Crafting soothes the soul...

The last few weeks have been hard. More for others than me, but still hard.  I have been teaching at my little school for 11 years now. My heart is in that building, with the kids and their families. I have taught entire families, seen the families grow, come, leave, and move on into the big kids' school. 

For the last three weeks, I haven't been able to go to work. None of us have been there. Evacuations due to wildfires, then continued closures as the evacuations ended but the 30 minute evacuation watch continued. Smoke. Air quality. It has been hard to watch from the sidelines, especially as the news of the destruction has filtered back to us. There are families that have lost everything, families that have suffered because of the displacement and trauma of walking away not knowing what would happen, and the families and people like me that have watched and worried. 

Our admin has been very understanding and has allowed us the space and time to look after ourselves as well as doing what we can for work. I have spent a lot of my time crafting. Once the word got back to us about people losing their homes, I wondered what I could do to help. I realized... my cards. I ended up enlisting a friend, my principal's wife, to help make some cards. I made boxes for them. I created a presentation showing the cards, the boxes, and explaining what I was doing and why. I created an order form, felt good that I was even attempting to do something to try and help, and crossed my fingers. 

Within an hour of posting, I had two people buying a total of 3 sets of cards. I had my parents send me money for two sets, donating the cards back again to resell. I had another friend purchase another 2 sets. That accounted for all of the card sets and boxes that I had made! I was stunned. Within only a couple of hours I had sold all of the cards that I had made and raised nearly $200. 

It gets better still. Someone must have shared my post, and the owner of a gallery in one of the towns affected contacted me. She asked for more cards to sell in her gallery to raise money for my school. I just finished packaging up the cards and boxes, and have sent them off to get delivered to the store. 

I am stunned and so proud that I was able to help, even in just a small way. If this continues, I will have raised $300 for the families at my school that lost so much. It is merely a drop in the bucket, but...

By crafting, I helped myself stay busy, keep my mind off the worry and my eyes off of my phone. By crafting, I was able to come up with a plan to help raise more money than I could afford to just give on my own. By crafting, I connected with others, broadened awareness of my business, and did something positive for my community.

I hope that you are able to have something to help your mental health and well-being. I have crafting 💓