Can you imagine not having any underwear to put on or not having a single diaper to put on your baby?


I can not begin to understand how that must feel.


Our Fall project -"Diapers Through Depends" addressed that need in our community. As you can see, we had a great turnout (the picture does not include donations from a bin we had at our local gym, Brick Bodies at Belvedere Square).


Angela Wu is responsible for the success of our project. Thank you Angela and to all of you that donated these much needed things.


FYI - when a needy person comes to the Baltimore County Department Of Social Services for diapers - they are given 7 diapers. That's right, 7 diapers. All of us know how long that lasts. 


Thanks to generous people like you, the BCDSS was given a nice assortment of underclothing to give out.


Happy Fall ya'll,
Donna Rae

HI EVERYONE - WE'VE GOT A NEED AND HOPE YOU CAN HELP.
BALTIMORE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES IS LOOKING FOR SHOPPERS. YEP, SHOPPERS TO BUY WINTER COATS FOR SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS. 
YOU WILL NOT BE SPENDING YOUR OWN MONEY - THE MONEY IS PROVIDED BY BCDSS. YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE SIZE AND GENDER OF SPECIFIC PERSONS IN NEED AND YOU WILL BUY APPROPRIATE COATS TO HELP KEEP THEM WARM THIS WINTER.
DSS WILL DISTRIBUTE THE COATS.
THIS DRIVE WILL BEGIN SOME TIME IN OCTOBER. IT TAKES ONLY A FEW HOURS OF YOUR TIME AND WOULD BE A FUN THING TO DO AS A FAMILY OR WITH A FRIEND.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT CECE KOPP AT 410-853-3023 OR ckopp@dhr.state.md.us

This was the first towel pick up in early June - so stinky but like new after a good washing!


"Got Towels Hon?" 

 Our community organization was asked by a nice person, Deborah Ward at the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, to collect big towels for those in need. Not wash cloths, not hand towels but.....big towels so people who have none can dry off after a shower. 

Soooooo, when our community pool opened at the beginning of the summer, the president of our community association sent out a broadcast email. This year everyone was to know that the lost and found would be purged every two weeks - there simply is not enough room to store all the items left at the pool. 

 Wow! Bing! went off in my brain and I wondered if that meant the towels too. When I called to inquire, sure enough the towels would be tossed. I gathered up my peeps - my community conscious daughter Emily Rae and my good friend Martha Haile and also good neighbor and friend Ann Hayes. Together we would collect the stinky/yukky/wet towels, wash them, fold them up and at the end of the summer present them to BCDSS. 

 We ended up with at least 350 of the most amazing towels you can imagine. So many colors and some so thick and soft - yum. Dolphins towels and shark towels and pirate towels and beautiful sunsets and LL Bean with "Ron" so beautifully engraved, and Carey's princess towel. I have to admit I did feel a little guilty about Ron and Carey missing their towels but........not tooooooo guilty. 

 The important thing to note - when you're doing some community work, look for a natural flow of items (i.e., collect shoes at a 5K race, collect towels from the pool, collect toiletries that people might bring home from vacation and never use, collect half used boxes of diapers that the baby outgrows). That way, no one has to spend any money and things are not wasted. 

 Thank you everyone and hope you're having a good start to Fall. What a great time to be alive. 

 Adios, Namaste and Je t'aime!

  Donna Rae Smith (questions, suggestions or comments please email me at donnaraesmith@yahoo.com)

"We Are One"

So, in the Spring I was doing some volunteer work at an Oncologists office in North Miami Beach. One of our clients, Rose, came in for follow up care for her intestinal tumor. She is originally from Jamaica and like myself, she is a nurse. She was beautifully dressed with a colorful red and yellow dress and flowery sandals. She has to get injections every week and she asked the doc if she could give them to herself. As she was preparing the medication I sat beside her and we chatted. She had been an OB nurse in Jamaica and people from her community would come to her home when they were worried about this or that. She has such a kind face and gentle way, no wonder they would come.

As she slowly prepared her injection that required a big, fat needle, we talked about all the fruits you can pick right off the trees in Jamaica and how great it is to swim in the clear, blue water. We discovered we both love coconut and sunsets.

Without a single peep she gave herself the injection and I cleaned up afterward and as she was getting ready to leave she reached her beautiful, capable, long, black arms around me and pulled me to her and said boldly, "We are one," and she didn't let me go for about a minute.

There we stood in our differences and in our sameness.

HOAM volunteer Janice Arcieri was asked by someone at the Department of Social Services to collect travel size toiletries - anything from tooth paste to ladies stuff. These things will be given to homeless folks in need. I hope when they receive these small but significant necessities they will know that they were donated with love and with the kind of warm energy that says.....we are one.

With every best wish and a big one minute cyber-style Rose hug from - Donna Rae

We Went To The Dogs........and Cats!

Howdy,

Just a quick post to show you a picture of these wonderful volunteers who came to our annual meeting and brought so many good ideas. The young woman you see sitting with her cute doggie, Tucker, is Amy Williams. She's a senior in high school and headed up this drive to help local animal shelters. Thanks Amy (and her Mom Pam and, of course, Tucker).

Mucho love,
Donna Rae

"Acres of Diamonds" - Our goals for 2011-2012

"Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them."   - Russell H. Conwell

So, we had our big annual HOAM last night and set goals for the next year.

I am so excited about our new projects and the passion brought to the meeting by the wonderful women that attended and those that couldn't through emails and calls.

Anyway, this is the plan:

August 2011 Travel size toiletries and towels. We are asking for donations from our community of 519 homes and we are placing a collection box at Yoga On York, a nearby yoga studio. When folks go on vaca this summer if they would just bring home the hotel shampoo, etc. - easy. And our community pool is donating every two weeks from the lost and found - towels. Man, they are stinky when I get them but after a good wash - fresh as new. These towels will be given to homeless people through the Department of Social Services.

Fall 2011 Underwear - from diapers through depends - all ages and sizes for men, women and children

Winter 2012 DVD's, gently used puzzles and perhaps card games for children and adolescents at residential mental health facilities. Funds are not available for new ones and the kids watch the same ones, play the same games over and over and over.

Spring 2012 Shoe drive at our local 5K run

June 2012 Children's books drive to go to needy kids

Fall 2012 Women's Business Attire

Toletries, towels, underwear, DVD's, puzzels, card games, shoes, children's books, women's business attire --- these are diamonds to those that don't have them. Dig em up, dust em off and help us provide them to the people that need them

Signing out - and sending you a giant cyber hug and big thanks for reading this blog- Donna Rae

Let's Get This Party Started!

Howdy! Welcome to my blog! I'm thrilled that you've come this far to see what we're up to.

Our neighborhood is full of young kids and old kids and old folks and everything under the sun. We have an annual community 5K run and Santa Claus rides around on top of a fire truck and throws out candy to rot our teeth and if that's not enough an ice cream truck comes around in another season to help. And we have adult night at the pool where the adults get crazy and a swim team and garden club and golf club. I could go on and on but the point of this post is to tell you how much stuff we have and what we do with our extra. We have bikes and DVD's and cell phones galore and lacrosse sticks and basketballs and clothes and books and toys, holy smokes at the toys. Our closets are full and so our our bellies and our garages and attics.

So wait, enough is enough. We are a neighborhood full of abundance and in this world where that is not true for all, what we want to do is share our excess with others.

Several years ago we started a Food Drive. In our neighborhood there are 8 drop off homes with signs that read "Monthly Food Drive" and plastic bins that go out yep, once a month. We collect for a local organization that provides help to poor and needy families in our greater community.

We also got a group of women together to collect nice business attire for struggling women who wanted to enter the work force. My basement was FULL of beautiful suits and jewels and shoes which were immediately scooped up by another local organization called Suited To Succeed (google it, amazing) and before you know it word spread and we were asked by a wonderful woman at the Department of Social Services to collect underwear (diapers through depends), toiletries, school supplies, shoes, uniforms and more. We've collected hundreds of shoes at our annual 5K neighborhood race.

We have ONE important meeting a year. At this meeting we set goals for the next year.

A wonderful young HON in advertising (my daughter Emily - what can I say?? She is wonderful) just designed a brochure for us and yep, she set up this blog that you are now reading.

The purpose of this blog - keep info flowing locally and also let other neighborhoods in Maryland and other states and other countries and even other multiverses (we can't call it universe any longer since there is now evidence that multi universes exist) know how easy it is to help and how little time it takes.

So, now that you have spent way toooo long reading this and the children are running loose, water is boiling over on the stove, granny is wandering the streets going through trash cans and your sig other is standing around asking what's for dinner, I'll tell you the bottom line.

THE REASON OUR ORGANIZATION IS SOOOOOOOOOO SUCCESSFUL IS THAT WE KEEP IT VERY SIMPLE AND IT TAKES VERY LITTLE TIME TO DO A TON OF GOOD.

*Get a group together
*Find out what people need, find out one thing or two things
*Ask your community, your workplace, your email list, your book club, your peeps and you will receive
*Don't ever ask for money
*Ask for STUFF. Stuff that people have outgrown or don't care about or have too much of
*Dont' have too many important meetings - have one a year. And when you do serve something nice (something red and something white even) and chat for a few minutes and then get down to business.

The business of helping others. It will fill your heart up with so much dang joy. After all, "we are one". I'll tell you that story another time.

Meanwhile, please comment on this blog if you wish or email me if you have questions (donnaraesmith1952@gmail.com). And if you start a HOAM, please let me know.

Now, off to retrieve granny!
Donna Rae Smith

Welcome to our HOAM Blog!!!

More to come......