- Sent 29/09/2014 90 x Trauma Toys (in 2 boxes) - To Acting Superintendent Garry Smith of Darwin Police NT.
THE BENEFITS OF TRAUMA TOYS
The Australian Outback Baby Project Inc |
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THE BENEFITS OF TRAUMA TOYS Hello gorgeous Guardian Angels!
I have had a wonderful 4 days with Karina Tomlinson who has been a true angel in disguise. Not only has she spend alot of money on donations to us but she also helped with all the Woodford RFS hygiene bags and will deliver them free of charge in about 2 weeks. Karina also drove me around to every place I had to go to for our charity; not with standing the hundreds of kilometres and many hours drive to and fro just to come see and help me. Currently, I am re-staking a claim to our patron Michael and book keeper Leanne; to recheck our status to get GST and a GDR for our charity so people can get money back off tax for financial donations. Many other charities can get one so I want to know why we can't. This week I will be busy with boxing up toys so they are ready to send to Garry Smith in Darwin as soon as we can. Currently we need about $400 more to send 6 off all together. Secondly, I am having huge problems with my ancient computer and will have to buy a refurbed one in 2-4 months. Until then, the donation photos will take far longer to upload on the website due to a script problem. I have most of September's on there but have to finish uploading a ton more then add names of every donor to it. I humbly apologize for the delays but it can't be helped. A big thank you for all the concerned people who have emailed me about my massive work load. Yes it has taken a huge toll on my health but I will be fine, I'm a tough cookie and ultimately it is for our little darlings so it gives me the strength to go on. Karina has helped beyond all words can say so I am half way there. (Maree) We have been slowly and gradually been sending boxes up to Katherine NT (Orphans, foster children, hospital) and Darwin NT (Trauma toys) and they cost us $4.50 for every box plus $115 (light) and $125 (Heavy) for each box sent via freight companies.
We have used what little money we have had, very well to date. Now we need $4,000 to get all these boxes up to the Northern Territory before the end of October 2014. We've gone to several banks, applied for grants, entered competitions, begged major corporations and businesses and even begged friends for the money but to no avail. I can't even get a Centrelink loan until late December to at least have $1,000 towards it. I have faith in God that we will get the money some how, somewhere, off someone. Sadly, I have lost any faith I have ever had; in large businesses and so called famous people who tell you they help charities but put their hands out for everything they can get behind closed doors. Hug a small business owner, they are the ones who truly care about your community. Due to problems with the internet, all donation photos for August - September will be uploaded at the end of September.
Our current cut off for donations is October 31, 2014 because we are getting so many items in that I cannot keep up with photographing, uploading, thanking people and just about everything else. It's not that we don't appreciate them, it's just that I am the only one that does all the photographing, website, Twitter, Facebook updating plus creating sets, bagging, boxing and sending. I need from October to the end of February to create all the preemie baby sets and get them sent out to Westmead Hospital, Careflight, ready to go in April for the NT as well as do two large care boxes for Careflight NT, one for Young Hospital and one for Dubbo. We have the trauma toys to continually send as well and I have 60 hygiene bags to start making up for Woodford RFS. The ONLY donations we will be accepting between November 1 2014 to March 1, 2015 are the following: * Trauma toys * Hygiene products (child and adult) * Financial donations * Nappies (all brands and sizes) * Baby products (hygiene) * Baby related items eg teething gel / rings, nappy bags and wipes, bibs, bowls, mugs / cups, rattles etc. AS OF MARCH 1, 2015 we will then accept: * Christmas presents for the 260 orphans. * Jumper / hat / bootee (or socks for older) sets - newborn to aged 12 * Baby clothes (knit,sew, crochet, handmade, bought) * Hat, smock and bootee sets in royal blue and golden yellow ONLY for Careflight (no light blue and lemon). * Small to large preemie baby clothes, newborns. * All your other beautiful donations we usually take. ~~Please note we have enough funeral wraps and nurses are stating they cannot dress a baby under 22 weeks in intricate garments. Less fuss is the best such as the AIDS jumpers and a hat to go with it. ~~ We are fine for blankets until March but have started asking for polar fleece blankets hemmed for our orphans. Any questions, please email me (Maree) at [email protected] and I will answer your questions as soon as possible. My main concerns absolutely right now are: ** The 60 hygiene bags to be completed and sent ** To get all the boxes to Katherine NT some how. ** To send 300 trauma toys to Darwin Acting Superintendent of NT Police Garry Smith has delivered our 50 trauma toys sent last week.
50 x toys distributed amongst the following Top End NT Police sections.
* 40 x Trauma Toys and 25 x road safety books
- Senior Sergeant Garry Smith, Darwin Police NT * Tea-chest box of tri-sets and miscarried baby sets to CareFlight * 2 x tea-chest boxes of jumper sets and blankets to Katherine NT to Catholic Care NT for our orphans. * Box of wool to Gae Rich to make more jumpers and hat/bootee sets for us. *(Delivered September 1, 2014) Box of fabric for Karina Tomlinson for her charity (Days for Girls), that we can't use. And as a thank you for all her hard work helping us by collecting our donations across two states. Hello Beautiful People!
Over the next few days I will be continuing to make up jumper sets for our little ones as well as sort donations out. We have just had a committee meeting this weekend to discuss donations and next years recipients and have decided on the following:- 1/ Only donations of (New) toys for trauma care, baby products & hygiene products for hygiene bags will be accepted between October to December 2014. Please send all baby clothes and items in January 2015 instead so I can bag up what is here to send out. Being overwhelmed with so many donations, having to photograph them all, edit, upload to the website and Facebook page gets too much and takes my time away from bagging up. 2/ Our recipients for 2014 will be:- Careflight NSW & NT (baby packs & care packs); Westmead Hospital (c/o Careflight); Catholic Care NT (per our 260 orphans & foster kids). NT police, fire, emergency, ambulance (trauma toys & hygiene bags + hygiene bags fr rangers). Woodford RFS (Trauma toys and hygiene bags) Hospital top ups for Young & Dubbo Hospitals + care boxes. Dubbo VRA and NSW VRA Rescue Squads (trauma toys) Snowy Hydro Southcare (Trauma toys). NT remote clinics and hospitals (baby packs) Small care packs for very few selected services. 3/ We have decided that we will try and get a donor or sponsor of fabric, cotton, stuffing to make the Snowy Hydro Southcare platypi trauma toys and inquire at a small few selected (and researched) prisons for trusted prisoners to make them for us. This has many benefits both sides PLUS we will have contact ONLY with the prison governor so it keeps our charity and recipients safe. It is NOT written in stone yet as we need to talk to Garry Smith and get his opinion as well. 4/ We have dropped a few recipients in NSW due to several reasons. All I will say is that I am here to guide this charity and not be a verbal punching bag for peoples' egos and jealousy. This is a very blessed and precious charity and I will not have people try to degrade it or me in any way. 5/ From January to March we will be accepting baby jumpers (large preemie to size 12); hats and bootees / socks; polar fleece blankets (90 x 90cm) so we can send them to Katherine NT for the winter. Polar fleece only has to be cut and hemmed and many can be made in 1 day where as wool blankets take months to make, are way heavier than polar fleece hence more money in freight. 6/ We will only donate trauma toys in NSW IF we are asked for them by various services (excludes Woodford RFS and Snowy Hydro Southcare & Dubbo VRA Rescue). If services don't ask, they don't get. It costs me an arm and a leg in phone calls chasing services to offer them. 7/ We will no longer do the NSW Ambulance sets. We WILL be doing the Careflight sets (hat, bootees, smock) all year round and deliver once a year. 8/ We will be going into the Kimberleys and Outback & Top End Queensland in 2016 and 2017 IF we get a sponsorship or grant. (Maree) Here is our project list for 2015:
* Trauma Toys to VRA Rescue Groups NSW only. * Trauma Toys and small care pack to Bathurst Fire Brigade. * Large care box to Dubbo and Young Hospitals again. * Large care box to Dubbo VRA Rescue and Woodford RFS. * Ongoing trauma toys to Dubbo VRA and Woodford RFS. * Hygiene pack top ups to Woodford RFS (no bags needed just plastic clip lock.) * Baby packs to NT remote clinics and hospitals. * Collect Christmas presents for our 260 NT orphans and foster kids from January to September 2015 so there is less financial stress. * Ongoing baby products and food to the 260 babies and kids. * Ongoing trauma toys for Garry Smith to distribute. * Hygiene bags to NT police, fire, ambulance, rescue, rangers. * Ongoing trauma Toys to Snowy Hydro Southcare. * Large care box/s to Careflight (twice a year) and Careflight NT (3 boxes for 120 crew) once a year. * Careflight sets (blue/yellow + green / blue / white / black; Aboriginal). We love and appreciate every single donation that we receive to help so many thousands of kids, babies, families and services around Australia.
Currently I am completely run off my feet bagging and boxing up trauma toys, Christmas presents for 260 Outback orphans and foster kids, baby products for remote communities and baby packs for the NT babies. All photos of donations for July 2014 will be on this website on Sunday July 27th if all goes well. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but we are really swamped right now with this, committee meetings and many other charity related things. (Maree)
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March 2015
AuthorMaree Agland - owner and coordinator of The Australian Outback Baby Project Inc. Categories
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