Welcome to Ava's Workshop!

“Ava’s Workshop” was the brainchild of an actual child; five year old Ava. In the fall of 2010 Jessica (mommy) was prepping for a craft fair she had a booth at. As she crafted, Ava sat alongside her and made her very own glittery, sparkly goodies. Day in and day out, they crafted. They talked about how some of the money mommy helps to raise goes to charity and what exactly a charity is. She began to pay close attention to daddy and how he was helping gather “beanies and blankets” to handout to the homeless with the high schoolers at church. She had questions, as any five year old would. "Who are those blankets for?" "Aren't the people who live on the street cold at night?" Her mind began spinning with ideas about how we could help.



When the craft show was done she came to us hands filled with her “crafts”. She asked where she could set up her booth to sell her crafts. I looked at her and asked her why she needed money, (I was more concerned about how I was going convince people to come over and buy construction paper Christmas tress…). She answered me saying “I want to use the money to buy blankets for the people who don’t have a home”. Floored, Jess and I immediately starting helping her and armed with paper and glue and a lot of glitter she crafted away and Thanksgiving weekend we invited our friends and family over. She named the event, “Ava’s Workshop”.



That weekend people bought her Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Cards and cookies we helped her bake. She raised $75 in donations that weekend and spread out over thrift shops, .99 cent stores and what people gave her, she packed up trash bags. Each one contained a blanket, hat, gloves, granola bar and bottled water. We loaded up the “sleigh” and drove downtown where in seconds I handed them out to grateful recipients anxious to have something warm on the cold December nights of downtown San Diego’s streets.



Monday, December 10, 2012

{The News Article}


Last week we were contacted by a reporter for the Union Tribune, a local newspaper here in San Diego.  We worked together to get a story together and here it is...

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/10/tp-girl-selling-holiday-crafts-to-raise-money-for/

We were excited, poor Ava was totally overwhelmed.  Seems that it's not common to buy armfuls of newspapers all at once ;)  She got more than enough attention from the Starbuck's barista's and the 7-eleven cashiers for a lifetime.  We're proud of her but more importantly, she's meeting her goal of sharing her story and hopefully inspiring someone to give back to the homeless. 


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Thursday, December 6, 2012

{The Video- 2012}


We made this video to enter it into a contest hoping to win $100.  We still haven't heard the results of the contest but if she wins A. wants to take the money and buys more hats, gloves and blankets for San Diego's homeless.  Her heart just amazes me! 

For me, making this video was truly a blessing in disguise.  I never realized how many people wanted to hear A's voice.  She's such a shy little girl but speaks with such maturity and grace.  I've had numerous emails as well as conversations with people saying things like "She's really touched my heart"  "How cool is it to hear what her thoughts are on this experience?"  Definitely a winner in my book, but I'm just one very proud mommy.  Take a listen for yourself as A. talks about her "workshop" in her own words.


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{Setting Up 2012}

 
It was a cool, crisp afternoon.  We had just finished up our homeschool work for the day and the kids were really excited about getting their "elf" on.  With three weeks to go, our little elves needed to work quickly to get all their precious artwork, crafts and baked goods made just in time for our guests to shop.  This year our goal was to hold "Ava's Workshop" the weekend of November 18th, to coincide with the "Feed The Homeless" event to helped to organize at church.  It was defininitely a busy few weeks.
 

There were crafts that needed to be made, trees that needed to be decorated and time that needed to be spent together.



Prepping table centerpieces with daddy.


This is the first year, she got really creative with her card designs.  Mommy may have bought them all up before everyone else had a chance ;)


The kids were really excited to get their trees out and decorate them.  A's white tree was used in the "Workshop" setup. 


One of her finished cards "frosty."

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