Walmart hat clearance

Walmart is clearing out their summer hats for $1.00

Why not add a hat to your box?  

6 Weeks until Collection Week!

Collection Week is the week of November 18th.  6 Weeks away!

I picked up our boxes this week.

And we are now getting into high gear for our packing party for the middle of November.    Today everyone received their first box.  Which meant I needed some help.  Folding boxes and putting on the labels.  And I am so thankful for these ladies, who spent the Sunday School hour, folding, and cutting labels.  

Some kids were a bit disappointed it wasn't the packing party this Sunday. But we find by starting early, it gets them excited about what is coming up.  Today they could pick a face cloth for their shoe box.  The first of many items that will be carefully picked for each box. 

To see the kids carefully pick something as simple as a face cloth, and find joy in making sure it is the right color, brings a smile to my face.  And I know God must be smiling down as well.  Knowing that the child who will receive this box has something special coming, tangible items, but more importantly hearing about the One True God.   

Back to School Deals continue...

The back to school deals continue!  A week and half until school starts here.  Crazy how fast summer flies by. 

 

Superstore has NO TAX today.

A great time to stock up.

 

Plus I saw these 10 pack of pencils for .13 cents. 

I have never seen them that low. 

I forgot to check if they had a limit, as we have a great supply of pencils already.

 

And they continue to mark down summer items. 

I was there on Thursday and these 2 pack of tennis balls were $1.00 today they were .50 cents.  Just wish they would have had more.  That's what I get for waiting. 

 

Looks like most of the other school supply sales stay the same.

 

24 Crayola Pencil Crayons with sharpener .97-.99 cents at Staples, Walmart and Superstore and Shoppers this week.

Crayola Crayons start at .85 cents at most places.

Loose leaf is .15 cents at most places including Shoppers.

10 pack of pens are .89 cents at Superstore.

 

Is anyone all done their school supply shopping for shoe boxes?

 

 

 

Always Worth the Trip to the States!

Yesterday we went down to the States for the day. 

And once the shopping was fantastic!  Duty, not so much:(

But things are still less expensive, even with duty!

Here is a bit of a run down of what I found

 

Michaels

70% off summer

It is hard to see but on the left corner I found 2 large containers of beads, which we will make into smaller packets.  They were on sale for $2.39.

Fun shades .30 cents.

Flip flops were .79-.89 cents.

(Here in Canada I paid $1.25-$1.50 for the exact same ones at 70% off)

 

Target

Always our first stop.  I love Target and it did not disappoint!

.25 cent crayons.

20 pack of pens for $1.00

Pack of 2 balls .50 cents. - great for 2-4 boxes

A bought a cart full of crayons and pens:) 

 

 

TJ Maxx

Another favorite.  You never know what you will find.

I found a pair for cute sandals for a $1.00

A few packages of 5 pairs of boys underwear for $2.00

 

Wal-mart

Markers .50 cents

They also had crayons for .25 cents, but they were all out.

 

 

Pencils and Pencil Crayons are less expensive here in Canada, which surprised me. 

 

Someone mentioned Hobby Lobby as places to visit.

Sadly the city we went to, does not have a hobby lobby.

 

I need to go, and sort and organize all I bought. 

My office is starting to look like a room from hoarders;)

 

 

Back to School Sales Continue

The Back to school Sales Continue this week! Yea!

Superstore
24 Crayola Pencil Crayons .97 cents limit 6
24Crayola Crayons .75 cents. limit 6 (.05 cents less than last week)
Coil bound notebooks .10 cents limit 6
4 Pack of Joe brand notebooks.  .25 cents  limit 6
10 pack of pencils .25 cents (don't think I saw a limit)
Bic 10 pack of pens. 97 cents. limit 3
Joe Brand 5 pack of erasers .97 cents

Staples
24 Crayola or Staples brand pencil crayons .97 cents    limit 6
24 Crayola crayons .65 cents.  (cheapest I have seen)
Staples brand crayons .60 cents   limit 6
Hilroy 4 pack of notebooks.  .20 cents

Walmart
Looseleaf .15 cents
24 Crayola Pencil Crayons .97 cents  NO Limit
24 Crayola Crayons .65 cents NO limit.  But my store was all out.
Hilroy notebooks .10 cents each.


I have also found a few deals on t-shirts and underwear
Walmart had $1.00 boys long sleeve shirts
Bargain shop had really good quality 10-14 boys shirts for $2.00
Giant Tiger- Fruit of the Loop boys briefs 3 pack for $2.00
                                                 girls 3 pack for $2.00

Have you found any good deals lately?

Asking for Help...

Asking for help.  It is not always easy to do. 

In years past I would have made trip after trip to Staples to pick up the limit of 6 notebooks.   But as our Packing Party grows, so do our needs for more items, and with it came the realization that I can not do this alone.

I am thankful that God has put together a great Shoe Box Committee.  Each with individual gifting.  They are great to bounce ideas off of, and have a new energy for this ministry. 

I am also thankful that I can send out a mass email, asking families in congregation, if they would be willing to pick up notebooks.   The response I have received has been fantastic!  I had people dropping off notebooks at my door late last night, and opening up my email was a pure joy,  I had people say they had already gone last night.  Would they like us to go again?   People often want to help, but don't always know how. So writing a short email, asking for help is worth it.

Back To School Sales

This is one of my favorite times of year for Shoe Box Shopping! Now is the time to buy school supplies for shoe boxes.  A lot of items are a lot cheaper now. 

This is the first week that the back to school deals have started in Canada.  After seeing all the posts about the sales in the states.  I couldn't wait to see what kind of deals us Candians would get.
The flyers didn't look too promising.  But often there are unadvertised deals.

My first stop was Superstore.
At first glance I was not impressed.  Nothing seemed to be on sale.
Finally I asked the prices on a few things.
A 10 pack of pencils were marked at .99 cents.
But they rung up at .25 cents and NO LIMIT! (1500 pencils later we almost have enough for our packing party! YEA!)
Crayola Pencil crayons were marked at something like $2.88 but rung up at .94 cents.
I am hoping when I go back, they will have the correct prices on items.  So much easier to figure out if you want to buy it.

Walmart had 150 pieces of Hilroy looseleaf for .15 cents.  Again no limit.
I bought a cart full for $15.00. 
Didn't see any great deals here.
Pencils were .99 cents for 10.
Pens were $1.68 for 10. 

Staples has 4 packs of Hilroy notebooks for .20 cents.  But there is a limit of 6.
14 pack of pens for .99 cents. 

Those are the items I found. 
Have you found any other deals?

Dunk Tank 2013

Last year at our Church Picnic we had a dunk tank fundraiser, for the first time.  We raised $1000 for OCC,  and were very happy with that. You can read about it here.

 

This year we had no idea what to expect. The weather was not great.  There was a light rain during our church service outside, and through out lunch.  We weren't sure how many people would stick around. But we trusted God would provide.  We had the dunk tank scheduled after the relay races.

During the races, I was put on the spot with no warning and interviewed about shoe boxes, and the impact they are having.  At first I drew a complete blank.  And then words came out and I know that they were from God.  Because I couldn't have said it that well. 

 

And then it was time to begin.  Our crowd was very different than last year. It was a much younger crowd, and smaller at first.  Last year we dunked a different person every 1/2 hour.  This year we wanted it to go a little quicker.  We decided to do it one person after another.  No break in between.  We had asked 8 adults. And one child.

 

Another learning moment.  We wanted to include a few kids in the fundraiser.  We had permission slips they had to bring back but it was May long weekend so the there weren't many kids in Sunday School.  And then we didn't have Sunday School as we had church campout.  So we only had one child respond.  Timing is everything.  Next year we need to send out the permission slips at a better time.

 

We had a goal of $1500.  If we met that goal I would go into the tank. (Thankfully I had grabbed some extra clothes on the way out the house in the morning.)

 

We started with the lead singer, Bob, from of one of Praise Bands. He had an umbrella, while sitting, waiting to be auctioned off;) And hats off to our Auctioneer, Warren.   He did a fantastic job!! The crowd really got into it as well. Each person was auctioned off once and then every time there was someone willing to bid on a second throw.  Our participants were so great, agreeing to go into the icy cold water twice. (Note to self try to find warm water for next year)

Here is Peter, one of fabulous Grade 1 teachers awaiting his fate.

 

Brrr. It's cold.

Eva preparing to go in.

It was fun to see Matt, a Sask Riders fan, dress up and really get into it.

$500 to dunk a riders fan.

 

 After Matt, our 5th participant we had met and exceeded our goal!  I couldn't believe how high people were bidding. I was blown away.  And I realized I would be going into that frigid waters now too.  But it would be worth it.   

 

It is nerve wracking waiting for the ball to hit the target. Wes waiting to go in.

Pastor Rob, he participated last year as well.

I love the smile on Mr.Wiebe's photo as he is throwing. 

And this picture has a great story!

We were on one of our last participants when Michele (pictured in pink) came up to me and said that she had someone offer to donate $500 if she went in.  She had no extra clothes but she would do it.  Again I was shocked, shocked at our congregations generosity and that she would be willing to go in unprepared into cold water all to help support this great cause.   She was a great sport went in and got dunked and even offered to get dunked again.   And the second time we received $325.  We received the most amount of money for her, someone not even on our list.

 

Now it was my turn to go.

  We had WAY exceeded our goal.

Blown it out of the park!

I said I would go in, but we were trying to figure out who would throw the ball.  But others thought I should be auctioned off.  At this point I couldn't think clearly, lol.  I was feeling that everyone had been so generous that I shouldn't be auctioned off.  I went up to take my seat and let others decide my fate.  I can't even remember how it happened, if they started auctioning or not, but someone from the crowd yelled $500 if Jer (my husband) and I go in together.  2 for 1 deal. 

 

At first he said no because  he had no extra clothes.

But a second later he was taking off his shoes and socks and climbing up the ladder to join me. 

You can see the video here. Ok well it's not working to upload the video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 on a seat didn't really work.

I was trying to figure out what to hold onto. 

If I held onto the back of the seat I would have scrapped my arm.

If I held onto Jer I would push him down.

So I ended up loosing my balance and fell in.

Ahh good memories.

 

In the end we raised over $5500 dollars!

To God be the Glory!

 

Eternity will be changed forever!

Now we are praying for guidance into how to use this money.

Do we up the number of boxes we pack?

Do we have a community packing party?

Or do we add good quality shoes and underwear to each box?

Or does God have other items we are to add?

 

A HUGE thank you to everyone who made this event possible!

 

 

 

Garage Sales

It's another beautiful day here.

The sun is shinning, the birds are chirping,

 the grass is green and it is garage sale season!

  One of my favorite places to pick up items for shoe boxes. 

Here are a few of the items I picked up last weekend.

 

6 pack of underwear for $2.00. 

Still had the original price which was $6.95

Packs of socks. $1.00

Hello Kitty rings and 2 bracelets .25 cents

Paperclips-free (we use these when we divide packs of loose leaf.)

And these three items were all taped together for .50cents. 

 

I also found quite a few stuffed animals, balls, pencil cases.

The fun thing about garage sales is, you never know what you will find.

 

2012 Canada Stats

Here are the Stats from Canada for the 2012 Year.
They are very similar to last year. 
2-4 boys once again have the least amount.
Followed by girls 2-4.

Boys    2-4     7.5%
            5-9     24%
        10-14     12.5%
                      44%

Girls     2-4    10%
             5-9    31%
         10-14    15%
                      56%

Source OCC Canada

Looking for help.

Hello everyone.
Sorry I haven't been great at keeping up this blog.  I do post on facebook.  So make sure you like Packing Boxes of Love on facebook to keep up to date. 

I am wondering if there is a Canadian or two, that would be interested in helping me keep up this blog and the facebook page?  If so please contact me at tharder29@hotmail.com.