Thanks to all our wonderful friends and supporters! Our 4th Annual Persimmon and Baked Goods Sale was a big success. Thanks goodness us ChAngels like to bake because those pumpkin and ginger bread loaves were very popular!

Giving 2.0

ChAngels is so proud to have a mention in Laura Arrillaga-Andreeson's new book on philanthropy entitled, Giving 2.0. Several ChAngels members were able to attend her book launch event at Stanford University, and thought her remarks were amazing and inspirational.

Ms. Arrillaga-Andreeson defines a philanthropist as: "Anyone who gives anything—time, money, experience, skills, and networks—in any amount, to create a better world." We like that definition and want to give all those things! She also spoke about the need to be strategic, collaborative and proactive in one's giving, and always to remember to evaluate the outcome of one's giving to make sure it is meeting one's strategic goals. She also pointed out that we all need to stretch our giving further right now in this economic downturn.

Ms. Arrillaga-Andreeson speaks a lot about how her parents inspired her to become a philanthropist. We think that's neet because we are a mother-daughter group, and our parents inspired us!

You can learn more about her book here.

ChAngels Collaborates With Good Karma Bikes

Hi ChAngels fans! This past weekend ChAngels, did a fun event at Menlo School with Good Karma Bikes. We had collected donated bikes from ChAngels friends, and supporters from Menlo School beforehand, which we stored in a Menlo classroom. On Sunday, September 25, Good Karma Bikes with founder Jim Gardner, brought tools and supplies to help us refurbish old bikes. Good Karma Bikes has been around a little under a year and a half, but has already refurbished and donated 3,000 bikes! ChAngels and a Good Karma Bikes crew, along with the help of teachers and coaches from Menlo, refurbished and tested nearly 40 bikes on Sunday! The ChAngels crew definitely learned a few things about bike mechanics which was really fun....and useful since we are all riders, ourselves! The bikes we refurbished were picked up later that day by local nonprofit, InnVision. InnVision distributed the bikes to low income or houseless individuals.

The day was a great collaborative effort between Changels, Menlo Philanthropy Club, Good Karma Bikes and Inn Vision - it felt good to be working with so many great groups. We all had a super time on Sunday, and we know that what we did will really help people without transportation.

Popsicles and Pillowcases Party Report

At the end of May, ChAngels hosted our first Popsicles and Pillowcases party. At this party, guests went through a simple process of turning a pillowcase into a dress that would eventually be worn by a girl in a thrid world country. These dresses make the young girls happy but more importantly, they are thought to stop human trafficking, as these girls look cared for and would be missed.

Dress A Girl Around The World is a project started by Hope 4 Women International. They have given over 32,000 dresses to girls in 47 countries. Helping support this project made us all feel good because we were doing something nice for other people and we were having fun at the same time!

The party was fun for all and everyone was in good spirits. We made many pillowcase dresses, created by mothers, children, and even on supportive dad. We were especially excited to have our special guests - Deb and Sue - join us! They brought their sewing machines and most importantly their teaching skills, since not many of us were experienced or familiar with terms like 'notions' or 'bias.' We were so appreciative of their gift of time, talent and extensive rainbow of thread!

Thank you to everyone who came and made a dress or donated pillowcases or spare change for rolling! To all of you who couldn't make it, join us this fall for "Pies & Pillowcases" or try your hand at making a pillowcase dress this summer! The instructions can be found at http://www.dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/.

Popsicles and Pillowcases Party

ChAngels is busy preparing for our up-coming Popsicles and Pillowcases Party - an hands on event, celebrating girls everywhere! Guests will bring new or gently used pillowcases (the brighter the better!), and they will work through our stations to transform the pillowcase into a dress for a girl in need. ChAngels is supporting the Dress A Girl Around the World Program with this project. We are excited to make dresses that will be delivered by hand, around the world by humanitarian groups.

Our goal is to make 100 dresses by the end of summer and our Pillowcase Party should get us off to a great start!

TSUNAMI RELIEF FOR JAPAN When the ChAngels found out there was a tsunami in Japan, we were shocked and surprised at how much damage was done. Watching the videos of the water and earthquake was crazy and unbelievable. We all decided we wanted to help. We learned that $12o Billion of damage was done. While we can't make up that amount, we believe that even our little bit of help will make a difference. We donated $100 to the Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund for Japan. We hope that Japan recovers quickly.

Books for Fiji Library

Projects we love, we find we go back to. Providing books to fill school libraries in Fiji is one of those. We did a book drive and want to THANK all of our friends who generously cleared their bookshelves for our cause. And again a thank you to Andrea Fono and Frank Rocky for introducing us to the Fiji Reads Project. And yes, that is a photo a a suburban FULL of donated books.

This month, ChAngels discovered a new favorite charity called Riley's Place. Riley's Place is a small farm for sick children to go to to play with animals which helps take their mind off their sickness. Riley's Place also takes animals to hospitals to cheer children up.

Riley's Place was founded because a girl named Riley got sick with a brain tumor and a month before she died, her friends brought a miniature horse to her house. When Riley saw the horse, her face lit up. Three years after Riley died, a group of people started Riley's Place in her honor and to help others like her.

ChAngels went to Riley's Place and learned how to be volunteers so we can go back and help with the animals. We learened how to walk the goats and how to take the miniature horses out to run around. We also learned how to feed the guinea pigs and bunnies, and to clean the animal stalls.

We thought that Riley's Place was a perfect project because we love to do hands on work and we love animals. We also love how they are helping children. Riley's Place was a happy place, and it is fun to spend time there. ChAngels enjoyed helping with the animals and we plan to go back regularly.

We also made a $125 donation to help them with supplies.

3rd Annual Persimmon & Baked Goods Sale

In November, ChAngels had a great time hosting our 3rd Annual Persimmon Sale. Many of our friends and neighbors stopped by to support our persimmon and baked goods sale, and we especially thank our return customers! Along with lots of persimmons, all of our tea loaves were sold, so we plan to bake even more next year.

We give 100% of the money raised to charity. Thanks for helping us reach our goal!