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

Crafting for a Cause

I am amazed by how many awesome opportunities are out there that I have somehow been unaware of.... My friend Linda gave me a book that is my new favorite thing: Craft Hope. There is even an entire website devoted to this idea. How have I not heard about this??

Here's a section from their "About" page:

Craft Hope is a love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those who need them.  It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world.

Jade Sims is the founder of Craft Hope.  She is the mother of three and spends her days running Craft Hope from her laptop and making a mess with her children Austin, Texas. You can contact her at jade@crafthope.com.

They have projects posted--the most recent collecting really simple, inexpensive items to make "birthing kits" for birth attendants to use in Haiti, where sanitation is always a problem, and babies die for lack of clean materials at their births. The deadline for that project was March 1, but I'm sure they will post another soon.

It is heartwarming to read the comments by people committing to assemble birthing kits. One woman said that guests at her niece's baby shower were going to assemble 25 kits. How cool is that?!

Here's a project I love: pillowcase dresses. Yup, dresses made of pillowcases. They're cute! As well as easy to make, and how cool for little girls who rarely have something pretty to wear. I think I might have to have a middle school Explore class make a bunch of these to send to my friends at Galilee School in Kenya...

So... Check them out! Click on the banner to the right, read the latest project, and see how you can participate!