October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, ChAngels repeated the breast cancer walk that we did last year: some things are worth doing twice! We looped around the Stanford Dish with Poised, a personal training group, who organizes a walk called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarves. The Poised staff raises money from the walk to purchase head scarves for cancer patients that have lost their hair from chemotherapy.

Before walking we each thought of a breast cancer survivor that we know to honor on our walk. With the name of that woman stored in our head or tucked in our shoe, we walked in awareness and with hope. We thank Yvonne and Jill at Poised for sponsoring such a wonderful event and for providing the sparkly pink visors and fluffy pink boas that made it so festive!

San Bruno Fire

In September, ChAngels had a planning meeting to set our agenda for the year. We have so many great new ideas that we are all looking foward to.

However, pressing on our minds at our first meeting was the San Bruno fire: so tragic and so close to home. We made an immediate decision to donate $200 to the Red Cross Fund for San Bruno victims. We also send them our prayers.

Summer-Time Fun!

The ChAngles took a break over the summer for the most part, but we had a little fun raising a little change at two lemonade stand fundraisers. It was fun to keep the ChAngels spirit alive and thanks to all our thirsty friends that stopped by!

Two weeks ago, ChAngels went to an adult emergency shelter for homeless men and women. We prepared and served dinner for the people who were currently living there. It was so great to see them taking the food, smiling and saying "God bless you" or "thank you for doing this." You could see hope light up on their faces at the delight of having a home-cooked meal. We all felt great that we had really helped someone that needed it.

A special thanks to our honorary ChAngel, Madhavi, for helping us with this project!

ChAngels Goes Green

While discussing project ideas, ChAngles decided it wanted to do something green. In March, ChAngels went to pick weeds and mulch with an environmental group called Magic. We helped Magic by pulling out the non-native plants by hand and covering other areas with cardboard and mulch, which they hoped, in time, would kill all the weeds underneath. Magic plans these projects to help preserve the natural and native habitat of the Stanford Foothills. We are thankful to Magic for letting us help them with one of their programs. Now, every time we walk the Dish, we'll have a sense of accomplishment for having helped.

The Fiji Reads Project

In February, we scoured our personal libraries for books we could
share with some young friends in Fiji. Menlo Park artist Andrea Fono
and her husband Frank Rocky, a native of Fiji, have collected over
1500 books so far to send to Nukulalavu, SavuSavu, Fiji for their
first kindergarten. While the building construction is complete-the
bookshelves are empty. Thanks to a local shipper who agreed to
transport the books free of charge, the Fiji Read Project is well on
its way to reaching its goal of 5000 books to Fiji by June 2010. For
more information or to donate books, please contact Andrea Fono at fonoart@gmail.com
or 650-868-4171

Thank you to everyone who partied with us at the Pajama Party at Books Inc. Together over 100 pairs of pajamas and over 80 new books were collected for local homeless and foster children. Special thanks to Books Inc. who donated over $500, a portion of the sales from the eveing, to the Pajama Program. Between the cupcakes from Kara's, all those wonderful books to choose from, and the friends and family who stopped by, it was a party worth staying up for!

ChAngels to host a Pajama Party!

On February 5th, ChAngels, in conjunction with M Magazine and Books Inc., will host a Pajama Party, to collect books and pajamas for local children in need. The books and pajamas will be distributed through the local chapter of the Pajama Program.

The Pajama Program provides new pajamas and books to children in orphanages, group homes and shelters, many who have never enjoyed the simple comfort of being tucked into bed and read a bedtime story. Many of these children go to bed wearing their street clothes or nothing at all.

With 77 chapters in 44 states throughout the United States, the Pajama Program has provided more than 433,000 pairs of pjs and 190,000 books to children nationwide since 2001. The Northern/Central California chapter, founded in 2006, currently works with over 35 local agencies.

Plan to join us anytime between 4pm and 7pm, at Books Inc. 855 El Camino Real in Town and Country, Palo Alto. Special guest, Dave Keane, author illustrator, will be reading from some of his favorite bedtime stories: www.mrdavekeane.com. Enjoy an art project and sweet treat. Guests are encouraged to bring new pajamas to donate and/or purchase a new book at Books Inc. to add to the donation baskets. Books Inc. will donate 20% of the sales during the event to the local chapter of the Pajama Program.

Guests are welcome to wear their coziest pjs and slippers! Please join us for this event and help us to share the warmth and comfort of a good night's sleep.
We hope to see you there!

Persimmons and Baked Goods Sale!

THANK YOU to all those who supported our persimmon and baked goods sale this year! So many friends and family stopped by, and the sale was a big success. We look forward to investing the money we raised in many worth-while causes this year.

ChAngels Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarves 2009

In October 2009, ChAngels paired up with Poised Fitness and a few other friends and went on a breast cancer awareness walk. We walked the Stanford Dish on a glorious sun-shiny day. We all wore pink and the girls had pink visors and the adults wore pink boas so that everyone we saw knew we were walking for a cause. The money raised by the walk goes to purchase head scarves for breast cancer patients. Thank you Poised for hosting this event and letting us be a part of it. A further thank you to Poised for all the pink baggies of change they collected to support ChAngels!