Hello again! December is an exciting month for us and our Birthday Bag program. We'll be hitting a big milestone in December, delivering our 200th bag, and last week we were interviewed by News10 about our "Birthday Bag" program. The AIFC (Auburn Interfaith Food Closet) called a few weeks ago and told us that News10 was interested in running a story about us and our bags. The kids and I were so excited, we watch News10, so we were already familiar with their news cast and their Good News/Good People segments.
Last Friday, 12/1, News10 reporter, Dea Diamant, and camera man, Dave Novick, came to the house. Trish Jensen from the food closet was also here, she and Doug were awesome moral support (I was so nervous!). I set the dining room up as I usually do each month; with bags, cake mixes, frostings, candles, tissue paper, and gifts, so the kids could "shop" and put together their bags. The kids were a little nervous, too, but they did a great job putting together the bags, and Dea did a wonderful job interviewing them. After all the bags were made and loaded into the van, we all headed to AIFC to drop off the bags. The president of AIFC, Sandy Bassett, met us at there and we presented her the bags. Sandy was so friendly and warm, and she said very nice things about our "Birthday Bag" program. Our only disappointment of the day was that our friend, Shirley, had another engagement and was not able be at the food closet Friday afternoon. She has been our partner and contact since the beginning, we would have loved to have shared this with her.
We enjoyed meeting more of the AIFC volunteers and learning more about the food closet. They serve over 465 families a month (with over 553 children). We also learned about other areas where AIFC could use our help. I will discuss these in more detail soon and see if we can find ways to help them even more. I would love to be able to match up needs with resources.
The whole day was a fun experience for Danny, Sarah, Doug and me. It's not often that a news crew comes to your house and spends some time. We don't know when our segment will air, but Dea said she would call when she has a date, and I will follow up at that time. It would be really exciting if people saw our segment and thought "Wow, I could do something like that!" We would love for a person, family or organization to see our "Birthday Bag" segment and start one of their own, like I did when I heard the story. Or maybe there might be some interest in helping us grow so we can reach even more children. You never know what the future holds and I'm just excited about getting the idea out there. Everyone we've met through this entire experience has been so thoughtful and wonderful, it would be great if more people could share in the fun with us.
Thanks again to everyone for your time and support and I'll be in touch soon. -Cheri
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