Success!

Today, Dan and I drove around downtown a while trying to find a small conglomeration of people, then decided to check out Caesar Chavez park.

Well, we hit pay dirt...

Before we knew it, word had spread and we had a line of people interested in receiving a kit and/or blanket.

After the line subsided, we walked through the rest of the park and into nearby streets to hand out the rest.

In all, 44 people received a kit and/or blanket (some wanted only one or the other).

I obtained the name of 38 of those people. These were the recipients: Lori, Robert, Laurie, Maria, Anthony, Tami, Tee, Jorjo, Marci, Rodney, Jimmy, Gregory, Hotenzia, Sheri, Tori, Tim, Mark, Ecka, Susan, Kenneth, Hoss, Anerae, Randy, Ray, Elitha, Gabe, Donald, John, Norman, Stephen, Jerred, Joey, Ronald, Lee, Terrance, Johnson, David, and Lisa.

We had no idea that in 45 minutes we would have been able to hand out all of the kits! So, this concludes the tale of the homeless supply kits. Perhaps until next year?

I cannot end this post without two special mentions:

My gratitude and thanks goes to DAN, without whom I would not have had the courage to do this. Thank you, my love.

Thank you to the 23 people who contributed to this project financially and through other means. The good this project brought into the world is because of you!

Now the point of all of this...

Dan and I are planning to drive around various places this weekend, hoping to find those who need and will accept our Supply Kit and Blanket. I have received suggestions for various places downtown. We'll start there...

Almost ready...

Kits almost all made. Plan to start handing them out starting on Saturday. (Dan, thank you, thank you, for coming with me.)

I have 10 kits specifically for women and 10 kits specifically for men. The rest are neutral.

Who knows the mix of people we'll encounter.

Gift tags

For each kit, I made up a gift tag to attach, listing the (first) name of the donor who sponsored it. Thanks to you all!

[I did not know if people were okay with me showing their names here, so I obscured them and showed my and Dan's name as an example!]

Kits, kits, everywhere there are kits!

So I am making 36+ kits. The + is the kits which will be missing a component or two.

Many bulk supplies are sold in multiples of 36. Others are sold in lots of 50. The washcloths were sold in a 60 pack.

The remainder of the supplies which do not make sense to put together in a kit will be donated to Loaves and Fishes.

Speaking of missing a component... I need to make more chapstick. I already made enough soap and lotion, but apparently not enough chapstick - shy of 10 or so. So, that is on the to-do list for this weekend as well. The chapstick I made for this project is peppermint flavor, feeling that flavor was fairly universal in appeal.

Starting to Assemble

Two nights ago, I started to make kits. I made six!

Then I realized I need to develop a more efficient assembly line process to manage the rest.

So between last night and this morning, I assembled sub-kits. I think this has indeed made the process faster, or will, by the time it's all done.

36+ kits... actually more work to assemble than it sounds like!  Yet, I am enjoying every step of the way and regularly thing of the generous people who made this project possible. Thank you! :)

Sample Kit (assembled)

Here's a sample kit assembled (minus the blanket and the homemade cookies). I'm so glad everything fit!

Final Kit Contents

A total of 18 items!

- Toothbrush
- Toothpaste
- Floss / Dental Picks
- Socks
- Nail clippers
- Comb
- Soap
- Washcloth
- Shampoo/Conditioner 2-in-1
- Chapstick
- Lotion
- Deodorant
- Granola bars
- Goldfish snack
- Homemade cookies
- Bottle of water
- Drawstring bag
- Blanket

Almost all of the pieces

Nearly everything has arrived or been picked up. Waiting on toothpaste and more carrying bags.

It begins!

So I had a realization that I am probably going to fully assemble *36* kits. After shopping I found that bulk items are frequently packaged in lots of 36, of all numbers.

I may assemble some partial kits, too. We'll see how it goes.

I purchased most, but not all, of the items two nights ago from Amazon. Most goods arrive this weekend.

Today it's off to IKEA for blankets. What will I do if they don't have 36+ in stock?

Thank you!

An enormous thank you to the 16 people and counting who contributed to this project to make it a reality!

This is a brief blog of the journey of assembling and distributing the kits. I just wanted to share so you can see the good your donations have brought into the world.