Weekend of Kindness
PROJECTS WE'RE PROUD OF
The team of volunteers who have contributed acts of kindness and service projects during the yearly Weekend of Kindness events have amazed us with their generosity, creativity, and...well, KINDNESS! Check out some of the truly lovely things that our "Kindness Crew" has done in honor of Charlotte over the years:
2022's Big Project included planting Native Maryland Trees & a Park Bench installation! Charlotte would have started her first year of kindergarten (Pre-K) this year, so we knew we had to do something extra special for her would-be school. We planted a White Oak, a native Maryland tree, with a special Maria Montessori quote on a commemorative plaque. A donation of tree-themed books and puzzles were also made to the school. A Red Maple was planted next to our Park Bench installation (at "Fox Hill Farm") and was fertilized by seed paper with the names of more than 450 babies who are missed by their families.
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In 2021, the kindness crew raised money and collected donated items for 50 BEAUTIFUL care packages for parents facing the loss of a baby. These care packages included a fox stuffie, a memorial baby book, "It's OK that You are Not OK" by Meghan Devine, a candle and glass votive, handmade "Always in My Heart" bracelet, hardcover journal with "Write Your Grief" writing prompts, a hand made baby blanket, a flannel receiving blanket, a Forget Me Not seed packet, and grief resources from both Charlotte's Purpose and Star Legacy Foundation. The team also scattered more than 400 babies' names on seed paper butterflies on their annual remembrance hike to remember little ones who have been lost.
In 2020, the Weekend of Kindness "big project" was a Book Drive for Monarch Global Academy. Our goal was to purchase children's books with Black and Brown authors, main characters, and culture to be donated to MGA classrooms. The project was able to raise enough funds and gather enough donated children's books to give a set of books to add to EACH classroom at this 850 student school!
2019 The Book Drive Crew, led by Sandi and Amber, set out to collect enough books for a single class of kindergartners to each take home their own new book. Their efforts snowballed into an AMAZING project which gathered more than 1,500 books and put brand new books in the hands of every kindergartner in Jefferson County! Check out the article on Local DVM and interview on 97.1 Wash FM about this project to learn more.
2018 The First Grade Crew was a team of first graders led by Charlotte's big brother, Jack. The team donated four kid sized picnic tables and had four first grade classes contribute to painting them with bright colors and kind messages! The tables were given to Monarch Global Academy for students to use during recess and playground time.
2017-Present The Wrapped in Love Project repurposes donated wedding gowns into burial garments for stillborn babies. So far we have donated 75 care packages for bereaved parents. Each care package included a handmade blanket and gown, a journal, a hand stamped necklace, and many grief resources. (Packages are usually delivered to the labor and delivery wing with chocolates for the nurses too!) This project is an ongoing one and we make donations of care packages for bereaved parents whenever we have supplies to do so. We are currently seeking sewists who can sew a simple pattern or folks who can crochet, sew, or knit baby blankets. Join our sewing team or donate a wedding dress or project supplies here!
2017 & 2018 The Elizabeth House Crew was a team of volunteers who packed lunches for the Elizabeth House Soup Kitchen. In 2018, the team gathered a surplus of supplies and was able to not only donate each of the 50 lunches with handwritten notes, but also donate an additional 6 bags of pantry items to Elizabeth House, and 6 more bags of baby items to Grassroots Crisis Center.
2017 & 2018 The Kindness Crew, a stealthy crew of do-gooders, completed random (and purposeful) acts of kindness, leaving behind one of Charlotte's Kindness Cards each time. In 2018 this crew performed more than two hundred acts of kindness in three countries and eleven states. Acts of kindness included everything from paying for a stranger's birthday cake to bringing live music into hospital rooms. We re-post some of these kindnesses via our Twitter account @charliespurpose and our Kindness Crew posts their own acts of kindness with #weekendofkindness . Check it out and don't forget to tag us if you do a kind act!
2017 & 2018 The Monarch Crew was a team of volunteers who gathered donations of food for the Monarch Global Academy food pantry, which provides food insecure families with groceries. In 2017, the team donated more than 20 bags of groceries to the pantry. In 2018 the team made an even larger donation to the pantry and had a surplus of funds so they were able to donate spare snacks to kindergarten teachers for students who had none. The team also donated $100 to a cafeteria fund for students with negative lunch account balances.
2017 Charlotte's Purpose hosted a fundraiser to purchase a Cuddle Cot for Holy Cross Hospital! Cuddle Cots are cooling devices that fit inside a bassinet and aid in slowing the decomposition process of a stillborn baby so that families may say goodbye without being rushed. More than 40 donors raised over $3000 for this project!
2017 The Parks Crew, a group of green-minded friends, worked together to clean up a local park and do some planting. Last year the group picked a park that they thought was unnamed, only to realize that they were spending the morning in Fox Hill! Even the littlest Parks Crew member, Charlotte's cousin- age 1- helped out. The Parks crew also hosted a special remembrance hike. On this hike, they scattered plantable seed paper leaves with the names of 235 stillborn or miscarried babies. Each name was spoken aloud before it was scattered. In 2018 this group hike was rained out, so Charlotte's family scattered nearly 300 seed paper leaves with names on a special trip to West Virginia.
2017 & 2018 The Elizabeth House Crew was a team of volunteers who packed lunches for the Elizabeth House Soup Kitchen. In 2018, the team gathered a surplus of supplies and was able to not only donate each of the 50 lunches with handwritten notes, but also donate an additional 6 bags of pantry items to Elizabeth House, and 6 more bags of baby items to Grassroots Crisis Center.
2017 & 2018 The Kindness Crew, a stealthy crew of do-gooders, completed random (and purposeful) acts of kindness, leaving behind one of Charlotte's Kindness Cards each time. In 2018 this crew performed more than two hundred acts of kindness in three countries and eleven states. Acts of kindness included everything from paying for a stranger's birthday cake to bringing live music into hospital rooms. We re-post some of these kindnesses via our Twitter account @charliespurpose and our Kindness Crew posts their own acts of kindness with #weekendofkindness . Check it out and don't forget to tag us if you do a kind act!
2017 & 2018 The Monarch Crew was a team of volunteers who gathered donations of food for the Monarch Global Academy food pantry, which provides food insecure families with groceries. In 2017, the team donated more than 20 bags of groceries to the pantry. In 2018 the team made an even larger donation to the pantry and had a surplus of funds so they were able to donate spare snacks to kindergarten teachers for students who had none. The team also donated $100 to a cafeteria fund for students with negative lunch account balances.
2017 Charlotte's Purpose hosted a fundraiser to purchase a Cuddle Cot for Holy Cross Hospital! Cuddle Cots are cooling devices that fit inside a bassinet and aid in slowing the decomposition process of a stillborn baby so that families may say goodbye without being rushed. More than 40 donors raised over $3000 for this project!
2017 The Parks Crew, a group of green-minded friends, worked together to clean up a local park and do some planting. Last year the group picked a park that they thought was unnamed, only to realize that they were spending the morning in Fox Hill! Even the littlest Parks Crew member, Charlotte's cousin- age 1- helped out. The Parks crew also hosted a special remembrance hike. On this hike, they scattered plantable seed paper leaves with the names of 235 stillborn or miscarried babies. Each name was spoken aloud before it was scattered. In 2018 this group hike was rained out, so Charlotte's family scattered nearly 300 seed paper leaves with names on a special trip to West Virginia.
It's hard not to be inspired by these kind folx!
We would LOVE for you to create kindness projects local to you. Check out our "A Few Kind Ideas" page for a ton of ways you can do this. You can also support our ongoing efforts to spread kindness in Charlotte's name by requesting free Kindness Cards to use on your kind adventures, donating to our PayPal account , or by purchasing materials from our Amazon Wishlist. You can also donate materials to us directly by mailing them to:
Charlotte's Purpose
#812
14625 Baltimore Avenue
Laurel, Maryland 20707
We would LOVE for you to create kindness projects local to you. Check out our "A Few Kind Ideas" page for a ton of ways you can do this. You can also support our ongoing efforts to spread kindness in Charlotte's name by requesting free Kindness Cards to use on your kind adventures, donating to our PayPal account , or by purchasing materials from our Amazon Wishlist. You can also donate materials to us directly by mailing them to:
Charlotte's Purpose
#812
14625 Baltimore Avenue
Laurel, Maryland 20707