In November, 2008 ChAngels collected some of their lightly used books from home, and added decorated dedication plates which we placed on the inside of the front cover. We then delivered the books, approximately 50 in total, to Lucille Packard Children's Hospital for distribution in the various waiting rooms. We are excited about this project because nobody likes to be in the hospital, but having a good book to read can make a big difference.

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure™

One of our ChAngels, Lisa, is severely allergic to peanuts. She and her family put together a team to walk in the San Francisco FAAN Walk Toward A Cure in September, 2008. Along with numerous family and friends, walking with Lisa was her sister and fellow ChAngel, Sara. ChAngels made a donation to FAAN on behalf of Lisa's team, which with ChAngel's help, raised over $1700 to support allergy education, awareness, and finding a cure. To learn more about food allergies or to find a walk coming to a city near you, visit the FAAN website at: http://www.foodallergy.org/.

In October 2008, the 'ChAngels for Mary' walk team participated in the JDRF Walk to cure Diabetes. The ChAngels decided to participate in this event after our founding member's sister, Mary, gave us a presentation on diabetes. Mary has diabetes, and she explained what it is and what it is like to live with it. We decided to support her by helping raise money to find a cure, and walking in her honor. A highlight of the walk was passing an unexpected sign proclaiming the "ChAngels for Mary" team one of the top family fundraising teams! The total raised for JDRF was $1515. Wow! For more information on JDRF, visit: http://www.jdrf.org/.

Lamps for Eastside Prep

Changels second project was to purchase book lights for the dormitory students at Eastside Prep, a high school for under-served children in East Palo Alto, CA. The lights were purchased using money from the change jars that had been deposited in a Changels bank account.

Changels and Kiva Make Loans to Change the World

For the Changels first project we found a group called Kiva that make loans that change the world. Kiva seemed like the perfect fit for the Changels so the Changels got to work.

The Changels made several beatiful change boxes to collect spare change from their family and friend. We used some of the money we collected to make a $25 loan to help one person with a drugstore and one person selling canola oil. We hope that our loans are helping these small businesses and their owners.

The Beginning of the Changels

In December 2007 Kate, a nine year old in California, had a vision of changing the world one small step at a time. Kate knew she couldn't do it all alone so she invited her friends to help her and the Changels were born..

What is ChAngels?
ChAngels is a mother-daughter philanthropy group founded in 2007 with the goal of effecting change on both a local and global level by collecting and earning spare change.

The girls chose the name ChAngels because by collecting spare change for projects, they hope to make a change in the lives of others in our community and around the globe. They hope to be the angels, or spirit, of change. The ChAngels research ideas for future projects and present their findings at monthly meetings.