Wise-Abe: Buy a bag, help a student

Today I found a company, Wise-Abe, that makes and sells messenger bags made of recycled coffee bags. A portion of their proceeds goes to Compassion International's Leadership Development program, which helps students in poverty actually attend college. The bags are really cool-looking! And... if you visit their blog here and leave a comment, you will be entered in a drawing to win a free bag! Win, win, win!

I want this one!

The company was started by Kristi Hayes after she visited her sponsored child in Guatemala and was moved to do something more. You can read her story here, on the Compassion blog.

I've been challenging my students to think about what unique gifts and talents they have that they could use to impact the world. Kristi apparently doesn't even sew! But she has a friend who does, and so they are partnering in this venture.

On another note, Craft Hope has posted a new project: handmade bracelets for orphans in Russia! They are asking for bracelets, lots of them. The only requirement: That they are handmade. I love this! It may not seem like much, but imagine a child who is basically alone in the world, feeling like they are not even on the world's radar screen, being given a bracelet that someone made for them, intentionally, to say "I care."

Here are some instructions for making friendship bracelets with embroidery floss. Make some and send them to

Carin Vogelzang

630 Griswold SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49507

The Sponsored Child Writing Group

Here is the cover of the book I made for Agartha.

We had our first get-together today, and although only one family came, we did make really COOL books for our sponsored children. Rosie, an avid crafter, came and taught us how to make them. She promises more cool crafts for future months!

I made a book for Agartha in Ghana. And the timing was perfect, as I got her info packet in the mail today!

Drew shows the book he is making

Rosie with her cool dye-cutting machine

The books are made from small paper lunch bags. That means each page is a pocket that can hold a tabbed card with a secret message!

And the secret message...

From here on, I'll show the pages with the secret message pulled out. This was SO fun!

Bob accuses me of being a tree-hugger. Guess I proved it here.

Sticker daffodils plus photo of my real daffodils...

Love the "bubble" stickers!

I was glad I got Agartha's packet today, so I could scan her photo and add it to this page!

The end!

So... I'll pack this with a letter to Agartha, and hope she gets it! The FAQ page at Compassion says you can no longer send books or booklets, but right under that it gives instructions for making a small photo album to send, so maybe this is still OK...