SedonaKind has been busy recognizing and thanking the many Unsung Heroes here in the Verde Valley. Delivering over 730 KIND snacks and handmade cards to those who serve our community
Operation Masks & Gowns
At the beginning of Sedona’s sheltering in place, everyone began asking “what can I do to help?” We’d like to give you an update on what Joy and her Masked Marvels have accomplished!
Sedona Kind is honored to have helped coordinate over 100 people who have worked separately and together ( that’s our motto ) in an effort to provide masks and gowns for Healthcare workers and community groups who are in need of PPE. We’ve partnered with The Sedona Women, Rotary, Red Rock Quilters, Liberal Ladies, Dress a Girl and Verde Sews along with independent men and women who have all sewn tirelessly. The project has been so far cost free due to generous donations of fabric, supplies and sewing machines and transportation from the community who want to support the project in some way. Over 2050 gowns have been sewn, and masks number over 5,000 and counting.
Where are all these PPE supplies going, you might ask?
Remember the start of a new school year? No matter how long ago, you can probably still feel those butterflies in your stomach at the thought of meeting new classmates and teachers, more homework, and gasp… having to finally take chemistry! But there was also the excitement of getting to shop for new school clothes. They were a kind of armor, if you will, that gave you that extra zap of confidence you needed to hold your head high and start the year off right. SedonaKind, The Sedona Women and our other generous partners all remembered those feelings, and were thrilled to be working with the Sedona Oak Creek School District and their Foster/Homeless program to create a special shopping experience for these children. In the past, you’ve read about our project we call “These Are Our Kids”. As of the end of the 2018/2019 , there were 27 foster/homeless children registered in our schools. There are even more now.
Operation School Bell grew out of the needs we discovered, and we began to plan how we could provide these children with brand new school clothes. The women who volunteered got to share a very special day with some of these kids, and we wanted you to feel like you were along for the ride. So what exactly did we do? Read on…
Dress a Girl Sedona is a donation-based organization that sews simple dresses to be distributed to needy girls worldwide to contribute to their sense of worth and dignity as well as to signal to would-be traffickers that the girl is under the care of an organization that knows her and would know if she went missing. SedonKind is proud to be supporting this organization.
Purpose
Make simple, modest dresses for needy girls
in third world countries
in poverty pockets in the United States, e.g. Reservations
Reduce human- and sex-trafficking
Attach a Dress-a-Girl-Around-the-World label to the front of each dress
Show this girl is under the care of an organization
Read more and see you you can become involved by clicking on the button below.
At the November 2019 general meeting of SedonaKind, it felt like we were all whisked off into a Dr. Seuss storybook! There were hundreds and hundreds (almost 800!!!!) of colorful, whimsical, warm and wonderful one of a kind hats piled onto three huge tables in the Community Center large room.
Well, it didn’t take long for the one bench to turn into 13, and for Lucy Paradise and Lenore Hemingway, two beloved Sedona artists and members to turn this idea into a reality. The project must’ve had fairy dust on it, because everything we needed just fell into place. Excalibur found us the perfect concrete benches, in multiple sizes. So each would be finished differently, with different themes and designs. As the word spread, each bench was eagerly sponsored by individuals, businesses and groups, and were so sought after that we had to add a few more. Now we were up to 16. Everyone who sponsored a bench knew it was to be donated to the community and put in a public place. All the benches were to have a “kindness” message in the design, and many are in memory of a loved one. Learn more by clicking on the link below.
Teacher Appreciation Day
Each year SedonaKind chooses a new focus for spreading kindness. This year it seems appropriate that we are choosing to honor our heroic teachers. It started with Teacher Appreciation day where we delivered gift bags with hand made cards to our area teachers in appreciation for all they do for our community. Every day should be Teacher Appreciation Day.
A project that excites us all is our Kindness in Schools , or "KIS". When SedonaKind first began, we all knew that our biggest natural resource for spreading kindness is our children. And where better to take our mission of spreading that kindness than to the schools?
In its third year, Operation Special Delivery has become a SedonaKind signature event, one that we all embrace and look forward to with great joy. It’s our chance to find new ways to thank the unsung heroes of our community, and to let them know how much their efforts matter to us all. The first year, we sent out 200 handmade cards along with pottery hearts, and last year we delivered 100 beautiful ‘Boxes of Love’. All of this is done, of course, anonymously, and SedonaKind members are pretty cute trying to ring doorbells while scurrying away. This year, we had a whole new idea.