing; after my mom and I sent an e-mail blast to several homeschool groups, six families asked to participate in this year's Trick-or-Toiletries. We sent them a copy of our flier so they could make changes to personalize it and use it in their neighborhood. I can't wait to see how their neighbors respond and I'll be sure to follow up with them and post about it after Halloween. It's not too late to join the fun and make a difference in your community this year!! 

Stay tuned for the next post to see how I do with my collection this year...

The 3rd Annual Trick-or-Toiletries and How You Can Participate!!!

Now that you're filled in for the last 2 years from my previous posts I can tell you about this year's Trick-or-Toiletries! I'm so excited for the upcoming Halloween! And I hope that you are too. My goal this year is 300 items again, and hopefully we will do better this year than the last! We've made the fliers and I can't wait to pass them out. Mom says that a week before Halloween will do, because we have to deliver the fliers close enough to Halloween so that people don't forget, and early enough so that they have time to go shopping and that sort of stuff (sigh).
 
And now I can tell you how easy it is to do this in your neighborhood. All you have to do is think of something to write on a flier explaining what you are doing and why. You can put fun pictures on your flier, print it out, cut it (we fit two fliers on one sheet of paper) and you're ready to hand them out! Here's a hint: people like to see colors so try to do colored print or print it on orange paper.

The next step is to pass out the fliers. Try to pass them out on a weekend when more people are home. If you don't then you might not get as many donations! It's up to you if you want to leave fliers at houses where nobody's home. I decided to just give the fliers to people who were home so I could explain it personally. Either way, when you are handing them out bring a notebook along and write down the addresses so that you don't forget which houses to go back to on Halloween.

The last step is collecting the donations! If a neighbor says they won't be home, I give them the option of either leaving it on their own porch with the flier attached for me to pick up on Halloween night or they could leave it on our porch anytime. When you head out to trick or treat you may want to bring a wagon. There hopefully will be a lot of stuff, so you will be glad that you did!

Please tell your friends about this blog and about Trick-or-Toiletries because I'm hoping this year that with my blog we can spread the word all throughout the country and get kids to collect more than candy each Halloween.

Trick-or-Toiletries #2

My second year of Trick-or-Toiletries was just as exiting (if not more) as the first one. The first year was kind of confusing because we weren't very organized and I forgot which houses had been given a flier ahead of time so some people didn't know what I was talking about when I tried to collect the donations! When we passed out the fliers we brought a notebook and kept track of the houses we went to by writing down the addresses and only went to the ones that we had on the list. It was nice because we didn't have to walk as far as we did last time, plus (as my mom says) the amount of candy we got that year went down!

Trick or Treating at one of our neighbor's houses

Again we were stunned by the people's willingness to give, even though I was sort of expecting it and set a higher goal of 300 items. I figured that if we could do it once we could do it twice, but we barely made it! It was a close call. This time though we were smart and brought a wagon! To my surprise, some people were saving up toiletries all year to give to me at Halloween. One of my dad's co-workers collected all the toiletries she got from the hotels she stayed at while traveling. A neighbor who is really into using coupons was able to give me a ton of stuff that was mostly free or almost free! Another neighbor worked at a factory and she was able to give me a ton of dental care samples.

I dressed up as a hillbilly that year and spent hours (exaggeration) sewing patches on those overalls!

Another surprise was that my mom emailed other homeschooling families telling them about Trick-or-Toiletries and a family who had just moved to Arkansas from California followed my example and collected almost 300 items in their new neighborhood!!! What a blessing! I'm not sure if any other kids did it, but at least a lot of people thought it was a great idea and a seed of generosity was being planted in people's hearts...

We also had a new baby brother that year so my mom forgot to take pictures of all the items we collected! Excuses, excuses!

                                                                                                                                                                                          

Where it all started...

 My brothers and I trick-or-treating

I was dressed as a "Safety Witch" but people kept thinking I was a construction worker!

In the fall of 2009 our family started volunteering with Inland Harvest delivering leftover food from local restaurants to God's Kitchen where the homeless are fed daily. We met the manager and asked what other needs they had and she said they had a great need for toiletries and cleaning supplies for the people who came to be fed and who stayed in the attached shelter. That gave me the idea to pass out fliers in my neighborhood asking for donations that I could take to the shelter. Since it was almost Halloween and I would be going door to door trick or treating anyway, my mom gave me the idea to call it Trick-or-Toiletries and to collect the items while I was getting my candy!

My goal was to collect 100 items and we ended up getting over 350!! I was so surprised at the generosity of my neighbors and I was grateful for their enthusiasm and support. I was really, REALLY excited! I just couldn't wait to turn it all in and see the manager's face. I wasn't disappointed. She was ecstatic and that just made me feel really good inside that I did a service for my community. I decided I would make it a tradition and do it every Halloween.

Counting up the total...368!!!

In my next post I will tell you about the Second Annual Trick-or-Toiletries tradition and how it started to blossom...