Hailey's Hope: A New Year

First, I want to say how thankful I am for the support Hailey's Hope received in 2010. Our project was very blessed to receive so many wonderful and generous donations that enabled us, in a period of 8 months, to donate 10 "angel" memory boxes and 86 basic NICU care package bags to families with babies staying in the NICUs at The Children's Hospital in Alabama as well as three basic NICU care package bags to families in different states - that brings us to almost 100 care packages donated to date!

As I've mentioned from the start, it's my hope that Hailey's Hope will continue to be an active project with Project Sweet Peas for many years and helping countless families going through a difficult time that we're familiar with. Hailey's Hope didn't start as just a one time thing or a temporary project that I created to help me cope with my grief or as a hobby that doesn't stick. All of the project leaders with Project Sweet Peas want our projects to become a permanent part of the hospitals we serve, and many of the hospitals we serve have already become dependent on the donations we deliver to them.

Therefore, it's my hope for the new year that Hailey's Hope will continue to be blessed with supporters and donations so that we can continue to help as many families as possible. I also have set some goals for our project in 2011 which will also include some changes.

First, as you may or may not know, as of February 1st, Hailey's Hope will no longer be run from our home in Alabama, but it will be run from our new home in Tennessee! With this move came a dilemma over which hospital(s) Hailey's Hope would serve. Would we continue to serve The Children's Hospital in Alabama? How would we be able to still be able to work with a hospital in AL from TN? Would we switch hospitals all together and start serving a hospital in TN instead? How much support would we be able to get in TN for donating to a hospital out of state? Would we lose supporters if we no longer served the hospital in AL? Not to mention there were countless personal questions about stopping donations to The Children's Hopsital since it is the hospital where Hailey stayed and since they have already requested more donations from us.

So, after thinking this issue over for the past month or so, I have set a goal that will only be achievable with continued and increased support.

This year, Hailey's Hope will be serving 2 hospitals in 2 states! We will continue our partnership with The Children's Hospital in Alabama, and we are hoping to serve Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Tennessee.

Even though we will be living in Tennessee, the drive to The Children's Hospital in Alabama will be about the same as it was for us when we were living in AL, maybe only slightly longer; therefore, making deliveries to the hospital will still be possible. The reason I decided to try to take on a 2nd hospital in TN is because I want to help the people in the community we'll be living in and, really, how could I not help a hospital in my area who lacks the type of support we provide for families. And it's my hope that as we conduct fundraisers in TN we will receive a lot of support from our local community since we'll be helping a local hospital. Furthermore, I am thinking Hailey's Hope will make a small number of deliveries to The Children's Hospital, perhaps on special dates or anniversaries (such as Hailey's birthday), and then do more frequent deliveries throughout the year to the hospital in TN.

As of today, Hailey's Hope does not have our official partnership with and 'go ahead' from Vanderbilt. I'm in the process of being given the run around as I attempt to find a contact. So far I've spoken with two people at the hospital, but neither work with receiving donations, and I have not been given a contact who does and can help me. But I'm continuing to contact people in various departments, and hopefully I will get into contact with the right person soon. (Would you consider praying that I am able to find the right person to talk to about receiving our donations and that they would be eager and willing to work with us?)

Secondly, I hope to host several new fundraisers this year. In 2010, we received most of our support from family and friends by requesting their help through letters and emails and from that we received great results and they even reached out to others to help us! However, we don't want to constantly ask the same people over and over again to donate to our project. We would love supporters who give on a continual basis, but we want this to happen from their own hearts and generosity, not because we bombard them and bother them by continually asking for donations. So we need some new ideas to raise support and new ways to reach more supporters who may not know about our cause.

I'm super excited to share about the first fundraiser of 2011 for Hailey's Hope! Starting February 1st we will be holding a fundraiser called "Flowers for Hope." Hailey's Hope will be selling flower bulbs for people to plant this spring that will bloom in the summer. We are partnering with an organization that allows us to sell their products and keep 50% of the sales. So for every flower we sale, we will receive 50% of the sale. Therefore, if a person wants to buy a set of flower bulbs for $10, Hailey's Hope will receive a $5 donation. The fundraiser will continue through mid-April, which will be our project's 1 year anniversary. The company will ship out the orders by May for planting. I also want to mention that we will be selling flowers online as well as face-to-face through catalogs.

I chose to do "Flowers for Hope" and sell flowers, as opposed to other items, for several reasons. First, I thought it would be great to do something specifically around April to celebrate our project's 1 year anniversary, and of course April is in the spring and wouldn't it be great to do a spring fundraiser that had people planting spring flowers?! But more importantly, I chose flowers for a personal reason. Personally, I love the idea of me planting a flower in Hailey's memory in my own yard. To be able to see something living, growing, blossoming, and beautiful that was planted and there because of Hailey and that reminds me of her every time I look at it... well, it's simply priceless. And to carry that gift, that maybe only a bereaved parent can fully understand, a step further, I thought about how perfect flowers would be for Hailey because many of them attract butterflies... and we all know how butterflies remind me of Hailey and how they symbolize hope (they are part of our logo after all). :) Then I carried this idea of mine and applied it to other people. This fundraiser would give other people who loved Hailey the opportunity to do something on their own in memory of her. And of course, I'm hoping to sell flowers to people that may not have that personal connection to Hailey, but maybe they would consider planting a flower not just to make a pretty addition to their garden (which is great on it's own!), but to remember someone they loved and lost.

So I hope you're as excited about this fundraiser as I am. This is something completely new for me to try so I would really appreciate your prayers that this fundraiser would help us raise a lot of money for Hailey's Hope in 2011. More details will be shared on February 1st when the fundraiser officially launches. Until then, start saving up your spare change and thinking about what flowers you might like to plant this year that way you will be all ready to place your order right away!

And lastly, I set some specific goals for our deliveries this year (and yes they are pretty high goals, but hey, we need to dream big to achieve bag). I hope to be able to make two donations to The Children's Hospital in AL (commemorating special occasions), and I hope to be able to make at least two or three donations to a hospital in TN. In thinking about a bag total for 2011, I hope that we can donate a total of at least 200 care packages! To be able to make so many deliveries, we really need a lot of support, and we really hope we can get it.

Please be praying for our project and thinking about how you can support Hailey's Hope and help families with sick babies who really need it... and help us keep Hailey's memory alive.

[caption id="attachment_80" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="My Courageous Little Girl"][/caption]

And just a reminder, you can donate to us online by using PayPal - you can find the link here. Please feel free to email me at Kristin@projectsweetpeas.com

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you. ~ Deut. 16:17