Two Great Community Events

Grow With Me loves to back community projects that support wonderful causes. Here are two upcoming events that we think you'll be interested in:

HUGE Mom-2-Mom Sale this Saturday, September 18th from 9:00-2:00 at the Clinton United Methodist Church (10990 Tecumseh-Clinton Rd., Clinton). Admission is only $1 ($2 early admission). And proceeds will benefit Autism H.O.P.E. of Lenawee. Call Jennifer at 517-918-1516 or email at jennifer@autismhopeoflenawee.org for more details.

Support the Lamaze Family Center Team in the Big House Big Heart Run (www.thebighousebigheart.org), which will take place on October 3rd in downtown Ann Arbor. Go to www.lamazefamilycenter.org to sponsor a Lamaze Family Center Team member. As a nonprofit participating in the run, 100% of funds raised will go to Lamaze and help the organization to continue to provide their great programming and support of local parenting families!

Community Building

Thanks to all of you that have donated your things to Grow With Me or bought items from our new Second Bloom Room where everything is priced at $1. We recently were able gave checks to the Ann Arbor Autism Foundation (http://www.annarborautism.org/ ), the Judson Center (http://www.judsoncenter.org/ ), and A Different Path Newsletter (www.aaps.k12.mi.us/haisley.home/different_path_newsletter ) for a total of $13oo.

We also continue to give bagloads of donations to local charities such as House by the Side of the Road and programs run by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. And we are currently selling Among Friends cookie mix with all proceeds benefitting the Lamaze Family Center (http://www.lamazefamilycenter.org/ ).

And I've saved the best for last! This coming Thursday, July 22nd from noon until 3:00, we will be celebrating Everybody Deserves a Massage Week, a nationwide sponsored event through the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals, here at Grow With Me. Relax and Renew Massage will be giving free chair massages here at the store--yay! Monetary donations will be accepted and shared with the Ann Arbor Foundation and Humane Society. So come shop and relax and support your community!

29-Day Giving Challenge

With Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday coming up and the recent disaster in Haiti, I thought it might be a good time to talk about 29 Gifts. Founded by Cami Walker, the 29-Day Giving Challenge is a global-wide movement that encourages people to give something away each day for 29 days. Why? According to the website http://www.29gifts.org/ , "Our collective mission at 29 Gifts is to revive the giving spirit in the world. We change lives--and change the world--one gift at a time." Your gifts can be anything, including non-material things such as helping out a new mom or calling an old friend on her birthday. And you can start your challenge at any time. You might find you enjoy giving so much that you want to continue on for another 29-day cycle. If that's the case, you can try theme-giving. Pick a certain person or type of giving and work on that for the 29 days. There are so many ways of giving! And you can sign up on the website to become part of the 29 Gifts community, posting about your experience and reading about other people's ideas. And if you do start giving, think about bringing some items in to Grow With Me for donation. Besides taking donations for the Autism Account, Grow With Me is doing a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Children's/Parenting Book Drive on Monday, January 18th. All donated books will go to the Corner Health Center in Ypsilanti. But whether you give to Grow With Me or somewhere else, we hope you will take up the challenge!

Making A Difference

We are very grateful to all of our wonderful customers who have made it possible for us to give our latest round of financial contributions to The Ann Arbor Autism Foundation, The Judson Center, and Different Path newsletter. To date, Grow With Me has donated $8,500.00 to these and a number of other autism-related organizations.

Our customers can feel good knowing that each time they donate clothing items or purchase items from our popular dollar bins, they are making a difference for families of children affected by autism. Here’s how some of those contributions are making a difference:

• With our help, The Judson Center to has been able to purchase sensory- friendly therapeutic items for use in their summer programming. In addition, supporting their center will help fund direct scholarships to consumers to supplement the out-of-pocket costs for their programs and services.
• Donations provided to The Ann Arbor Autism Foundation have been used to support families affected by autism by providing scholarships to families in need, and grants to agencies for community projects.
• A Different Path newsletter provides a voice for families of children with special needs. Financial contributions will be used to help pay for mailing and printing costs.

So thank you for your continued support. The more you shop and drop off items, the more assistance we can give these wonderful organizations!

Donating to Grow With Me

Some of you might not be aware that you can donate items to Grow With Me. When you bring your goods in to sell, we will sort through them. Those things we are not able to put on the selling floor, you may either bring home or donate to the store. You may also bring in donations anytime, even if you are not selling to us. Anyone who donates items will receive a coupon for 10% off your next purchase.

All of the donated items that we think are sellable go into our $1 Bins for our weekly Bin Sales. 50% of all the proceeds from those sales go to local autism organizations. Presently, Grow With Me contributes to the Ann Arbor Autism Foundation (www.annarborautism.com) and the Washtenaw County branch of the Judson Center (www.judsoncenter.org). Those items that might not sell during our Bin Sales are donated through us to House by the Side of the Road. What is fabulous about this particular nonprofit is that unlike the Salvation Army or PTO Thrift Store, House by the Side of the Road does not sell donated items, but gives them away to those in need that are referred there from other organizations in town, such as Safehouse and the The Corner Health Center. The only time we throw anything away is if an item is in obviously unsafe condition or otherwise unusable.

So feel good about bringing your things into Grow With Me. Not only will you earn some cash back on them or 30% more in store credit if you are selling, but you will be helping families in need.